The Reporter (Addis Ababa)
Yelibenwork Ayele
1 December 2007
Addis Ababa — After five years as country director of GTZ Ethiopia, Axel Member will be leaving for Namibia at the end of December. His successor, Ulrich Mohr, who was director division of Agriculture, fisheries and food at the GTZ headquarters, will take over at the beginning of January.
The director said that GTZ had been working in Ethiopia for more than 30 years. Over the last five years, GTZ had an increase in the total project volume and number of staff in Ethiopia. In bilateral cooperation, the annual project volume gradually increased from 10 million euros in 2003 to about 14 ml euros this year.
Ulrich said that at the beginning of next year the Ethiopian and the German governments would carry out bilateral cooperation consultation. "We are looking forward to extending fruitful cooperation with our Ethiopian partners."
The consultation will focus on the three main programs of cooperation: urban government and decentralization program, sustainable utilization of natural resources for improved food security program and engineering capacity building program.
The engineering capacity building program would be the most important of the three areas of cooperation at the consultation because it is in the "center of the development" of the Ethiopian government program. "The German government is supporting it with a considerable amount of money and the Ethiopian government is also commissioning the GTZ to carry out a lot of activities in the area of engineering capacity building program. In combination with the university capacity building program, this is the main focal point of cooperation between Ethiopia and Germany," he said.
Along with the bilateral cooperation, GTZ also works in direct commissioning of federal Ethiopian ministries as well as international organizations like the World Bank, the European Union, and UNDP. These programs are carried out by a separate section, the GTZ International Services (GTZIS).
The largest program of GTZIS Ethiopia is the university capacity building program which is fully funded by the Ethiopian Ministry of Education. Other commissions of GTZIS in Ethiopia are health centers, low-cost housing and access to modern energy sources and the participation of civil society in the Protection of Basic Services Program.
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