Ethiopia has shown leadership in the field of nutrition by taking several significant actions to combat malnutrition, including committing to the Seqota Declaration, developing the Food and Nutrition Policy, and scaling up nutrition services. However, the prevalence of wasting is still high and many children require treatment—a large task for the health system that requires strengthening and strong coordination with humanitarian efforts and development partners.
Over the past year, Ethiopia’s Ministry of Health (MoH) developed a national wasting integration action plan to integrate the screening and treatment of child wasting into routine health services. Integration can help increase coverage and equity of services, ensure programmatic and financial sustainability, reduce costs and increase efficiencies. The process used in Ethiopia builds upon the global resource guide developed by UNICEF and Results for Development (R4D) which offers an easy-to-follow process for governments to identify integration actions that can help achieve program goals for the early detection and treatment of child wasting within routine primary health care systems.
The Ethiopia MoH, in collaboration with R4D, hosted a webinar to share experiences and next steps in the integration of wasting into routine primary health care. This webinar aimed to:
- Share the process to develop and operationalize a national action plan for integration of wasting into routine health care services in Ethiopia.
- Provide a platform for country representatives to share their experience and lessons learned which may be applicable to other country contexts.
- Call for action for rapid scale-up and increased coverage of early detection and treatment of wasting services.
Presenters and Panelists
- Dr. Wossen Negash, Associate Director, Nutrition, R4D
- Yosef Alemu, Ethiopia Country Director, R4D
- Hiwot Darsene, Lead CEO, Nutrition Coordination Office, MOH, Ethiopia
- Stanley Chitekwe, Chief of Nutrition Section, UNICEF Ethiopia
- Shibru Kelbessa, National Nutrition Program Officer, MoH, Ethiopia
- Gelila Zewdie, Senior Nutrition Advisor, MOH
- Dr. Sisay Sinamo Boltena, Senior Program Manager, Seqota Declaration
- Muluneh Girma, Head of Nutrition and Health Department, Action Against Hunger USA, Ethiopia mission
Watch the full recording below:
