Ethiopia

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Strengthening health systems and improving public health since 2003.

  • Jhpiego contributed to more than a doubling of the total health workforce in the public sector—from 106,991 in 2012 to 222,728 in 2018—thereby bringing preventive health and care and treatment services to many more Ethiopians.
  • More than 200,000 women delivered their babies with a skilled attendant at Jhpiego-supported health care facilities.
  • An innovative, onsite approach to training health care workers in postpartum family planning was introduced to reduce interruptions at health care facilities; as a result, services at maternity wards are not disrupted by staff absences, and clients receive better care.
  • In Gambella Region, more than 100,000 adolescent and adult males received safe, high-quality voluntary medical male circumcision services, thereby benefiting from this procedure’s protective benefit against HIV.

Our Work in Ethiopia

With funding from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), RISE is working in select countries, including Ethiopia, to address the COVID-19 pandemic. In line with ministry of health priorities in each country, RISE’s COVID-19 response support may include: assisting in the planning and rollout of national vaccine plans, including ensuring health care workers are prepared to implement and monitor this plan; providing focused and clinically relevant capacity building for clinicians providing COVID-19 case management; strengthening the oxygen ecosystem; and supporting health care workers in oxygen conservation, rationalization and non-invasive respiratory care.

RISE is a five-year global project—funded by the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) and USAID—that works with countries to achieve a shared vision of attaining and maintaining epidemic control, with stronger local partners capable of managing and achieving results through sustainable, self-reliant and resilient health systems. The project is led by Jhpiego with the following partners: ICAP at Columbia University, Management Sciences for Health, Anova, BAO Systems, Johns Hopkins University Center for Public Health and Human Rights, and Mann Global Health. For the COVID-19 ventilator technical assistance effort, RISE is also collaborating with the University of California San Francisco, World Federation of Societies of Anesthesiologists (via the GH STAR project), FHI 360 (via the EpiC Project) and Johns Hopkins University emergency medicine and critical care staff.

Jhpiego is implementing this five-year program, funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development, to provide support in addressing critical human resources challenges in Ethiopia’s health sector. HWIP works with various partners—including the Ministry of Health and Ministry of Science and Higher Education at national and sub-national levels, higher education institutes that provide health care education, and targeted health worker professional associations—to improve the quality of Ethiopia’s health workforce. In addition to providing technical assistance to optimize Ethiopia’s health workforce, the program seeks to reduce gender disparities in the health workforce by: 1) addressing gender challenges during health workforce development, deployment and management; and 2) working with gender offices in higher education institutes to provide appropriate technical and financial incentives to overcome gender barriers. Jhpiego is also delivering structural interventions to ensure that gains are sustainable and Ethiopia’s health workforce will be available, accessible and capable of delivering quality health care services that meet the Government of Ethiopia’s goal of providing universal health care to all citizens. As a result of these interventions, Ethiopia’s health workforce will be better qualified, better managed and more motivated to provide effective health care services to all segments of the Ethiopian population. The Jhpiego-led consortium implementing this program includes Management Sciences for Health, AMREF, Ethiopian Midwives Association, Ethiopian Medical Association, Ethiopian Association of Anesthetist and Ethiopian Nursing Association.

Under this initiative, funded by the UBS Optimus Foundation, Jhpiego is strengthening safe surgery in Ethiopia for improved surgical outcomes. In collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Health, Jhpiego is building the clinical capacity of surgical teams in 30 regional and national facilities in over 11 regions in Ethiopia, which comprise over 80% of surgical volume. In addition, Jhpiego is: 1) providing continuous blended mentorship of hospital/primary health care unit surgical teams; 2) strengthening the efficiency and management of operation theaters; 3) building capacity to use real-time data; 4) generating research evidence; and 5) conducting knowledge sharing workshops for teams to learn from each other.

Under this project, Jhpiego is supporting the provision of voluntary medical male circumcision (VMMC) services for military members and their dependents, while also strengthening the capacity of the Ethiopian National Defense Force to sustain a safe and effective VMMC program, including early infant male circumcision. Jhpiego is conducting VMMC campaigns, training and supervising VMMC providers, and supporting VMMC service-related data collection, reporting and use. This four-year project is funded by the U.S. Department of Defense under the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief.

With funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Jhpiego is developing an ANC/PNC innovations and implementation research platform. This initiative is designed to strengthen ANC/PNC service delivery through implementation research in Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi and Mali, and to disseminate learnings globally. The primary expected outcomes include earlier entry by pregnant women into ANC/PNC care; increased continuity of care; improved quality of care; and an improved understanding of key risk factors, vulnerabilities and morbidity/mortality outcomes. The research collective unifies multiple teams under a single collective, comprised of the following partners: Jhpiego, Harvard School of Public Health, Child Health and Mortality Prevention Surveillance (CHAMPS), RTI International, Christian Medical College Vellore, DAI, the World Health Organization, CARE/India and the University of Manitoba. As part of this collective, Jhpiego is: 1) conducting implementation research on innovative service delivery models and tools in three countries; 2) serving as technical advocacy lead by synthesizing data and findings across the collective to inform an evidence package; and 3) providing technical assistance, as needed, as collective partners conceptualize, design, implement and test new service delivery models. Jhpiego is also partnering with the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health Biostatistics Center and Department of International Health for support with statistical analysis, data management and implementation research design.

The Health Workforce for the 21st Century Project (HW21) is a multi-country initiative funded by the U.S. Health Resources and Systems Administration under the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief. HW21 supports country-level programs to address key human resources for health system barriers to achieving 95-95-95 goals (i.e., 90% of people living with HIV knowing their HIV status, 90% of people who know their status on treatment, and 90% of people on treatment with suppressed viral loads). This support is provided through technical and implementation assistance as well as research, analysis and sharing of results to inform program implementation. In Ethiopia, HW21 works in collaboration with Ethiopia Public Health Institute to strengthen capacity of viral load testing sites through infrastructure support, training of staff, equipment maintenance and continuous supportive supervision to ensure laboratory quality improvement and workflow.

Funded by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), this five-year project builds upon activities funded by CDC to support Global Health Security through implementation of programs and activities that focus on protecting and improving health globally through partnerships with Ministries of Health and other institutions. With an initial emphasis on addressing the COVID-19 pandemic, the project is supporting countries—including Ethiopia— as well as regional work in West Africa and South America to improve prevention of avoidable epidemics, including naturally occurring outbreaks and intentional or accidental releases of dangerous pathogens; improve ability to detect threats early; and respond rapidly and effectively to public health threats of international concern. The project is being implemented by a Jhpiego-led consortium that includes the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, Global Scientific Solutions for Health, and Johns Hopkins University Center for Global Health.