MEASURE Evaluation in Ethiopia

MEASURE Evaluation’s activities in Ethiopia have focused on both malaria and HIV, with the help of those in power in Ethiopia as well as ordinary members of local communities. “One way that I find Ethiopia to stand out,” said Tariq Azim, “is the leadership’s commitment to see improvement in the health system and the receptiveness at the grass-root level to bringing positive change in the health sector.” Azim serves as MEASURE Evaluation’s Resident Advisor in Ethiopia.

Sentinel Surveillance

In 2008, MEASURE Evaluation began providing technical assistance to Ethiopia’s National Malaria Control Program in Oromia, the country’s largest and most populous region. Assistance has focused especially on conducting sentinel site surveillance. Under an Associate Award led by MEASURE Evaluation partner Tulane University, MEASURE Evaluation has worked with the national malaria program and other USAID partners to establish a network of 10 health facility sites throughout Oromia to track morbidity and mortality related to the disease. An important component of this assistance is to help build capacity within Ethiopia to conduct monitoring and evaluation (M&E) of malaria interventions.

Health Management Information System Scale-Up

In April 2010, MEASURE Evaluation activities in Ethiopia expanded to include the Health Management Information System (HMIS) Scale-Up Project. The project supports scaling-up the HMIS and M&E systems in the South Nations, Nationalities and People’s Region, a very populous region. A scaled-up HMIS is expected to improve planning, management and efficient decision making at all levels of government.

“The project is working toward the government’s ownership of HMIS at each of its various tiers,” resident advisor Azim explained. And it isn’t just government personnel who are engaged in the project. Individuals in local communities have also contributed to the scale-up. The community-based health information system, an important part of the HMIS scale-up, requires that each household in a community be numbered and families registered. It was piloted in several districts, which served as models for the future. In one pilot district, it became clear that health workers would not be able to carry out this task alone. Community volunteers came forward to help almost immediately.

Training health workers is another important element of the HMIS scale-up. At last reporting, 344 regional, zonal and woreda (local administrative districts) health managers had been trained throughout the South Nations, Nationalities and People’s Region. More than 1,000 health center staff had received training, and 39 percent of health centers and 26 percent of hospitals in the region had started using the reformed HMIS.

In a separate but related activity, MEASURE Evaluation is also assisting Ethiopia’s Federal HIV/AIDS Prevention and Control Office to reform, pilot and scale-up the HIV/AIDS Community Information System (CIS) for non-clinical, multi-sectoral purposes. “This puts MEASURE Evaluation in a unique position to influence the harmonization of HIV/AIDS information systems for both clinical (HMIS) and non-clinical (CIS) responses,” Azim said.