7.1 Introduction to the OWNP’s organisational structure

A programme of the size and scale of the OWNP needs an organised structure to ensure that activities are properly planned and implemented at all levels. An organisational structure describes relationships and defines how job tasks are formally subdivided, grouped and coordinated.

The general organisational structure for the OWNP is shown in Figure 7.1. From this diagram, you can see there are committees, teams and other groups who have responsibility for different aspects of the programme at all levels of administration from federal through regional and zonal to woredas, and towns and cities.

There are both horizontal and vertical organisational relationships between these groups. Vertical organisational relationships refer to the flow of information and decisions from the higher governmental organisations to the lower levels. An example of information in a vertical relationship could be a letter of invitation for refresher training of Health Extension Workers that would pass from the Federal Ministry of Health to the Regional Health Bureau and then to the woreda Health Office.

Horizontal organisational relationships describe the links between groups at a similar level, for example between ministries, between regional bureaus, or between woreda offices. The small blobs in the diagram show the four WASH sectors which have a horizontal relationship between them at each level. An example here could be a request for professional support from a Regional Bureau of Health to the Bureau of Water in the same region to supervise the construction of public latrines.

The four main column headings in Figure 7.1 describe the four areas of responsibility within the OWNP. The following sections of this study session explain the organisational structure under each of these headings in more detail.

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Figure 7.1 Organisational structure of the OWNP. (Adapted from WIF, 2011, OWNP, 2013 and POM, 2014)