Amref Health Africa Launches Project to Scale-up Family Planning in Drought Prone and Chronically Food Insecure areas in Ethiopia

Partnering with WE-Action and Kulich Youth Reproductive Health and Development Organisation, Amref Health Africa in Ethiopia launched a five million Euro project dubbed ‘Scaling up Family Planning for Resilience Building’ funded by the European Union.

Implemented in Oromia, Amhara, Afar and SNNPR regions, the project aims to improve social cohesion, productive capacity and self-reliance of women and youth, and ensure sustainable access to sexual, reproductive health and family planning services in 16 woredas of Borona, Waghimra, Afar-Zone one, Wolaita and South Omo zones where drought is recurrent and food security is a challenge.

Speaking at the launch event, Advisor to State Minister for Programmes at the Ministry of Health, Dr Sileshi Gorma said health system related challenges hamper progress towards ending the preventable maternal and child deaths in Ethiopia. These include poor health infrastructure, high shortage of human resources, limited access to relevant health technologies and now again recurrence of drought and conflicts, as well as the COVID-19 pandemic.

Aligned with the government priorities, the project will create access to socio-economic opportunities and quality family planning and sexual reproductive health services, thereby contributing to the country’s efforts to reduce maternal and child death in target districts.

Acknowledging the achievements of Amref Health Africa in successfully delivering previous European Union supported interventions, the European Union Delegate, Dominique Dovoux stated the current five million Euro grant to Amref and its consortium partners is a recognition of the tangible achievements of the previous phase and also trust that this new project will facilitate the demographic transition in Ethiopia based on a gender equality strategy.

Deputy Country Director of Amref Health Africa in Ethiopia, Dr Sentayehu Tsegaye on his part remarked, “Family planning is one of the highest impact interventions that address socio-economic determinants of health, in addition, to directly contributing to the reduction of maternal and child health. This project will help address both health and socio-economic determinants by supporting women and youth empowerment in target districts of the four regions.”

Amref Health Africa in Ethiopia has been implementing the European Union funded interventions in several regions and districts of the country since 2008. Over the next three years, it will implement the ‘Scaling up Family Planning for Resilience Building’ project in close partnership with the Ministry of Health, relevant regional government sector bureaus and other implementing partners.

Source: Amref Health Africa