November 2008: UCBP Evaluation Meeting Concluded Successfully

The annual evaluation meeting of the University Capacity Building Program (UCBP) was held on Thursday, 20 November 2008 at the Ministry of Capacity Building (MoCB). It was chaired by the Minister, H.E Ato Tefera Waluwa. Ato Wondwossen Kiflu, State Minister of Education, Dr. Elmar Kleiner, Director of GTZ IS, Mr. Stefan Helming, Director of GTZ IS Ethiopia and Mr Martin Hansen, Director of UCBP, were among the participants of the meeting.

The outputs and the impacts of UCBP from its commencement until 30 October 2008 were presented by the Director of the project, Mr. Martin Hansen.

The client mentioned the following positive outputs and impacts achieved by the UCBP:

• Tendering and contracting of buildings has significantly progressed. Almost all lots have been contracted. The remaining lots will be contracted until the end of December 2008.
• A professional system to monitor and evaluate the construction progress has been installed at head office level in Addis, and has now to fully reach all the 15 UCBP sites.
• The “Center of Excellence for Engineering” (CEE) has been kick-started under the GTZ IS leadership by training national skill up-graders to act as multipliers on the UCBP construction sites and beyond.
• The cobblestone project has mobilized people throughout the country. In November 2008, 20,000 formerly unskilled and semi-skilled workers are now employed. The initiative has the capacity to employ up to 500,000 people countrywide.
• An effective cooperative training model has been successfully installed in Nekemte.
• Technology transfer with regard to treatment plant technology has been initiated successfully.
• Significant improvements with regard to Public Relation activities have been achieved.
• The reduction of the over head and profit margin within the UCBP prove that it is possible to work with 15% OHP (instead of 35%). For the relatively remoter sites in Robe, Mizan and Tepi a flexible scheme must be applied.

Dr. Elmar Kleiner stated that he was very satisfied about the good progress made, the excellent team spirit amongst all pertinent parties, and the openness on all sites for further improvements.

The challenge for the future now is to scale up all activities at all levels of interventions at all sites, and beyond.