ADDIS ABABA: Ethiopia's success on boosting its overall healthcare initiatives should be seen as a positive step in the right direction that other developing countries could follow, said the World Bank in a report published last week. It said that the Ethiopian government and development agencies have shown new methods to increase access to overall health services in the country that could be emulated in regional nations. For the government, this is a positive step toward creating the mode for better services across the country, especially in rural areas, which have been poorly maintained in recent years. “We are really believing in the model that we have created, getting social workers to rural areas and really increasing the number of medical professionals who are assisting those in need,” a health ministry official told Bikyanews.com. Ethiopia's network of health workers is a great asset as the country strives to reach the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) on health, the World Bank said. “The country is already on track to reach some of these targets by 2015, including those for reducing child mortality, HIV/AIDS and malaria.” It reported that, for example, “the share of deaths of children under age five in Ethiopia has fallen from 123 per 1,000 live births in 2005 to 88 in 2011.” While the current level of child mortality remains high, the rate of progress in the country has been encouragingly rapid. “Ethiopia has made a significant effort to improve health delivery at the local level," said Ahmed Shide, State Minister for Finance and Economic Development. “Still there are significant challenges. No mother should die while giving birth; a child has the right to live to full life potential." Many development partners are supporting Ethiopia to strengthen its health system further and ramp up lifesaving health services, with a renewed focus on results. Together, they are contributing about US$4.5 billion to the current health sector development program, along with about US$1.5 billion from the government. The World Bank's new Health MDGs Program-for-Results (PforR) zero-interest loan to Ethiopia, approved in February 2013, links disbursement of US$100 million with the achievement of specific health-related results over the next four years. “These results include increases in the number of women receiving antenatal check-ups, the share of deliveries attended by skilled workers, and many other well-defined targets," says Ramana Gandham, Lead Health Specialist at the World Bank and Task Team Leader for the PforR. “I am confident that Ethiopia has the building blocks in place to achieve these results and this first PforR in health in Africa will help in shifting the focus from inputs and transactions to tangible results and credible systems to measure such results." “Tying money to specific results will give the government the incentives and leverage to be able to work on bottlenecks, address problems, and really try to find some sustainable solutions," adds Angela Spilsbury, Senior Health Adviser at the UK's Department for International Development (DfID) in Addis Ababa, and co-chair of the Health Development Partners Group. The World Bank PforR funding will be complemented by a $20 million grant from the Health Results Innovation Trust Fund, which is supported by the UK and Norway. The Fund supports the use of results-based financing to improve the coverage of essential maternal and child health services. BN
