Several African countries have expressed interest to replicate Ethiopia’s health extension programme.
They expressed the interest at the High Level African Ministerial Meeting on Investing in Human Resources for Sustainable Development that opened in Addis Ababa Friday.
“We have been hosting many of my fellow ministers from different African countries who are keen to learn from our flagship health extension programme. We have been working closely to introduce the programme in Namibia. We have also signed agreements with Uganda’s and South Sudan’s health minsters to do the same,” said Ethiopia’s Health minister Kesetebirhan Admasu.
The best strategy, said Dr Kesetebirhan, is to reach every community, indicating the six pillars for the success as leadership at all levels, community ownership, information (health literacy), organisational capacity, regulations and standards and model of care.
“Our health extension programme is all about giving the skills and knowledge to the community to take care of their own health. All of our neighbours, except from the north, want to do the same. We don’t just want them to do one day visit.
“We want to be the centre where you could learn and avoid making the mistakes we made at the beginning of the programme,” Dr. Kestebirhan said, revealing his plan to set up a primary health institute of Africa.
Human resources
In the past two years, delegations of health ministers from 17 African countries have visited Ethiopia to learn how the country was reaching the rural population with services, according to the Ministry of Health.
The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) Executive Director, Dr Babatunde Osotimehin, also applauded the Ethiopian health success.
“Governments have to be given the ability to pay, to train and to retain. If we don’t give them that ability, then we cannot go anywhere.
“Ethiopia has shone on us the light about these things. I think it is not just about human resources for health. I think it is about a focus, a dedication and motivation in a country to achieve almost the impossible. Ethiopia is not the richest country in this continent,” he said.
Disclosing that before his current post he managed Nigeria’s health system, Dr Osotimehin said: “…When we were managing, we didn’t do what Ethiopia did. What Ethiopia has done is to say, ‘You want me to treat tuberculosis, malaria and HIV/Aids?
“Good, so give me the money, I will do it the way I want to do it.’ The way they did it has benefited them better than any other place I know.”
He urged Africa’s development partners to help governments develop their institutions and accountable transparent systems to meet the social contract they have with their citizens.
Africa Review
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