The US Agency for International Development (USAID) has launched a $49.8 million maternal and child health activity in Ethiopia.
The five-year project was officially launched on Friday in the presence of State Minister of Health Dr. Dereje Duguma and USAID Mission Director Scott Hocklander.
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“The new USAID Quality Healthcare activity is designed to build upon decades of partnership and results with the Ministry of Health,” Mission Director Hocklander said at the event.
The agency said the activity “is tailored to each health facility, providing medical equipment and training as needed” with a goal of reducing illness and fatalities among newborns, mothers, and children.
The project will support mothers and children’s health in 67 Woredas in Sidama, Amhara, Oromia, Central Ethiopia, South Ethiopia, and the Southwest Ethiopia Peoples’ Regions, per USAID.
“This work will be complemented by an upcoming project focused on healthcare issues specific to pastoral populations in the other regions of Ethiopia,” the agency said.
Jon Snow, Inc. (JSI), a Boston-headquartered consulting firm, is tasked to implement the 49.8 million US Dollars project.
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Over the last ten years, USAID has invested over $2.2 billion in Ethiopia’s health sector, according to its mission director Hocklander.
