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About
470,000 Ethiopian children die each year before
their fifth birthday—almost one every minute.
This tragic fact places Ethiopia sixth among the
countries of the world in terms of absolute number
of child deaths. And yet, there are effective and
proven tools which can be used to achieve the Millennium
Development Goal of reducing child deaths by two-thirds
by 2015. These tools are within the reach of every
country, provided necessary commitment and resources
are made available, and tools and services are adjusted
to the conditions of the country.
In all regions, health profiles of the ESHE focus
zones and cluster woredas have been produced to
be used by regional and local staff in planning
trainings and assisting in monitoring and decision-making.
To
address these situations, ESHE is supporting the
Federal Ministry of Health (FMoH), and Amhara, Oromia,
and SNNP regions to improve:
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Download
National Child Survival Strategy Document (pdf 271KB) |
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| Immunization |
Immunization
is a cornerstone program in reducing child deaths. WHO
estimates that one in four children’s
lives can be saved through the full EPI series
of vaccines compared with the pre-vaccination
era. In 2004, national DPT3 coverage was 62%.
This must be raised to above 90% to gain the
maximum benefits for Ethiopia’s children.
ESHE is working to increase immunization program
performance and build capacity of service providers
through refresher trainings in the Expanded
Program for Immunization (EPI). ESHE’s
goal is to scale-up to reach all frontline health
workers in the 64 target woredas, while also
working to achieve expanded impact of training
and information in non-focus zones and woredas
of the three regions.
Once
trainings were launched, the project realized
the need for shorter yet comprehensive EPI refresher
training manuals. Existing EPI
modules from WHO, BASICS, and several countries
were consulted to design materials that address
Ethiopia’s major refresher training needs.
Materials included the development of the EPI
Training of Trainers Facilitator’s Guide.
Products were field-tested and used for trainings
by the three regional ESHE offices. Refresher
trainings are given in all ESHE focus regions,
zones, and woredas during the year. Working
in the three largest regions and coordinating
at the Federal level, ESHE is becoming a major
partner in Ethiopia’s immunization program.
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| Nutrition |
In Ethiopia, malnutrition is the underlying
cause of approximately 57% of all deaths of
children under age five.. Chronic malnutrition
plagues half of Ethiopia’s children. Child
malnutrition has its roots in sub-optimal breastfeeding
practices, delay in start of adequate complementary
feeding, and insufficient intake of essential
micronutrients, such as vitamin A. Malnutrition
in Ethiopia continues to be a significant concern.
ESHE collaborated with the LINKAGES
Project to institutionalize nutrition promotive
activities and build the capacity of the regional,
zonal, woreda, and health facility staff in
Essential Nutrition Actions (ENA) approach in
the three focus regions. ENA is designed to
integrate key nutrition interventions into common
contacts with the health system. ESHE, and LINKAGES
Projects focus on optimal breastfeeding, complementary
feeding and vitamin A.
LINKAGES
assisted ESHE in training 383 regional teams
and Regional Health Bureau staff in 12 ENA Training
of Trainers (TOTs) and provided the necessary
training materials for nutrition training roll-outs
during the year. Planned TOTs at regional and
zonal levels were completed during the 2005
Project Year. In 2006, frontline health service
delivery staff at facilities and communities
will be trained to strengthen implementation
of ENA strategies.
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