WASH SDG Ethiopia (including COVID-19 prevention) SUMMARY 
Because of the poor hygiene and sanitation practice and low service coverage in Ethiopia, the WASH-SDG programme builds on three core strategic objectives: (1) increase demand for improved WASH facilities and practices; (2) improve the quality of service provision; and (3) improve governance of the sector. In addition, gender and social inclusion (GESI), climate vulnerability and resilience (CVR) are integrated transversally in the objectives. In Ethiopia, the WASH-SDG Consortium is represented by WASH Alliance International (WAI – country lead) and Plan. The Plan SP is implemented in rural areas of Bahir Dar Zuria and Lasta (Amhara region). The programme started on the 1st of July 2017 and runs until the 31st of December 2022. Ethiopia has a population of 99.39 million people and is considered among the poorest countries in the world.  In Bahir Dar Zuria and Lasta (Amhara region) hygiene and sanitation practice and service coverage is low and does not meet the basic level of standards. In most communities of those woredas, latrines are virtually non-existent and open defecation is still common practice. Many of the WASH entrepreneurs or producers have lost their interest in the WASH market due to lack of policy support and lack of financial sources. There is a lack of coordination between different WASH initiatives of the government, which effects the service delivery system in the WASH sector. 

The communities in the program areas are patriarchal and little space is given to women to exercise their human rights. At community level women mostly do not have leadership roles. Economically poor girls use reusable home-made sanitary pads made of worn out cloths or apply nothing except putting on several dresses to control the menstrual discharge. In the communities, sanitary pads are not available. People with disabilities and people who by traditional religion are suspected of the evil eye are systematically excluded from community (WASH) decision making. 

There is an increasing trend of drought and high temperature, flood, and erratic rainfall caused by climate change. This has already led to direct and indirect impacts on WASH services and infrastructures and will aggravate in future. Pathway 1: Increase demand for improved WASH facilities and practices: Plan aims to make communities aware on improved sanitation and hygienic practices, so that people change their behavior on WASH, and their demand for WASH services will increase. Plan aims to identify and address the root causes of gender inequality in WASH. 

Pathway 2: Improve the quality of service provision: Plan aims to make financial institutions aware of the benefits of investing in WASH products and services so that they offer loans for WASH service providers, suppliers, producers (preferably women groups) and households to invest in better access of WASH products and services. In addition, the efficiency and effectiveness of delivery of WASH service providers, suppliers and producers are targeted to be improved so that the supply of WASH products and services improves. 

Pathway 3: Improve governance of the sector: Plan will strengthen WASH governance and traditional leadership on gender and socially inclusive and climate resilient WASH, so that WASH gets the attention it needs and sufficient budget is allocated. Existing WASH laws, policies, strategies and regulations will be tested. Women, girls, and socially excluded groups will be actively involved in this process. Plan will also support the government in strengthening their WASH monitoring and evaluation capacity and systems used in order to track WASH progress and WASH expenditures. The programme has many different and complementary stakeholders to take into account which all have interests when it comes to WASH. In order to create a sustainable and locally owned programme, all stakeholders have been involved since the inception phase.
•	Local government has a leading role in defining district WASH priorities and will ensure the programme is governed by government policies, strategies, legislations and procedures. Jointly with Plan, they will facilitate selection of communities and water sources. They will facilitate community planning process and prioritize, appraise and approve community requests and conduct routine programme M&E. Together with the WASHCO’s (WASH Committees), they will provide caretaker (mechanic) training and will provide orientation, information and guidance to kebele stakeholders and leaders on interventions and strategic approaches and tools.
•	NGOs and CSOs will be responsible for informing, facilitating and mobilizing communities and schools about the interventions to participate and make action plans. They also facilitate the identification and prioritization of target villages and groups.
•	Private sector will be invited to participate in monitoring and evaluation and will be stimulated to improve WASH service delivery.
•	Communities will be involved in the planning and will be involved throughout preparation, implementation and monitoring of the interventions. Plan International will implement their Ethiopia Bahir Dar Zuria and Lasta sub-programme (SP) in two woredas, situated in two zones, of Amhara national regional state. Bahir Dar Zuria woreda has 36 kebeles, and Lasta has 25 kebeles. The SP will target the two woredas with a total number of 365,800 people. Pathway 1: By 2022 the programme wants in at least 30 communities in the target areas reach the open defecation free (ODF) status and people have moved up the sanitation and hygiene ladder. Women, girls and other socially excluded groups are empowered resulting in an increased level of participation of women/girls and other excluded groups in WASH activities in the community, shared WASH workload and decision making in the household and an increase level of leadership positions in communities around WASH. Fathers and mothers have improved their knowledge and practices about baby WASH and students, parents and teachers about MHM.
Plan will enhance the capacity of the district offices to effectively use gender transformative and inclusive demand-creation tools and guidelines, so that health extension workers will implement these in the communities to eliminate open defecation and beyond. Through WASHCOs (community level WASH committees) and school WASH and nutrition clubs, capacity will be built on WASH conditions, MHM and baby WASH. The sub-programme promotes an increase in household investment in WASH (see also pathway 2). The level of participation in decision making of women, girls and socially excluded groups about WASH activities in the community will be increased. The sub-programme creates awareness among women, girls and socially excluded groups of their rights and supportive communities, so that WASH practices and services will be more equitable and sustainable. The gender and WASH monitoring tool will be used to improve and monitor levels of participation of women and socially excluded groups throughout the programme. Through these tools, men and boys will also be targeted to ensure women and girls are given the space within WASH activities and decision making and the (baby) WASH workload is shared more equally.

Pathway 2: By 2022 the programme wants to increase access to water by the construction or rehabilitation of 36 water schemes in the two districts in collaboration with the district government, the private sector and the communities. The sub-programme will improve the WASH market in the districts by strengthening new and existing entrepreneurs in producing and marketing affordable WASH products and by increasing the value of loans given by MFIs and others to producers of WASH products. At least 13.5% of these entrepreneurs will be women.
Plan will work closely with the regional WASH bureau, district offices, private sector parties and the communities on the planning, construction and rehabilitation of water schemes and will strengthen them on climate resilience. Plan will establish and strengthen WASH marketing groups of local entrepreneurs to increase the production and provision of WASH products like sanitary pads, soap andclimate resilient latrine options. Female entrepreneurs will be included in the groups and will be motivated and strengthened to run a profitable WASH business. To increase access to credit for WASH businesses, Plan will promote and/or strengthen the WASH entrepreneurs and groups and link them to financial institutions. Plan will train teachers and school pupils (girls and boys) in school WASH clubs on how to make reusable sanitary pads. In order to improve sanitation in schools, Plan and the school management will construct latrines and handwashing facilities for boys and girls. The latrines will include a toilet for people with disabilities and MHM facilities. All facilities will only be constructed after the school management has developed a financial sustainable operation and maintenance plan.

Pathway 3: By 2022, district offices are able to implement service improvement action plans and have improved capacity in monitoring and evaluation of WASH results and expenditures. This will lead to stronger and more coherent WASH sector policies and regulations and increased budget allocation by the district offices for WASH service delivery. The sub-programme calls for gender, inclusion and climate resilience being prioritised in the WASH programmes and sufficient budget allocation to implement these programmes. At a local level, WASHCOs and caretaker committees will have improved capacity in the operation and maintenance of sustainable and inclusive WASH services. Through strengthened WASH governance at district, local and community level in the two districts (Bahir Dar Zuria and Lasta), the government will be able to deliver gender transformative, inclusive and sustainable WASH services in an efficient and effective way.
Plan makes use of several entry points, focusing mainly on strengthening the different levels of governance structures. The district health office, the district water office and the district education office will be supported in the development and implementation of their service improvement action plans for which regular meetings between government, service providers and users will be ensured. Through these mechanisms, government may be hold accountable Financial sustainability means that continuity in the delivery of products and services related to WASH is assured, because the activities are locally financed (e.g. taxes, local fees, local credit products). 
Institutional sustainability means that WASH systems, institutions, policies and procedures at the local level are functional and meet the demand of users of WASH services. WASH stakeholders are clear on their own roles, tasks and responsibilities, are capable of fulfilling these roles effectively and are transparent to each other. 
The element of environmental sustainability implies placing WASH interventions in the wider context of the natural environment and implementing an approach of integrated and sustainable management of water and waste(-water) flows and resources, including the adaptation to climate change. 
Technical sustainability of WASH services is reached when the technology or hardware needed for continuous services is maintained, repaired and replaced by local people and it is not depleting the (natural) resources on which it depends for its functioning.
Social sustainability refers to ensuring that the appropriate social conditions and prerequisites are realized and sustained so the current and future society is able to create healthy and liveable communities. Social sustainable intervention is demand-driven, inclusive (equality), gender equal, culturally sensitive and needs-based.