On October 20 2022, Austrian Red Cross (AutRC) East Africa team held the Skybird II planning meeting in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Representatives from HQs and AutRC delegation staff attended the meeting in person . Additional AutRC team also joined the meeting online.
Manuel Lackmaier, Regional Programme Manager for East Africa at AutRC, gave a presentation on the achievements, and the learnings and reflections. Participants provided their inputs on the impact of Skybird I Programme at organizational level, at administration/finance level, at project implementing countries, at the implemented micro-projects and in the national society development (NSD).
It was noted that Skybird I contributed in capacity strengthening at national and branch level in the area of project proposal writing and pitching a proposal, which could create an opportunity for national and branch offices to be able to develop proposals and look for funding from other sources. The program also positioned AutRC to play vital role on WASH in the region.
Participants worked in groups to identify areas to be considered under the Skybird II Programme by listing out the components of the current Skybird that they would like to continue with, the components of the current Skybird that they would like to change and new components that they would like to integrate into the Skybird ll Programme.
On October 21 2022, Ethiopia Red Cross Society (ERCS) representatives joined the Austrian Red Cross East Africa team. Gashaw Dagne, Health and WASH manager at ERCS, gave presentation on the micro projects (Cycle 1 and Cycle 2) implemented in Ethiopia under the Skybird I Programme, their major impacts and the challenges encountered.
Temesgen Geremew, Program manager at AutRC Country Office in Ethiopia, and Manuel Lackmaier, Regional Programme Manager for East Africa at AutRC, facilitated further discussions on the achievements and lessons learned from the two cycle micro projects. Variety of the micro projects and the capacity building gained from implementing the project was positively noted and improvements in the area of gender balance, PGI, knowledge transfer and documentation, cross border collaboration and linkage with other programs were pointed out as an input for Skybird II planning.
Milanoi Koiyiet, Senior PGI Officer at IFRC, provided presentation on the approach of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) in addressing issues of protection, gender and inclusion (PGI). The gap in addressing PGI at different level and the misconception of considering PGI to be the responsibility of PGI focal person was raised. The team agreed the need to integrate PGI from the very beginning of the Skybird II proposal development.
The meeting ended after a closing remark by Abraham Gossaye, Head of Country Office to Ethiopia at AutRC. Following, similar planning meeting will be held in Uganda.