LWF WORLD SERVICE ETHIOPIA VISITOR S BRIEF GAMBELLA FIELD OFFICE

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Mervin Blake
5 years ago
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1 MAP OF ETHIOPIA AND PROJECT LOCATION 1

2 BRIEF INTRODUCTION OF THE PROJECT AREA Adorned with abundant natural resources; the stunning landscapes, rivers, rolling lands and rare wild animals, the Gambella Peoples' National Regional State is a foot stall of the south western part of the country. The region is where five native ethnic groups and many others live together in harmony. Gambella is the town 777 km away from Addis, split by a river Baro with glamorous feature. According to the CSA data, 2013 the population of the region reached 396,000, of whom 46.65% Nuer, 21% Agnuak, 4% Majang, 0.32% Opuo and 0.02% Komoe and the rest 26% inhabitants from other ethnics. The region, having the altitudinal elevation varying from msal and 500 msal in the heart of the town, is stretched over an area of 25,274 Km 2. Administratively it is organized in 3 zones, 13 woredas, 241 KAs, 1 special woreda and, 1 town administration and bordered by Oromia in the North and East, Benishangul in the North West, Republic of Sudan and South Sudan in South and SNNPR in the South East corner. An extreme hot weather conditions, with only 3.95% of its moderate temperature, takeover in the months of January, February, March, April and May. The economy of Gambella Regional State is based on Agriculture; pastoral, beekeeping, fishery and imported industrial products. Agriculture is practiced mainly by Anuak making it the larger part of the state economy; Pastoralism is practiced mainly by Nuers and at lower scale by other ethnic groups including Anuaks and Beekeeping is practiced by Mezenger, Opuo, Kommo. The Agriculture based livelihood system is an attractive part of the broader culture of the society. And yet, there are some elements that plagued livelihood unsustainable: natural and man-made disasters including conflict, the scattered settlement, seasonal movement of people and contradictory wealth accumulations etc. are factors that made the people more vulnerable to shocks. The whole Gambella region is Ethiopia s border to South Sudan. Due to the geographic and the socio-cultural proximity of Gambella with South Sudan, the region is home to 269,554 South Sudanese refugees. There are 5 refugee camps and 5 transit centres in Gambella. Located in Abobo district, Jewii refugee camp hosts 49,077 refugees. Refugees in Jewii were originally settled in Leitchour refugee camp in Gambella for more than fifteen months until it was closed due to heavy flooding. 2

3 VISITOR'S BRIEF DETAILS: Full Name of visitor: Organization/Country: Duration of stay: Accommodation: PROJECT DETAILS: There are two projects currently being implemented by LWF Ethiopia in Jewii refugee camp Project titles: 1. Livelihoods and Psychosocial Support to South Sudanese Refugees in the Jewii Camp and the Host communities in the area 2. Livelihoods support to South Sudanese Refugees in the Jewii Camp and the Host communities in the area Project No: and Project location: Jewii refugee camp, Gambella Distance from Addis Ababa: 777 km South East of the capital, Addis Ababa. GPS coordinates (Gambella town): N and E Climate: Average Daily Temperature: C and Rainfall 735mm mm 3

4 Elevation: 500 m.a.s.l Project period: CoS/SIDA June 1, 2016 April 31, 2017 CLWR June 1, October 30, 2016 Funding partners: Church of Sweden (CoS) and Canadian Lutheran World Relief (CLWR) Total population in Jewii refugee camp: 49,077 (as of July, 2016) LWF Ethiopia's reach (plan): 4,550 refugees and 705 host communities MAJOR ACTIVITIES PLANNED AND EXECUTED BY EXPECTED RESULT: Livelihoods and Psychosocial Support to South Sudanese Refugees in the Jewii Camp and the Host communities in the area Result 1: Access to agricultural / livestock / fisheries production enabled Result 2: Access to self-employment / small scale business facilitated Result 3: Refugees and host community members are supported to peacefully co-exist and cope with mental health and psychosocial problems 4

5 OVERALL PROGRESS: LWF WORLD SERVICE ETHIOPIA Some preparatory and progresses of activities have been recorded since the inception of the project in June The most important ones include that: Letter of Understanding (LoU) signing was initiated with ARRA in May by sharing the project document. Project coordinator, 2 livelihood officers and 1 psychosocial officer were placed; recruitment of community workers from Gambella finalized ; animators and psychosocial assistants were identified The project was introduced to stakeholders at camp level Priority is given for multi-story and backyard gardening activity until end of September. Identification and selection of beneficiaries was done after collecting refugee fact sheet and livelihood beneficiary lists from ARRA, Mother and Children Multi -Sector Development Organization /MCMDO/, RaDO, Save The Children, NRC, IMC and other IPS. This was done to refine the beneficiary list by avoiding double counting, and include eligible refugees and vulnerable persons in the community Reporting templates for livelihood animators and psychosocial assistants were developed The annual work plan and procurement plan were reviewed and submitted to the country office Market assessment was conducted by the procurement committee /livelihood officer and project accountant/ within Gambella and from around kebeles for goat purchase In addition, project level operational arrangement was devised to reach the intended families of the refugees, to ease livelihood project implementation, and monitoring /measuring the impacts. To this end, - The 4 zones of the camp split into two zones to be managed by 2 livelihood officers - 5 Animators assigned in per zone to assist in the livelihood activities at HH level and 1 Community Development Worker to supervise about 12 animators in 2 zones - The project activities and proportional number of beneficiaries are distributed to each animator, CDW and respective officer for implementation, supervision, and monitoring respectively. - For psychosocial support 5 animators with community leaders assigned in all 4 zones to manage home to home visits and facilitate community conversation and other supports - The planning and reporting templates were developed and shared to all project actors to prepare weekly plan and progress report. - Biweekly meeting and monitoring is also set to be conducted at camp level by the project coordinator together with officers, CDW and animators. 5

6 PROGRESS AGAINST PROJECT EXPECTED RESULTS: Result 1: Access to agricultural / livestock / fisheries production enabled Result 2: Access to self-employment / small scale business facilitated Following the preparatory work the selection and placement of 20(6F) incentive workers was accomplished to facilitate the community services at camp. The livelihood animators have been selected from refugee using the criteria set by the participation of RCC, Zone leaders and ARRA and they are assigned to assist the livelihood project operation after appropriate induction. A three days training was organized and conducted on project working modalities and technical aspects such as MSG, poultry and 20(6F) animators participated to improve their knowledge and skill and assist the refugee community in the camp. Result 3: Refugees and host community members are supported to peacefully coexist and cope with mental health and psychosocial problems 5(2F) psychosocial assistance have been selected from refugee with the participation of RCC, Zone leaders and ARRA and assigned to assist in the psychosocial activities following the appropriate induction; One day awareness training is organized for 5(2F) psychosocial assistants and 10(4F) community representatives and religious leaders to support in community mobilization and home to home visits and CBPS services at community; After the training, 135 (123F) HH were visited in 4 zones by the psychosocial Assistants and the community representatives. Along this house-to-house visit 64 (60F) persons referred to ARRA Health Center for medication. One mental Health issue identified; Consecutive awareness raising scheme is being organized and underway to improve the skills and knowledge of animators on identifying the psychosocial cases, the signs and symptom of sever referral cases. 6

7 SUMMARY OF PROGRESS AGAINST INDICATORS The project is at early and preliminary implementation stage. No major project progress is achieved against indicators, but the implementation and monitoring system of the project are organized in such a way that would lead the actors to measure the project result against the indicators. Moreover, regular review of the project performance is devised to be made based on the periodic project plan at camp and office so as to ensure the achievement of the desired objectives. Office Address: Jewii South Sudanese Refugees Assistance Project Office Gambella Town, Gambella National Regional State Name of Primary Contact: Telephone No.: address: Tsegaye Abegaz, Project Coordinator (Cell phone) 7 abegazu2016@gmail.com

LWF World Service Ethiopia THE LUTHERAN WORLD FEDERATION. World Service. member of ANNUAL REPORT 2016/2017. Photo:LWF/Magnus Aronson

LWF World Service Ethiopia THE LUTHERAN WORLD FEDERATION. World Service. member of ANNUAL REPORT 2016/2017. Photo:LWF/Magnus Aronson THE LUTHERAN WORLD FEDERATION World Service LWF World Service Ethiopia member of ANNUAL REPORT 2016/2017 /Magnus Aronson CONTENT Presentation 4 Who we are 5 Where we are 9 LWF s intervention in 2016/2017