AWS Ethiopia
Water Stewardship - Our clothing supply chains, supporting hundreds of thousands of workers, and growing Ethiopia’s economy
March 2020
The Ethiopian Industrial Parks Development Corporation have committed to implementing the Alliance for Water Stewardship (AWS) Standard. Their Chief Executive, Ms Lelise Neme recognizes both the opportunities and the compelling need to secure cost effective and long-term management of water risks at their industrial parks and in their catchments. AWS will be at the core of supporting Ethiopia’s ambitions to grow a sustainable apparel and textiles sector to deliver economic and societal benefits across the country.
Water Witness are supporting Ethiopia’s efforts on water stewardship and the energy and activity has been increasing significantly in recent months. Our team (ALP Synergy Ltd) joined with Water Witness in December when they co-hosted the African Water Stewardship Leaders Forum in Addis Ababa, and provided AWS training for more than 30 Ethiopian professionals. This training, delivered by Mark Dent, was the catalyst that was needed in Ethiopia. Water Witness and the Industrial Parks Development Corporation (IPDC) made plans to implement the AWS Standard at Hawassa Industrial Park, and other priority industrial parks the following week.
Fast forward to the end of February 2020 and Ant Parsons and Lesley Parsons were back in Addis Ababa with Nick Hepworth (Exec Director Water Witness) and Shona Jenkins (International Programme Officer, Water Witness) doing the final preparations for implementing the AWS Standard at Hawassa Industrial Park. With the full backing of the Ethiopian Government (The Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia) through the Ministry of Trade and Industry, the Industrial Parks Development Corporation are being very ambitious,
‘The AWS Standard should be implemented first at Hawassa Industrial Park, and then at four other Industrial Parks, with all five parks achieving certification before the end of 2020.’
To put this ambition into context, Hawassa Industrial Park covers an area of 140 hectares, has multiple investors (tenants) and provides more than 30,000 jobs. Add four more parks hundreds of kilometres apart and this is applying the AWS Standard at an unprecedented scale.
Our approach was designed to work with the staff and managers from each Industrial Park, taking them step by step through the AWS Standard, exploring what it meant for their facility, their community and their catchment. With 24 participants, our experience of delivering interactive workshops and training helped enormously, to allow our team to apply and share their water stewardship knowledge. The AWS Standard and Guidance were the foundations for the discussions and group work, with each park team exploring what they would need to do to embrace water stewardship and demonstrate compliance.
A bonus for IPDC and our team was the fact that Indochine Apparel PLC sent their team to join the workshop, so that they could implement the AWS Standard for their site within Hawassa Industrial Park.
Using the AWS Standard as a guide, the workshop explored all aspects of water stewardship in the context of Hawassa and the four other parks. Site inspections and Community visits were carried out across Hawassa to explore important water related areas, water balance challenges and the status of WASH. The most important water related area in this part of the Rift Valley is Lake Hawassa, only a few kilometres away from the Industrial Park and a critical asset to the local community and economy.
A stakeholder consultation workshop was held on the Thursday as a vital step in the development of the water stewardship action plan at Hawassa Industrial Park, ensuring that it reflected shared water and climate-related challenges. Local and regional authorities, representatives from the local private sector, community based organisations and universities were invited to attend. Forty-eight stakeholders attended and benefitted from a range of presentations and discussions in Amharic to ensure they could all engage.
By the end of the week, each Industrial Park, and Indochine, had developed the first draft of their AWS Water Stewardship Plan’s. They knew where they had gaps in their understanding, they were making plans for further stakeholder engagement, and were starting to think about the funding they would need to secure for necessary actions. Our team agreed plans for providing ongoing support for the Industrial Park staff on their journey.
There was a real excitement amongst the Industrial Park staff we worked with about the potential value of the work they were doing, not just for their Industrial Parks and their communities, but also the potential to share the outcomes and lessons internationally to drive policy and practice change for sustainable and inclusive development. Ethiopia and the IPDC have a lot of work to do to embrace water stewardship and secure AWS Certification at their Industrial Parks, but they have taken many strong steps forward.
As members of the AWS, Water Witness lead the strategic and technical application of water stewardship across Africa by supporting the establishment of AWS Africa. Their offices in Addis Ababa will be opening very soon to provide more support and to continue to build momentum on water stewardship across Africa. The ALP Synergy Ltd team each have 20+ years of experience in water stewardship with a background in environmental regulation. Their portfolio of work includes innovative and collaborative programmes and projects which connect businesses, researchers, policy makers and wider stakeholders to help solve some of the world’s sustainable development challenges.