ODI Annual Reports - Overseas Development Institute

6 ODI Annual Report 2010
‘Over the past
four years, the
DFID-funded RiPPLE
programme has provided
invaluable support to the
water and sanitation sector’
A wave of change ripples
through Ethiopia
H.E. Mr Asfaw Dingamo,
Minister of Water Resources,
Ethiopia
The global target for water and sanitation, enshrined in the Millennium
Development Goals (MDGs), is to halve the proportion of people without
sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation by 2015.
An ODI-backed initiative is supporting progress towards that target in
Ethiopia, where only 26% of rural people have access to clean water,
and only 8% to adequate sanitation.
With funding from DFID, ODI’s five-year Research-inspired Policy and
Practice Learning in Ethiopia and the Nile Region (RiPPLE) programme
shows action research at its best. Not only does it increase understanding
of the challenges facing the water sector, it also tackles those challenges
as part of the process.
The knowledge RiPPLE generates for policy-makers reveals issues that
go beyond water and sanitation supply to encompass underlying social,
economic and environmental factors. Field studies, for example, have
confirmed the importance of fresh water for many purposes in rural
communities, including for livestock and small-scale enterprises,
as well as for domestic use.
Researchers work with Learning and Practice Alliances (LPAs) to fill
knowledge gaps on water delivery: one in each region and woreda
(local district) where RiPPLE is working, and one at national level
(the Forum for Learning on Water and Sanitation: FLoWS). The LPAs,
which include researchers and practitioners, as well as local officials
and ‘champions’, carry out not only the research, but also
the necessary reforms. All are tuned into local conditions
and politics, so once a problem is identified, things can –
and do – move fast.
In the Southern Nations region, for example, research
findings from two woredas, confirming the need for greater
financing, contributed to a tenfold hike in woreda water and
sanitation budgets. The training of community water committees
to manage user fees for pump maintenance has increased the number
of people with access to safe water. And support for the regional Water
Bureau has given it a strong voice in the regional cabinet.
RiPPLE also sponsors 36 students for the water and sanitation module
now available as part of the MA in Development Studies at Addis Ababa
University. Most of these students – many of them junior government
officials – conduct their research in woredas where RiPPLE is working
and return to their posts after graduation, boosting the capacity of local
government on water and sanitation issues.
RiPPLE is now focusing on influencing government policy and on
the implementation of vulnerability assessment. Both have global
relevance as governments strive to protect poor people from the
impacts of climate change.
www.rippleethiopia.org