The Water Resilient Green Cities in Africa (WGA) project of EiABC conducted a one-day local stakeholder meeting on May 8, 2014. The objectives of the workshop are to introduce the WGA project to local level stakeholders; to get some knowledge on the currently practiced strategies for coping with flood and drought in Addis; and to get the consent of local level stakeholders for participating in the WGA project activities. This workshop is the continuation of the city level workshop we conducted in January 2014.
The participants were drawn from the project site in the Little Akaki and Jemo catchment in Nefas Silk- Lafto and Kolfe- Keranyo subcities. Thirty-five participants from five woredas, community based organizations, Mekanissa urban farmer association and Mekanissa evangelical seminarium attended the workshop. Ato Yonas Ayalew, deputy head of the Construction and Housing Development Bureau of Addis Ababa opened the workshop and briefed the participants about the involvement of the city administration of Addis Ababa. He stressed that all stakeholders should collaborate and contribute to the success of the project.
At the workshop, Dr. Kumelachew Yeshitela, project director of WGA, briefed the participants about the objectives of the research project. Dr. Hailu Worku, a post-doc researcher at the project presented the “Food Problems of Addis Ababa”. Ato Abraham Workneh, city researcher at the project presented the WGA project catchment conditions and case study sites. Dr. Ketema Abebe (city researcher) and Ato Liku Workalemahu (PhD student) led the group exercise on “available strategies for coping with floods and droughts in Addis Ababa”.
