Community Development Group Annual Work Plan ( )

Outline of the presentation 1. Lessons Learned 2. Challenges 3. Implementation strategies ( )

1. Lessons Strong commitment and sense of ownership in traditional schemes than modern ones focus on a single function of the water management Appropriate design of bylaws and their effective implementation use of indigenous knowledge in in-take and canal construction

The sustainability of the traditional schemes indicated that there is a potential to replicate and learn from this model

Sustainability in irrigation schemes is the result of the WUA’s strong commitment and the participation of community from the very beginning (decision making) Recognize the indigenous knowledge of the community

The co-existence side by side of WUA and multi-purpose cooperatives is possible. (Case studies) The IC/WUAs by-laws are in many ways a duplication of MC, which seems to dilute the required focus on by-laws for effective water management

2. Challenges Sense of ownership and responsibility found to be below the required level. this attribute mainly to low real-community /beneficiary participation from the very beginning (Planning phase) of some modern irrigation schemes Dependency syndrome in food insecure Kebeles/communities

Lack of clearly defined mandates of PIs as a result of the current BPR Negatively affects in implementation of PIs planned capacity building activities Confusion at woreda (IDDP Vs CPA) level result in low level of follow-up at the planned project activities

Instability and turnover of staff hamper sustainability of project activities

3. Implementation strategies ( ) A.Focus on community level capacity building and institutionalizing of project activities

Initiate, organize and conduct stakeholders consultative meetings at woreda level including: community representatives Kebele level officials Woreda and regional PIs (the experience of East Belessa)

During the meeting: Evaluate activities performed so far and identify gaps workout detail action plans on a participatory basis and redefine roles and responsibilities of woreda, kebele and community

Strengthening and empowering watershed/WUAs committees Institutionalize watershed committees through technical support in formulating their own by-laws on a participatory basis Empowering WUA/IC committees in scheme management and implementation their own bylaws Build the capacity of the community organizations to be involved during planning, implementing, monitoring and evaluating of the activities

B. Review implementation modalities Based on the recent BPR and the newly institutional arrangement:- initiate open discussions with PIs and revise legal documents (guidelines and bylaws) to encourage community/beneficiaries participation

The discussion should lead to: Support and guide water users/communities in democratically formulating their own bylaws (instead of top down models), Revising WUA membership rules to be inclusive of all men and women water users served by the scheme The focus of WUA/ICs should be on a single function of scheme operation and maintenance

Organize field visits with PIs and (Woreda and Zone) Direct contact with community representatives whenever the need arises

. SWHISA Team coordination Coordination of SWHISA team has to start during planning. The annual plan needs further information exchange and development of team sprit. CDE will jointly plan and implement with all team members accordingly.

THANK YOU