BY EYUEL KIFLU
Since the signing of the Pretoria peace deal, countries have been vowing to back Ethiopia’s post-war recovery efforts with some funneling finance and others providing material assistance. Lately, Japan which has longstanding ties with Ethiopia has provided financial support to help rehabilitate war-affected communities in northern Ethiopia.
Weeks ago, Tokyo provided a grant worth 8.1 million USD to support Ethiopia’s ongoing post-war rehabilitation efforts to address school and sanitation infrastructures in the Amhara and Tigray regions. The grant aims to improve access to schools, water supply, sanitation, and the learning environment for those affected by the northern conflict.
According to information obtained in the signing ceremony of the grant held lately that restoring education opportunities and providing water, sanitation, and hygiene services in schools in Tigray and Amhara states are crucial for children who were previously traumatized by the conflict. It is also equally important to help them regain their childhood and pursue their dreams.
Also, for girls, wash services are even more critical. In addition, the assistance helps to scale up menstrual health and hygiene management in school facilities. There were also no sanitary pads available at school, and neither was clean water, but things began to change when the school installed wash services and established a menstrual health and hygiene facilities. Accordingly, the project helps a lot of girls who could use those facilities and services during their school breaks.
Over 4,600 schools in Amhara and nearly 2,000 schools in Tigray were reportedly totally or partially damaged as a result of the conflict, resulting in over 700,000 children dropping out of school. In this regard, the grant aims to improve access to school, water supply, sanitation, and the learning environment, benefiting over 12,000 children and nearly 48,000 community members with access to washing facilities, water, sanitation, and hygiene facilities with UNICEF and partners.
It will also utilize local and sustainable solutions by integrating construction technologies to rehabilitate schools and install water services. It was also disclosed in the occasion that by working closely with partners and the government, UNICEF remains committed to improving the lives and well-being of vulnerable children and women impacted by the conflict and other emergencies across the country.
In addition, JICA (Japan International Cooperation Agency) intends to collaborate with UNICEF to implement a grant from the Japanese government for the recovery and reconstruction of schools, water and sanitation facilities in conflict-affected areas in targeted regions.
Chief Representative of JICA Ethiopia Office, Dr. Morihara Katsuki, said on the occasion that, as a bilateral development cooperation agency, JICA aims to utilize its technical expertise and experiences towards generating a synergy effect between this grant and JICA’s experience and expertise in the past. In the last 50 years, education and water and sanitation have consistently been two of the most important priority sectors for JICA.
Consequently, the agency has supported the construction of schools and been involved in improving the quality of math and science education as well as school management, benefiting over 500,000 children since 2007 alone. Similarly, over 600,000 people have benefited from the agency’s support for the construction of water and sanitation facilities in urban centers and in small towns in six regions across the country since 2005, he added.
JICA has also been working closely with the Ethiopian Water and Technology Institute (EWTI) for the past 25 years, providing technical support and capacity development opportunities for water technicians and engineers in the country. As a result of JICA’s support, over 10,000 water engineers and technicians have been trained, he added.
Dr. Morihara also said that learning from JICA’s experience in supporting the recovery and reconstruction of conflict-affected areas in other countries, the agency emphasizes the importance of showing concrete signs of tangible improvement in the livelihood of those who have suffered from the conflict, especially in the early stages of the recovery phase.
“JICA believes that the reconstruction and rehabilitation of schools and water and sanitation facilities under this grant will serve as an early dividend of peace and is committed to delivering it to beneficiaries, particularly those belonging to the most vulnerable segments of society, including children, girls and women”, he elucidated.
“This is only the beginning of the agency’s contribution to the rehabilitation of conflict-affected areas. JICA is exploring the possibility of extending technical cooperation to areas including the project sites of this grant and is reviewing its entire portfolio to see how existing projects and programs can incorporate the people in conflict-affected areas as beneficiaries,” Dr. Morihara emphasized.
JICA looks forward to working closely with the Ethiopian government, the Japanese embassy, and other development partners, including UNICEF, to turn as many ideas as possible into reality for the people who have suffered so much from the conflict and therefore deserve more attention and support from the Ethiopian government and the international community, he concluded. In both regions, the funding aims to reach over 12,000 students by constructing 136 classrooms, as well as nearly 47,700 community members with access to WASH facilities, including 34 latrines.
In an exclusive interview with The Ethiopian Herald, the Japanese Ambassador to Ethiopia, Ito Takako, said that the aid is only the beginning of Japan’s support to Ethiopia. The school buildings have been severely damaged, so Japan will help those buildings, as well as the wash facilities, be rehabilitated and bring in more support from other donor countries. In addition to the current support, it extends into other areas that require assistance. So Japan can make an announcement in the near future, she added.
She also mentioned the Japanese experience during the end of World War II that happened in their country. And she said that one of the things is the importance of education. Japan didn’t have any resources, and the cities and the infrastructure are quite extensively damaged, but nevertheless, education and the return of those young people who are on the battlefield abroad are necessary to resume their academic careers.
“That really helped, and I think Ethiopia can also learn that investment in people, especially the future labor force, is very important”, she added. Japan works with international financial institutions and has very close cooperation with them. “I think they have been working closely with the Ethiopian government, and we are ready to discuss further what we can do for Ethiopia”, she explained.
She emphasized that Ethiopia has a better investment environment and business opportunities for Japanese companies to come and invest. “We do require a bit of improvement for the investment environment and will discuss those things with the Ethiopian government as well.
I hope that the Ethiopian people will have faith in the reform and that they can also change things as the Japanese people did after the war. Even in such a devastating situation, when you have a belief in the future, you can do it,” she concluded.
The project is expected to strengthen the ties between Japan and Ethiopia. The Ethiopian Ministry of Education, UNICEF, the Global Partnership for Education, and other partners in the Education Technical Working Group were praised for their contributions at the event.
THE ETHIOPIAN HERALD TUESDAY 27 JUNE 2023