Browsing by Author "Abraham, Mahlet"

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    The Role of Men in Achieving Gender Equality and Promoting Adolescents Sexual Reproductive Health: The Case of Hiwot Ethiopia
    (Addis Ababa University, 2009-06) Abraham, Mahlet
    This study is conducted on a small indigenous organization called Hiwot Ethiopia, who aims to achieve gender equality and promote ASRH by focusing on men. The main objective of the study is to view the role of these men/boys practitioners who actively participate in the project serving as mediators between the organization and the beneficiaries to achieve the objective of the project. The role of men practitioners in the project is evaluated in this study, through their pelformances and activities that they have conducted through out the project cycle. To conduct the study, both qualitative and quantitative methodologies are employed. Accordingly, questionnaire is distributed to the total population of 60 practitioners, while interview is conducted with 31 men practitioners of the project. Moreover, 10 women practitioners have participated in focus group discussion, while additional in-depth interview is conducted with 4 purposely selected staff of the organization. Findings of the study show that, only few of these men participated during the problem identification, while none of them took part in designing the project. However, it is noted practitioners are highly involved in implementing and conducting M&E in the project. In addition, it is learnt through the study that the organization involves young boys and parents in coffee ceremony discussions, edutainment programs and different discussion sessions, so as the issue of sexual reproductive health, masculinity, femininity and gender inequality are addressed and communicated to the beneficiaries. However, there are certain weaknesses observed during this study that should be addressed by the organization to strengthen the participation of these men so as to achieve gender equality and promote ASRH. In order to run the program effectively and to increase the commitment of the practitioners, it is recommended that the organization needs to allocate enough budget, in addition it needs to monitor and observe the pelformance of the practitioners more closely so as to enhance their contribution in attaining what is required.
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    Study of Contractors Materials Management in Private Building Construction Projects-A Study of Selected Building Sites, in Addis Ababa
    (Addis Ababa University, 2016-12) Abraham, Mahlet; Dinku, Abebe(Professor)
    Material management is a very important and vital aspect for every company since construction materials usually constitute a major portion of the total cost in a building construction project. In the study, the current material management practice, problems of material management, strategies for effective material management, congestion of site due to improper placement of materials as well as the ICT tools used for managing materials on building construction site were explored. A semi-structured interview was administered to respondents in ten different construction sites in each sub-city of Addis Ababa. The studies explored the current material management practice in terms of the material requirement planning, procurement, handling, inventory control, quality control and surplus materials. The findings reveal that the material schedule was not in alignment with the master schedule also reveals that the tasks of material management are under different departments making the control and identification difficult. Late delivery of materials was the major problem of poor material management. The attitude of the society, no proper procedure before mobilization, the urgency to meet the schedule, accepting rework and having no system for improvement or change were the reasons for the congestion of site. Putting into consideration the problems of material management, the study explored some of the strategies for effective materials management such as: the use of pre-fabrication, effective planning of site layout, the use of ready mixed concrete. Furthermore, the ICT tools used for managing materials in building construction projects were explored which the interviewees explained using the common basic ICT tools: Microsoft Excel Spreadsheet and phones. The ICT tools which can be one-off the tools for facilitating material management were not used due lack of awareness. The study indicated that before making any drastic change either be it in ICT or any other, first the construction industry need to accept the congestion of site due to in proper placement of materials as a problem. After accepting the problem, the use of the Kaizen five approach could be applied which are: Sort (sort what is needed and remove the rest), Straighten (make things visible, location can be readily identified), Scrub (Clean to provide a pleasing appearance), Spread (Clean/check, give training and improve the work area), and Standardization and Selfdiscipline (Establish schedule to clean and straighten the area)