Library Item: Community WASH Action Plans

Building government capacity at woreda level to support communities in planning, implementing and managing improved water supplies is central to the achievement of the Government of Ethiopia's Universal Action Plan (UAP). The plan requires both huge leaps in current levels of water and sanitation service provision by 2012 and ensuring the sustainability of existing services. To this end, the University of Addis Ababa, MetaMeta, SNV-Ethiopia, IRC and the Technical and Vocational Education and Training College (TVETC) in Hawassa have piloted an innovative approach to training woreda staff using Guided Distance Learning (GDL). Key to the approach is that participants in the course obtain a set of training modules either as a document, on a CD Rom or through the internet (provided Internet access is feasible). These self learning modules comprise key information, specific field assignments with ‘learning-by-doing' exercises and a question and answer section where participants can check their own progress. The field assignments are developed in small groups of participants from the same or adjacent woredas will be shared with the course moderators and resource persons through the internet, normal mail and or face to face contact. Trainers will come to the place of work of the small groups of trainees and will go with them into the field to jointly review the main field assignments. This approach to on-the-job Guided Distance Learning (GDL) programme was piloted in SNNPR at woreda level with trainers and trainees of ‘sector' TVETC and resource persons from the water bureau. This initial work showed a demand to embed this approach in the regular TVETC training programme to enable them to focus more on practical, problembased learning. Based on the positive results of the first course this broader course package was developed with the intention to role out the approach of Guided Learning on Water and Sanitation (GLoWS) in Ethiopia through all nine TVETCs concerned with water supply and sanitation training. A staged approach is adopted comprising the expansion and testing of the modules bringing in key experience from the ODI-led RiPPLE program, the training of trainers in the TVETC and resource persons from the Water Bureaus, initially in SNNPR, and thereafter in other areas of Ethiopia. The development, expansion, revision and delivery of the GLoWS module will be led by MetaMeta with the ongoing support of the TVETC in Hawassa, the RiPPLE programme and the SNV.