Project description

Title: Engineering Capacity Building Programme (ECBP)
Commissioned by: German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ)
Country: Ethiopia
Lead executing agency: Ethiopian Ministry of Civil Service (MoCS)
Overall term: 2005 to 2012 (planned)

Context

Thanks to an ambitious industrial policy, Ethiopia has enjoyed annual economic growth rates of 10 % or more in recent years. The government is committed to modernising the economy and integrating it in the global economic system. By improving the quality of education and the conditions for employment creation it also aims to improve living conditions. However, the development of the private sector is still constrained in terms of capacity, functioning systems and the commercial environment.

The Engineering Capacity Building Programme (ECBP) was launched in November 2005 to enhance the role of the industrial sector as a source of employment and economic growth, and to improve its contribution to the country's international trade. This bilateral Ethiopian-German programme forms the core of the priority area of sustainable economic development. It supports the Government of Ethiopia in introducing nationwide reforms that are indispensable to the industrial development of the whole country.

Objective

In promoted economic sectors, where there is high potential for employment and value addition, the competitiveness of enterprises has improved significantly.

Approach

The Ethiopian Government is focusing its resources on six key industrial sectors that are vital to the economy and which promise to be competitive in the global market. These are agricultural processing, textiles, construction, leather goods, pharmaceuticals/chemicals and metals. The programme is reforming the teaching of engineering, both in universities and in the vocational education and training system. By doing so, it is improving the standard of the graduates and their capacity to absorb new technologies, while also equipping them better to meet the needs of the labour market. At the same time, improvements in the quality infrastructure (standards, assessment etc.) are helping the country's goods to meet international standards more consistently.

The programme is using these reforms to promote private industrial sector development, thereby enhancing growth and employment. It is identifying and improving value chains in the various industrial sectors, and contributing to improved performance, value addition and competitiveness. The ECBP cooperates with enterprises, universities, and technical and vocational institutions, and encourages the use of quality infrastructure systems. Systemic reforms and capacity development form the core of this industrial development programme. The reforms are being implemented in the country's universities and technical and vocational education and training (TVET) colleges, and in private industry.

Results achieved so far

• The industrial sector has grown by about 10 % since 2000, even during the period of global economic decline in 2009/10.
• A number of European companies, such as ARA, Otto Kessler and Pittards in the leather sector, and Africa Juice, Original Foods and Solino in the agro-processing sector, have invested in production facilities in Ethiopia following intervention by ECBP.
• Direct contributions by the programme to encourage leather shoe exports, such as investment promotion and matchmaking, have reached close to 30 % of the overall shoe industry.
• Textile exports have risen by over 200 % since 2006/7, bringing the total value to more than USD 40 million.
• In terms of import substitution, revenues in the pharmaceutical sector grew by 300 % from 2006 to 2010 following ECBP intervention.
• More than 1,800 TVET teachers have successfully completed their training.
• 31 engineering teachers have attained international-level educational qualifications.
• Coffee, honey and sesame are now being produced organically, and more than USD 300,000 worth of produce are already exported to Germany.
• For the first time, Ethiopian companies can now obtain ISO 9001 certification locally from an internationally accredited body.
• 27,000 apprenticeships have been created in the construction sector.
• The introduction of cobblestones in road construction has created local employment for about 80,000 people. It is now being implemented countrywide by other national and international organisations, in response to private demand.

Further information

• Engineering Capacity Building Program (ECBP)
  www.ecbp.biz

Partner

• KfW Entwicklungsbank (KfW development bank)
  http://www.kfw-entwicklungsbank.de
• Centre for International Migration and Development
  http://www.cimonline.de
• Senior Experten Service
  www.ses-bonn.de
• German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD)
  http://www.daad.de
• sequa gGmbH
  www.sequa.de
• Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB)
  www.ptb.de