About ESHE

USAID's Essential Services for Health in Ethiopia (ESHE) is funded by the American people to improve child survival and reform the health sector in partnership with the Ethiopian Government. ESHE assists in 101 selected woredas serving 15 million people in Ethiopia's three most populous regions: Amhara, Oromia, and Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples’ (SNNP). In Amhara and Oromia, 20 woredas per region were selected for intervention (five woredas in each of four zones).

In SNNP, 24 woredas in five zones and two special woredas were selected for interventions, at the request of the Regional Health Bureau (RHB) to permit continuity of ESHE’s previous SNNP activities.

ESHE assists health offices in improving the quality and utilization of high-impact child survival interventions in the form of the Expanded Program of Immunization (EPI), Essential Nutrition Actions (ENA), and Integrated Management of Newborn and Childhood Illnesses (IMNCI). Key approaches include capacity building, community mobilization, and behavior change communication.

In health sector reform, ESHE works with the Federal Ministry of Health (FMoH), RHBs, and district offices to institute policy changes aimed at increasing resources to improve health service utilization. ESHE is examining health care financing and cost sharing.

ESHE activities are designed to extend beyond the boundaries of the focus kebeles and woredas in the three regions through trainings and sharing of materials. This expanded impact is already evident as different organizations and RHBs use ESHE training and behavior change materials in their area.

ESHE contributes to the achievement of the USAID/Ethiopia Mission’s Strategic Objective 14: Human Capacity and Social Resilience Increased by increasing the effective use of high-impact child health, family planning, and nutrition services, products, and practices (IR14.1).