Country Director | IRC Ethiopia
Lemessa Mekonta is the Country Director for IRC WASH Ethiopia based in Addis Ababa.
He has diversified and hands on experiences in different aspects of water resources, water supplies, and sanitation working for government, private businesses and NGOs in various capacities ranging from expert to managerial level. Key areas of his experiences include program strategy development, partnership facilitation and coordination with different actors, project management, provision of trainings on water supplies, study and design for rural and urban water supplies, urban water utility management, water quality monitoring, leading action research including rural water supply operation and maintenance with appropriate technology identification and use, and private service providers engagement.
Lemessa is a hydrogeologist by background with over 23 years' experience in water and sanitation sector.
A contextual assessment of GESI in the WASH sector based on a review of national policies, strategies, and implementation practices in Ethiopia. Read more...
Successful pathways secured uptake by government and had flexible programming. Read more...
In this video from Sustainable WASH Systems partner IRC WASH, we learn about Learning Alliances and how they are building strong local systems in... Read more...
Reflections from district level WASH SDG master planning in Negelle Arsi and Shashamane, Ethiopia Read more...
Asset management, long-term planning and support to water service providers are important elements of service-delivery models. Read more...
Long-term strategic planning at the district level helps to identify improved service delivery models, system strengthening activities, financing... Read more...
Addressing inequalities by improving access to WASH services for vulnerable groups; introducing social water tariffs for the vulnerable; involving... Read more...
The theme of World Water Day 2016 - Water and Jobs - focused on how enough and the right quality of water can change workers' lives and livelihoods, and even transform societies and economies. Linked to this theme, the National Self Supply Task Force in collaboration with IRC, MWA, JICA, Water for... Read more...
Recommendations on coordination of initiatives and professionalisation of rural water supply maintenance. Read more...
Three factors – legitimacy of the collaborative, aligning activities within clear mandates, and demonstrating value – all work together to secure... Read more...
Testing approaches to strengthen the sustainability and performance of WASH service delivery systems. Read more...
Harmonizing institutionalized monitoring, national benchmarks, improving the data culture and acting upon monitoring results will be essential in... Read more...
Systems approaches are ongoing processes which take time and require multiple levels of action, both at local as well as at regional and national... Read more...
This paper details the steps taken in Ethiopia, by the Millennium Water Alliance (MWA) and member partners, to support three district (woreda)... Read more...
Measuring change over time in the relationships and network structure of learning alliances in four separate Ethiopian locations in USAID's... Read more...
Developing trust and partnership among NGOs, engaging in collective impact and lessons learned about partnership development in an alliance. Read more...
A summary of a study undertaken of the financing approaches used under the USAID Transform WASH programme in Ethiopia, which was conducted to better... Read more...
How do Sustainable Land Management programmes relate to interventions promoting groundwater utilisation, and how can the benefits of groundwater... Read more...