On November 27, 2024, a two-member JST evaluation team visited Jinka to review the progress of the project’s final year.
After arriving at Jinka Airport with President Kusse of Jinka University , the group headed for Jinka University and visited the President’s office. Based on the report on the results of the MNGD Project International Symposium held in Addis Ababa, the group confirmed the destinations to be visited in Jinka.
After that, they visited the MNGD project’s full-scale driving test site on the Jinka University campus and the grinding machine installation shed to see how the grinding machine crushes sugarcane bagasse.
On the 28th, the following day, they first went to the road in front of B Village Primary School, where a demonstration construction was carried out in 2019; a repair demonstration was also carried out in 2022, and they saw how the road has continued to be used by residents without any collapse to the current day.
Then, they visited the second demonstration site (the road from village B to the helth centre. The request of the residents) and checked the areas where the celldoron were mixed. With their counterparts from Jinka University acting as interpreters, the JST assessment team interacted with village officials and residents who actually took part in the work. They also visited a ditch bridge (pipe culvert) constructed with the cooperation of the South ERA.
On the afternoon of 28 April, they travelled in the opposite direction to the route visited in the morning (from the Health Centre to Village B) and experienced the walking difficulties of the Black Cotton Soil on foot. They then visited the South Omo Research Centre to view a special exhibition about the MNGD project. In the centre’s exhibition space, Mr Mohammed (MNGD short-term trainee in 2023) explained not only the MNGD special exhibition, but also the ethnic groups living in South Omo Zone.
