NEWSLETTER. Introduction

NEWSLETTER

_{Capacity Development of Agarfa A-TVET College on}

Small Scale and Micro-Irrigation for Agarfa A-TVET College

(NICHE/ETH/178).

Q-Point BV, P.O.box 38, 2670 AA Naaldwijk, The Netherlands, I www.q-point-bv.nl, E [email protected], T 00 31 174 282888

September 2015

Content

Introduction 1

Results so far 1

Significance for the country 2

Works still to be done 2

Practical vocational training in design of small scale irrigation and micro irrigation for the irrigation task force of Agarfa A-TVET College

3

Visit of Holland 5

Workshop “Development of a gender

mainstreaming guideline” 6

Management training

Experience gender and development 7

Impression of fieldwork 8 Partners 9 Requesting University 9 Donor 9 Colophon 9

Introduction

By Alma Ruting, Q-Point BV The project Capacity Development of Agarfa

A-TVET College on Small Scale and Micro-Irrigation for Agarfa A-TVET (Agricultural Technical Vocational and Education Training) College is running now for the third year.

The second group of about 20 MSc students started in June 2015 at Universities in Ethiopia. Focus for short time will be the implementation of the irrigation training facilities at Agarfa and the development of the new irrigation curriculum with input of labour market and our international knowledge partners. This newsletter will inform you regarding the project activities. I hope you enjoy reading.

Alma Ruting, Project manager Q-Point BV

Carel Jaspers and the management team during his visit in Addis Abeba.

Results so far

By Selama Gebreslassie, Assistant Project Coordinator Based on the frame work of

NICHE- Program Capacity Development of Agarfa A-TVET College on Small Scale and Micro Irrigation for Agarfa A-TVET College different activities were conducted since the start of project implementation phase. Based on this and objective of the project, the following results were gained so far.

Upgraded academic staff to Bsc and MSc programs on the field of Small scale irrigation and water:

NRM: irrigation Agronomy and Animal Science (3 Bsc and 39 Msc so far). ICT and Gender Office facilities were upgraded and equipped with different materials to ensure gender based teaching and learning program.

Nationwide SSI/MI Labor market Need assessment (LNA) was conducted, and

NEWSLETTER

Capacity Development of Agarfa A-TVET College on Small

Scale and Micro-Irrigation for Agarfa A-TVET College

curriculum was developed based on the LNA findings.

Upgraded staff on management and leadership, Survey and Design of SSI/MI infrastructure through continuous short term trainings conducted.

Gender policy and Gender mainstreaming guideline were

developed to ensure gender sensitive

learning environment and

organizational structure of the college. Soil and laboratory equipment and materials bought to capacitate the office and to make more practical trainings on SSI/MI and other related fields.

Experience sharing in Netherlands for project management bodies which build the skills of the members how to lead project activities.

Significance for the country

According to the Growth and Transformation Plan (GTP) of Ethiopia, our country gave a special concern to Agriculture and Small scale irrigation sector. The country is working in collaboration with different local and international NGOs on Technology transferring; Experience sharing and delivering short term and long term trainings so as to achieve the above concerned objective. This in turn will have a pivotal role on eradicating poverty and

improving the livelihood and wellbeing of the community by applying improved Small Scale and Micro-Irrigation practices and technologies. Thus, NICHE-ETH/178 project will have a significant contribution on filling the gap of skilled labour,

increasing agricultural productivity and improving products quality through introducing improved Small Scale and Micro-Irrigation technologies to support the massive government plan for its success.

Works still to be done

By Selama Gebreslassie, Assistant Project Coordinator As a requesting organization

and the main actor on the project implementation activities, we were evaluated the whole project

implementation so far by considering the framework and objective of the project as well as the project implementation period. With the project years we left bringing in mind, our achievement is not first-rated and

remarkable. With the remaining couple of years we still have a lot of activities to be done for the successfulness of the project objective. To list the major once:-

Ensuring gender sensitive teaching and learning program and organizational structure of the college by

implementing the gender policy and gender mainstreaming guideline developed.

Finalizing the design and installation of SSI/MI irrigation structure/scheme Upgrading the soil and water

laboratories with suitable equipment‟s and facilities

Reviewing and approving the new and revised SSI/MI Curriculum through stakeholders and organizations. Launching new SSI/MI Department on 2016 and providing long term and short term trainings on Small scale and Micro irrigation to fulfill the labor market need of the nation.

Upgrading academic staff through short term and long term trainings.

NEWSLETTER

Capacity Development of Agarfa A-TVET College on Small

Scale and Micro-Irrigation for Agarfa A-TVET College

Practical vocational training in design of small scale

irrigation and micro irrigation for the irrigation task force

of Agarfa A-TVET College

By Jos Kroets, Senior Adviseur IPC Groene ruimte In April 2015 the next step in the

practical training for the 12 members of the Irrigation Task Force (ITF) was organized. The training is done in a practical way with a minimum on teaching of theory but followed by design workshops (Training to Trainers program). It has answered to the method of „learning by doing‟.

The following subjects were part of the training:

Reviewing the results of the training of Dr. Kibebew in February 2015: crop calendar, water requirements, irrigation depths, irrigation plot size, irrigation scheme area, irrigation scheme water requirement, irrigation interval.

Assessing the topographical data and choosing the different irrigation methods.

Determining and calculating

earthworks in relation to maximum allowable slopes for different irrigation methods.

Design the different irrigation methods for the 9 sections: gravity irrigation (basin, furrows and borders) and overhead irrigation (sprinklers) and low pressure drip systems. Lay-out, sections, canals, ditches, reservoir, drains, distribution boxes, equipment, pumps.

Putting pegs with calculated heights in the field (section 1: „upper line-lower line‟) for leveling (by contractor). The ITF can do the same method of measurements for all sections after this.

The Irrigation Task Force and the trainer Jos Kroets with the complete irrigation-design.

The design was almost finished on the last day of the training. The trainer Jos Kroets made appointments with the members of the ITF that they will finalize the design as soon as possible. After this they make the list of all the necessary equipment and send it to Jos in the Netherlands for a check. After the design is completed by the ITF the next phase in the project should be taken.

The next phase is the

construction/implementation of the design in the field and perform the necessary preparations for this:

Calculate type(s) and amount of irrigation equipment and calculation costs of irrigation equipment.

Calculate earthworks in m3 (leveling, ditches, canals type(s), reservoir). Discuss the purchase of the irrigation equipment.

Making description of all works to be performed.

Calculation total costs (including earthworks).

Remove fences, buildings, trees (including the roots) etc. from the sections and repair erosion gully.

NEWSLETTER

Capacity Development of Agarfa A-TVET College on Small

Scale and Micro-Irrigation for Agarfa A-TVET College

Implementation/construction by A-TVET Agarfa or by contractors (in this option the necessary preparations must be determined, for example budget, making contract, tendering, supervision on the works of the contractor etc.)

The training was very positive, the

participants expressed that they feel they were well prepared with tools to

undertake practical training in the topics of the training. During the implementation of the training it became obvious that the teachers are not all accustomed to

practical training. They find it particularly difficult to translate the understood theory to practice-exercises at the workshops and in the field. Therefore, the method of training (workshops, learning by doing) is excellent to learn the necessary skills in a quick manner. The teachers learned fast and they understand that the practical training is a very important part of the curriculum for the SSI/MI-course of A-TVET Agarfa.

I should not forget to mention that we had a lot of fun during the training. That is very important too! It was also nice that the management of A-TVET Agarfa talked with the ITF during the practical exercises in the field. In this way the ITF feels that the management take care for them and their problems. Compliments for that!

The Irrigation Task Force evaluates the training with the management of A-TVET Agarfa in the field.

Beside the mentioned next steps in the design also a practical training course for ITF on water and soil related issues will be organized. This contributes to a fast, structural and sustainable improvement of the present conditions and the

understanding of data on soil and water characteristic needed in the design of successful irrigation schemes. This

training will be organized later on in 2015, when the necessary equipment for this training has arrived in Agarfa.

Very busy working!

I am looking forward to take the next steps with the Irrigation Task Force and the management of A-TVET Agarfa in the next training!

NEWSLETTER

Capacity Development of Agarfa A-TVET College on Small

Scale and Micro-Irrigation for Agarfa A-TVET College

Visit of Holland

By Tamirat Tesema, Project Finance Coordinator Regional and international

Exposure visit and experience sharing on different institutions and NGOs engaged on water and irrigation related activities is one of the project activities in the NICHE-ETH/178 project to achieve the general objective set on Capacity building on Small Scale /Micro Irrigation field of study at Agarfa Agricultural Technical Vocational and Training (A-TVET)College. Based on this, the project Management members of our College were got the opportunity to visit different international institutions at the Netherlands working on outcome based training activities on water and Small Scale irrigation. The institutions we had visited were IPC International

Training Center, HAS Hogeschool -University of applied Science and the private company Eijkelkamp Agri-search equipment. As a project management team member, I was really impressed and appreciate on what I have seen at all institutions on the way of delivering outcome based training and their well-equipped and furnished training facilities, as well as a great experience and

knowledge on water management specifically and maintaining a clean and green environment in general. Beside of this, during my short stay at the

Netherlands I liked the honorable respect and love for work and humanity of the community which is the key for their commendable development at present.

Shed with farm equipment at IPC International training centre.

Training facilities: Students practicing land leveling.

NEWSLETTER

Capacity Development of Agarfa A-TVET College on Small

Scale and Micro-Irrigation for Agarfa A-TVET College

Visit to project “space for the river” near Zutphen. To prevent flooding in the future, several dike activities find place.

Participants of the study tour: Girma Workineh, Tamirat Tesema, Selama Gebreslassie, Akele Molla, Yohannes Yigezu.

Workshop “Development of a gender mainstreaming

guideline”

By Olivia Ansenk, trainer Q-Point BV As a follow up on the gender need assessment and policy development workshops, we organized a workshop in Addis Abeba to work on a tailor made gender mainstreaming manual for the College. Building on the key concerns and strategies of the Agarfa Gender Policy the gender mainstreaming manual strives to guide implementation of these strategies by setting out Indicators, Responsibilities, the required Inputs, the Means of

Verification and by providing a Guideline for key processes and tasks within Agarfa College to mainstream gender.

Gender team members.

The workshop was effectively used to develop a multi-year implementation plan. Together we looked more in-depth into the following key processes:

Education services

Human Resource Management Budgeting

Leadership Student services

Linkage and partnership activities Research extension and publication In groups we worked on these processes using relevant examples of gender mainstreaming documentation/manuals. Thanks to the active participation of the participants, the objective of the workshop was achieved; resulting in a guide that provides direction for the implementation of Gender Mainstreaming in Agarfa College

NEWSLETTER

Capacity Development of Agarfa A-TVET College on Small

Scale and Micro-Irrigation for Agarfa A-TVET College

Management training

By Victor Volkers, trainer Q-Point BV In March of this year, Victor Volkers, our very experienced trained was able to train the Agarfa management team. Centreal theme for this training was “How to deal with changes in

organizations”. The training took place in the shadow underneath the trees: “the African classroom Agarfa”.

“The African classroom”.

Participants of the management training.

Experience gender and development

My experience in this particular project begun in gender scan of the Agarfa A- TVET College during inception period of this project. The gender scan

identified the situation of gender in Agarfa A-TVET at organizational level, the

participation of women in management or decision making position, the rate of participation of female students and the challenges they encountered, and the functions and challenges of the gender club. At the end, it has also pin pointed key gender issues and suggested intervention areas.

We carried out gender need assessment in the actual implementation phase of the project with the international gender consultant Olivia Ansenk, through

involving the management team, gender club and some staffs. The gender

assessment made use of the gender scan during the inception period and intensively

through participation of the top

management, and the gender club and with the involvement of both sex/women and men. The main findings of the assessment revolves on Education, Outreach, Research, Female-male staff (academic and administrative),

Female/male students, Security and harassment and Institutional set up the college.

We also engaged in the development of gender policy for the Agarfa A-TVET Agriculture College in June 2014.The process of developing the gender policy begins with overview of the gender need assessment carried out and

recommendations made. Awareness creation on the international and national policy or enabling environment in relation to gender endorsed and become part and parcel of the constitution of the Ethiopia was part of the process. The process had presentation, discussion, group work,

NEWSLETTER

Capacity Development of Agarfa A-TVET College on Small

Scale and Micro-Irrigation for Agarfa A-TVET College

revealed the commitment and the active participation of the management team, gender club and staffs. The gender policy based the background of Agarfa A-TVET College, the gender gaps identified, and incorporates the vision, mission,

objectives, strategies, and monitoring etc. per the policy framework. The policy framework has enforcing mechanism that

articulate the guiding principle and policy commitment that made responsible the top management and all the staff to work for bringing gender equality in the college. In general, the experience I particularly felt is that the gender assessment and the process of developing gender policy was learning by doing and it was very

interesting.

NEWSLETTER

Capacity Development of Agarfa A-TVET College on Small

Scale and Micro-Irrigation for Agarfa A-TVET College

Partners

Consortium

Q-Point BV

IPC Groene Ruimte BV

HEDBEZBusiness & Consultancy PLC

Haramaya University

Requesting Ethiopian University

Agarfa A-TVET College

Donor

This project is financed by MINBUZA through EP-Nuffic (Netherlands

organization by international cooperation in higher education).

Colophon

This newsletter is created by:

Q-Point BV Postbus 38 2670 AA Naaldwijk The Netherlands T +31 174 282888 F +31 317 491441 E [email protected] I www.q-point-bv.nl Q-Point BV is certified to ISO 9001:2008