The Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia

INTEGRATED CAPACITY BUILDING PROJECT

(ICBP)……. First Draft

ABBAY BASIN AUTHORITY

In collaboration with
TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY

May, 2019
Bahir Dar, Ethiopia

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Contents
1. Background .............................................................................................................................. 1

1.1. Justification of Integrated Capacity Building Projects (ICBP) ........................................ 1

1.2. Statement of problem ....................................................................................................... 3

1.3. Objectives ......................................................................................................................... 4

2. Project description ................................................................................................................... 5

3. Methodology............................................................................................................................ 6

4. Scope of work .......................................................................................................................... 6

5. Project components and major activities ................................................................................. 7

7. Expected outputs of the project ............................................................................................. 11

8. Monitoring and Evaluation Strategies. .................................................................................. 12

9. Project cost ............................................................................................................................ 12

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1. Background
1.1. Justification of Integrated Capacity Building Projects (ICBP)

The government of the Ethiopian has developed water Resources Management Policy (EWRMP)
and its implementation strategies as part of the IWRM concept. As instituted in accordance with
the proclamation number (proc. no. 534/2007) and regulation number 156/2008, Basin High
Council and River Basin Authorities are established respectively. The Basin High Council
(BHC) is a decision making body with a River Basin Authority as its technical arm. The River
Basin Authority will have a River Basin plan with the purpose of provide a long-term framework
for proper integrated water resources management that will ensure equitable and sustainable
development while maintaining the quality of ecosystems.

Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) is a process which promotes the coordinated
development and management of water, land and related resources in order to maximize
economic and social welfare in an equitable manner without compromising the sustainability of
vital ecosystems and the environment. As well accepted worldwide, Ethiopia has also adopted
the IWRP principles and put in place appropriate water policy, legislation, strategy and
development programme that embrace IWRM principles and approaches. For the
implementation of IWRM and recognizing the growing needs for sustainable water resource
management, the government of Ethiopia established river basin organization, in which Abbay is
one them. The Basin has also started to form sub-basin organizations to improve its accessibility
to Regional Water Bureaus. The basin has done exemplary work particularly under the Tana-
Beles project period. It, however, needs to build its human resource and technical capacity, to
ensure that water resources (surface, groundwater and wastewater) are sustainably developed,
utilized, and managed. The Abbay Basin Authority is the first basin Authority that is established
considering the IWRM implementation objective. The Authority is established with a mandate to
prepare long term basin plan that used as the main tool or instrument for the appropriate
management of the basin water. To play this role it is expected to prepare an integrated and
multi-disciplinary river basin plan which is explained in the proclamation.

Abbay River Basin is located in the northwestern part of Ethiopia and it covers an area of
approximately 199,812 sq. km. The country’s largest freshwater lake, Lake Tana, the source of
the Blue Nile (Abbay) river is located to the north of the basin. The Basin supports over 28% of

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the Ethiopia population, 40% of agricultural produce and more than 50% of the surface water of
the country. The Ethiopian part of the Blue Nile Basin contributes about 62% of the Nile water.
Beyond the Nile hydro-politics there are many crucial issues and opportunities that are
threatening sustainability of the natural environment and livelihoods inside the Basin.

Due to population growth, expansion of urbanization, growing of economic activities and climate
change, a number of challenges/issues that need to be considered carefully in Abbay river basin
are observed. Land degradation, flooding, water scarcity, uncoordinated water resources
development, inadequate policy framework and lack of a clear institutional responsibility for
their management; inadequate knowledge base and absence of regulatory framework for the
protection of the resources are the basic challenges. Moreover, point and non-point source
pollutions are other challenges in much of the water bodies, particularly in lakes and small
streams. So as to address the challenges/threats to have a holistic knowledge on the integrated
water resources management is indispensable.

Hence, this integrated capacity building project has been designed to contribute to the
institutional capacity building in order to better manage and administer the basin’s water
resources. This is possible by providing trainings to different target groups at basin and sub-
basin levels for which Abbay Basin Authority has prepared a ToR in order to strengthen the
capacity of their staffs and branch offices and major stakeholders to prepare basin plan and to
speed up the implementation of IWRM principles.

The main aim of the proposal is the formulation of the rolling IWRM based basin plan in Abbay
Basin Authority and together with the involvement of main stakeholders to be get hold of
consensus that to have a shared vision, mission and also to build ownerships and transparency of
the basin plan development, implementation and monitoring and evaluations on their interests
disposed to the implementation of IWRM principles in the basin. Here, building basin planning
capacity in national, basin and sub basin levels is an important objective to support the
production of the IWRM based Basin Plan and its sustainable process.

The Texas A&M University conducting in capacity building and research program in Ethiopia in
collaboration with three CGIAR centers: International Water Management Institute (IWMI),
International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) and International Food Policy Research

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Institute (IFPRI) and also with Feed the Future Innovation Laboratory for Small Scale Irrigation
(ILSSI) and others. With this and related program you have to be contributing in capacity
building of Abbay Basin Authority staff and the basin stakeholders in order to anchor the
principles of IWRM for the river basin. Texas A&M University and their partner had many
missions in Ethiopia since the program was launched since 2019. Recent mission on March 2019
was held conducted under the Feed the Future Innovation Laboratory for Small Scale Irrigation
(ILSSI) which was led by Texas A&M University.

A Joint team of practicing scientists from Texas A&M University together with Abbay Basin
Authority (ABA) support for the development of River Basin Planning process in universally
accepted steps. The project main objective is to build the capacity of the Authority staffs
professionals, team leaders and experts of different stakeholders by conducting different
trainings (short and long term), study tours, experience sharing’s and consulting the activities
done by the basin Authority in related basin planning process.

1.2. Statement of problem

Implementation of Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM) by Authority and

Stakeholders are very limited because of lack of appropriate knowledge, skills, finance and other
factors at both the national and basin level. Although legal and policy provisions pay little
attention to IWRM implementation but the studies revealed that the Authority staff and
stakeholders remain unclear on what IWRM means in practical terms. Clear understanding and
commitment regarding IWRM and basin planning at senior level is needed. The major challenges
related to the capacity building gaps of the Authority staff are preparation of basin plan and its
implementation, and using analytical tools in line with the concept of IWRM.

Moreover the Authority is practically facing a problem on its key mandate i.e. stakeholder
coordination and integration especially in the basin planning process, monitoring and evaluation
as well as implementation based on the concept and approach of IWRM principles. As a result
the implementation of integrated water resources management process in an equitable and
participatory manner first and foremost the Abbay basin and further the Blue Nile and Nile basin
gradually will become unsustainable ecosystem. Ultimately one of the world’s pressures and
impacts on water and related natural resources faced difficulty to manage. This leads to the

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socioeconomic and political situation principally the Ethiopian Nile as well as generally the
Eastern Nile region will not sustained and livelihoods and lifestyles of more than 120 million
peoples living in the region declined.

Really these challenging problems are not only to the Basin Authority but also to the
stakeholders, government and the region. Though, all have to be committed to prevent and curve
the major challenges by implementing IWRM principles in a participatory fashion in the basin.
The principal tool to realize IWRM principles is developing and implementing basin plan in an
integrated approaches. Though in order to resolve the root causes of the problem we have to have
capacitate human resources within appropriate knowledge and skill base to meet the overall
objective the Authority and build sound ecosystem in the basin.

1.3. Objectives

The overarching goal of capacity building project is to build the capacity of Abbay Basin
Authority, the branch offices, and stakeholders collaborating with the basin authority to
contribute to the basin water resource management endeavor and well implementations.

Specific objectives of the project:

 To fill the gaps of knowledge and skills of the Authority and branch offices staffs on
basin planning process and application of analytical tools in short and long term training.
 To increase the awareness and involvement of stakeholders on IWRM to build
ownerships.
 To build partnership with different stakeholders and research institutions to strengthen
IWRM implementation process,
 To make the basin as research (center of excellency/knowledge) and training center in
Ethiopia and abroad,
 To develop sustainable consortium project.

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2. Project description

This project will be launched in the beginning of 2020 G.C and passes through five years until
end of 2024. The requested project is not standalone intervention but be part of major integrated
water resources management efforts to be pursued by the authority and will supported by the
government of USA, Texas A&M University and their partners. The project is initiated based on
the capacity gap assessment of the basin Authority at different time by the Authority partners in
and abroad the country, and also practical assessments by the Abbay Basin Authority. The
project is helpful for the development of an integrated basin plan and its framework of the basin,
including operational decision support systems by using modern knowledge base and
information management tools.

The project is to provide capacity building activities for the Authority and branch offices staff
and strengthen stakeholders to address integrated water management issues. Within this
integrated capacity building project a series of training sessions on basin planning & IWRM will
be provided to equip the staffs and major stakes with methodologies for the analysis of the
assessment data and information of river basins resources, identifying and prioritizing major
issues, application modern tools, setting appropriate strategies and the like to address existing
problems. Therefore the project will provide necessary knowledge, skills and tools for the
preparation and practice of basin plan to manage the basin water resource in an integrated
manner.

The project will also help to increase the awareness of stakeholders on the implementation of
IWRM principles through the involvement of basin planning process. In the project time conduct
different trainings, workshops, and meetings to build the ownership of implementing IWRM
principles in the basin. As part of the basin authority revitalization envisaged by the project, the
strengthened technical and organizational capacity and an increased knowledge base of the
Authorities staffs will provide a tool for a comprehensive capacity building program which will
then become an integral part of the broader basin planning and IWRM implementation in the
basin.

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3. Methodology

Abbay Basin Authority is committed to serve as a knowledge center to water management issues
in the basin resulting to become data and information center, center of excellency/knowledge in
the basin and abroad, prepare basin plan, implementing IWRM in the basin and finally overhand
the coordination and integration roles and responsibility among stakeholders and partners within
the basin and abroad. So, we appreciate continued collaboration to further develop our capacity
to institutionalize IDSS in our office, and provide trainings to professionals in the Abbay basin
and other basins in the country. The methodology will focuses to address the core pillars of the
basin here listed below:-

a) Capacity building and knowledge management

 Short term (training in and abroad)
 Long term (MSc and PhD)
b) Strengthening and implementing of Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM) in
the basin,
c) Support to make the Basin as research (center of excellency/knowledge) and training
center in Ethiopia and abroad,
d) Consortium projects.

The training strives to follow adult learning principle with the premises that the trainees have
good understanding of the problem they want to solve. All working packages will have lecture
notes and presentation which clearly outlines the rationale, study outcomes, methodology of
delivery, and a power point which shall later be handed to the participants collected and
compiled in one folder. In addition, the project will achieve the goal through:

 Training delivery in and abroad on different title to achieve the overall objective of the
project
 Experience sharing and study tour
 Studies (short and long term) of MSc and PhD through the span of the project.
4. Scope of work

Texas A&M University with their partners will deliver all the working packages and activities
indicated in section five as much as possible within the project time span 2024.

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5. Project components and major activities

The team of practicing scientists from Texas A&M University and ABA has work together
within a common consensus and identified four area of capacity building and different activities
within it for the next five years (2020-2024). The Abbay Basin Authority in collaboration with
Texas A&M University identifies the training needs and consultative issues especially in the
process of river basin planning and stake holder organization and engagements. The working
packages will serve as performance indicators and norms for evaluating if the project objectives
and implementation performance ratings according to the agreed actions and that will also
determines the basis of next action. This working packages focused on the river basin planning
processes in major activities that provides technical guidance to the project team as well as the
ABA staffs on river basin planning activities.

The project will have the following three major components:

Component A: Training and experience sharing.

Implementation of IWRM principles in the basin needs a harmonized and strong linkage among
stakeholders. In order to coordinate and integrate the stakeholders there will be a shared vision
plan in the basin. This plan is a pioneer instrument used as an implementation tool of IWRM and
to perform the tool properly needs multidisciplinary participants who have good skill and
knowledge these will build by extensive and intensive trainings, study tour and experiences
sharing are crucial to upgrade the staff member and major stakeholders.

The detail working packages and major activities supported by trainings and experience sharing
to be completed by the next five years are shown below. These working packages are the most
critical activities of all the major components the basin plan and IWRM concepts. It is
encouraging to note that the ABA and Texas A&M University has initiated actions on all the
working packages and major activities have been completed on time satisfactorily.

Working packages 1:- Principles, approaches and its implementation of integrated water
resource management (IWRM) at basin level

Activity 1.1. Principles and approaches of IWRM

Activity 1.2. Adaptive Integrated Water Resource Management

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 Activity 1.2. Water resource management and its challenges at different level
Activity 1.4. Water governance, conflict resolution and management
Activity 1.5. Stakeholder engagement and transboundary cooperation’s
Activity 1.6. Economic value of water and its management

Working packages 2:- Basin Information System

The outcome of this packages are to know the principles behind hydrologic and water resource
planning and allocation tools, to use hydrologic and water allocation tool/models to assess the
state of water resource management, allocate water resources, to use global climate information
systems in the management of water resources, to deploy the state of the art GIS/RS capability to
ensure that water resource management is evidence based and knowledge informed, to know
about dynamic system approach for river basin planning and to practice basin systems modeling
for multipurpose uses of water.

On the other side it is important to understand how an integrated user-machine system are used
to provide information to support operations, management and decision making functions Basin
authorities, to utilize computerized and manual procedures for data collection and analysis in the
management of weather, hydrology, and water resources systems, to be able to operate the
BIS/MIS system of the ABA, to identify the data and systems requirement for hydrologic
information systems, to be able to prepare specification for field and lab equipment, to inspect
and maintain weather, hydrology, hydro- sedimentology field equipment, to prepare state of the
basin information report and to design information and communication media (reports)

Activity 2.1. Data management and information system

Activity 2.2. Remote sensing application for water resource management
Activity 2.3. Water resource assessment and development
Activity 2.4. Water quality and pollution control
Activity 2.5. Basin water-hydrology information system and development
Activity 2.6. Integrated decision support system
Activity 2.7. Hydrological modelling principles and tools
Activity 2.8. Hydrological modelling and forecasting
Activity 2.9. Water resources knowledge centers

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 Activity 2.10. Basin systems model for multipurpose uses of water

Working packages 3:- Basin planning and its implementation

The main objectives of this working packages are to arrive at an agreed structure of a basin plan
with the focus of the basin, to know the basin situation assessment tools, to prepared state of the
basin assessment report and to develop water resource management plan for the basin or sub
basin.

Activity 3.1. Principles, process and procedures of basin plan

Activity 3.1. Tools and methods for basin situation assessment
Activity 3.1. Scenario development for basin plan and operational strategies
Activity 3.1. Water allocation and use: - Principle and approaches
Activity 3.1. Strategic planning for water allocation
Activity 3.1. Strategic planning for water quality management,
Activity 3.1. Strategic planning for stakeholder engagement
Activity 3.1. Strategic planning for basin information system
Activity 3.1. Planning for groundwater management in a river basin
Activity 3.1. Planning for catchment management in river basin
Activity 3.1. Planning for monitoring and evaluation
Activity 3.1. Compressive strategic plan development at basin or sub basin level
Activity 3.1. Ways of implementing strategic basin plan

Working packages 4:- Sustainable and integrated watershed planning, implementation and
management strategy

Here are very important to know the direct and indirect pressures of land degradation, estimate
the on-site and off-site cost of land degradation, to be able to map land degradation hotspots, to
select the most appropriate technology, practice or approach to mitigate land degradation, to will
develop performance and sustainability assessment framework and finally to use computer
program or model to facilitate watershed management sustainability assessment framework.

Activity 4.1. Development of catchment planning and monitoring

Activity 4.1. Support alternative rural livelihoods

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 Activity 4.1. Improve ecological management
Activity 4.1. Sustainable watershed development
Activity 4.1. Flood control and management
Activity 4.1. Principles, approaches and tools for crop insurance
Activity 4.1. Principles, approaches and tools of payment for ecosystem service
Activity 4.1. Water quality management: - pollution and erosion control
Activity 4.1. Modelling pilot watersheds
Activity 4.1. Rehabilitate targeted catchments and its impact on the catchment overall
resources

Component B: - Experience sharing and study tour.

The experience sharing and study tour along with trainings full fill the package of upgrading the
staffs as well as stakeholders. This reveals that there is no one way for basin planning and
implementing the IWRM through different activities. Specific water resources problems and
conditions will determine priorities in an individual country, basin and the final choice of
management solutions will depend on socioeconomic characteristics and capacity. Therefore,
measuring progress towards integrated water resources management must seek to capture and
take into account the wide range of efforts made by the countries and basin authorities to
improve water resources management in order to balance economic, social and environmental
requirements rather than counting plans. It is important for ABA to understand and to share
experience on their efforts of basin planning and IWRM implementation progress and the
approach they follow. This is one of the capacity building and knowledge transfer to prepare the
basin plan and adapt the IWRM at basin scale.

The capacity building project will help to organize international tours to study the strengths,
weaknesses, opportunities and threats and achievements of the river basin organizations and to
create opportunities for different decision makers and for the staff from the newly established
Abbay basin authority to learn from others, to share lessons learned with peers and prepare a
consolidated and comprehensive study on the shared water resources and activities in the basin.
Here experience sharing and tour will be held in two ways:-

1. Short term training through short time tour and experience sharing

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 2. Long term:- improving the level of education through the capacity building project life
time (provide opportunity and funding MSc and PhD students)

Component C: Sustainable project Consortium

The purpose of this project consortium is to create a cooperation platform between the Authority,
Texas A&M University and other partners for the implementation of the projects. In addition it is
important to prepare project proposals, implement, and monitoring & evaluation of WRM
projects, to be effective water resource management projects, to mobilize resources through
effective project development through.

6. Project management and coordination

Mainly Basin Authority coordinates, integrates and evaluate the effect of overall project
implementation in collaboration with Texas A&M University. It will also arrange and assign the
appropriate project leading and also a focal person to oversee the process of project
implementation as per the objective and ensure project outcomes in both sides. The basin and
university are responsible for the coordination, monitoring and timely implementation of all the
activities planned in the annual work plan developed under the five year project framework.

7. Expected outputs of the project

When all working packages are completed, the Basin Authority and stakeholders will have a
team capacitated with:

 Well known the principles, process of integrated water resource management and
understood on the process and structure of basin water resource management plan,
 Recognized the data requirement and running decision support systems revenant for
water resource management and known required system for basin information system,
 Understood the causes of catchment degradation,
 Developed skills to prepare basin assessment report and design projects in the broad
areas of water resource management,
 Run decision support systems with basin specific information system and different
guidelines, models, decision support tools and working modalities will be developed to
strengthen the implementations IWRM principles,

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  Developed and improved communicate and team work skills and cooperation, integration
and exchanges of data, information and knowledge among stakeholders and between the
basins Authority will be strengthened,
 Maintained the value of IWRM principles and be committed to engage with others,
 Had the empathy on water resource management challenges and be committed to come
with innovative solutions,
 Embraced the principles of sustainability of water resource management.
8. Monitoring and Evaluation Strategies.

The Authority and Texas A&M University are mainly responsible for ensuring that all funded
activities are carried out in accordance with the project’s performance and monitoring indicators.
The Project will comply with monitoring and evaluation (M&E) procedures as based upon the
agreements to be taken by the Authority and Texas A&M University. As part of the project
implementation plan (PIP), which will detail all the reporting requirements, a monitoring and
evaluation plan will be prepared to evaluate project progress. The Authority and Texas A&M
University will be responsible for project reporting according to the country and funder interest
and also institutional procedures. The components and emerging issues will be reviewed
regularly, and evaluated annually. There will be a number of reporting requirement as part of the
monitoring and evaluation, and supervision process:

 Project progress reports will be prepared semi-annually and annually.

 Mid-Term Review (MTR) complementing the basin planning and capacity building
efforts.
 Implementation Completion Report (ICR) will be prepared to see progress against
achievement of results.
9. Project cost

The project is primarily to facilitate the river basin planning process for the Abbay river basin
and its implementation in line with the concept of IWRM. This relates to capacity building and
strategic document preparation activities that cannot cover by government regular budgets. The
main cost elements that are related to the integrated capacity building project especially the costs
on studies, trainings and document preparation the necessary strategic costs for development and

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strategic alliance, and include all other activities relating to the implementation of IWRM
principles.

Therefore to accomplish the project objectives successfully the overall cost of the project is
estimated as ……………..USA Dollar. The request budget as per the project components is
summarized as:-

Component A: ……………..USA Dollar

Component B: ……………..USA Dollar

Component C: ……………..USA Dollar

Component D: ……………..USA Dollar

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