Exhibition in Germany “GTZ IS Ethiopia programme goes international”

It is a huge programme, employing more than 500 national and 100 international staff members, involving the majority of the Ethiopian construction sector with more than 600 small, medium and large companies, leading around 50 of them to ISO 9001:2000 certification. With 60.000 students already on campuses, the University Capacity Building Program (UCBP) is well known throughout Ethiopia and since July 2009, also present in Germany.

Sitting on a chair from Debre Birhan University, one has a good view over photos, texts and university campus master plans in the German Architectural Museum (DAM) in Frankfurt. The interested public can not only read about capacity development, the cobblestone project or ten types of buildings within the UCBP, but also re-shape their image of Ethiopia while learning about the country’s long history, the Rastafaris and the unique Ethiopian calendar.

The exhibition opened in Frankfurt on 17.07.2009 with speeches from the Consul General of Ethiopia, Ato Worku Erge, as well as from the Managing Director of GTZ, Mr Wolfgang Schmitt. Elaborating the long-lasting and special friendship between Ethiopia and Germany, Ato Worku Erge also described lively the flora and fauna of his country. Mr Schmitt highlighted the importance of transporting German soft skills to Ethiopia, such as precision, reliability and punctuality, and also strengthened that all this would be useless without the willingness of German colleagues to be not only teachers, but also pupils in Ethiopia. Learning is not a One Way Street- and we see this in Germany, where many people are interested to learn about the country on the Horn of Africa, as well as in Ethiopia, where Ethio-German cooperation enables thousands of pupils to study.