COWASH

Community-led Accelerated WASH in Ethiopia (COWASH) is a sector support programme (2011-2015) based in the Ministry of Water and Energy being implemented by consultants Ramboll with the technical support of IRC, and funded by the Government of Finland. It aims to scale up the successful Community Development Fund (CDF) approach to financing and delivering rural water supplies. This has been recognized as a new financing modality (known now as the Community Managed Project CMP approach) and involves communities contracting the services needed to develop their water points, micro-finance banks routing money needed for investment to communities, and local government developing a supporting and facilitating role. IRC currently has provided short-term consultancy inputs focusing on strategic and communications issues. A dedicated CMP website has been established at www.cmpethiopia.org