A half-day End term Evaluation, validation workshop of “Reduction of Maternal and Newborn Mortality through Strengthening Basic Emergency Obstetric and Newborn Care (BEmONC)” Program was held at Elilly hotel in the morning of June 14, 2016 in Addis Ababa.
The project is aimed at reducing maternal and newborn mortality through strengthening basic emergency obstetric and newborn care. The FMOH, RHB’s and EMwA have implemented the program through the financial and thecnical support of UNICEF. The objective of the program is to help health workers acquire life-saving BEmONC skills and improve the quality of care provided to mothers and newborns, especially at the lower levels of the health system and in remote and hard-to-reach areas.
Through this program three big regions of the country (Oromia, Amhara, and SNNPR) and four developing regions (Afar, Benishangul-Gumuz, Gambella, and Somali) were supported. The project is now in its final stage of completion remaining with minor project close up activities.
While opening the workshop S/r yezabnesh Kibe, president of the association said the end term evaluation of this project will serve to scale up the MNCH service quality of the country. It will also try to assure the effort of rendering a standard (BEmONC) training and care across the country she added. The president said the end term evaluation shows the association effort to render health care in a professional and scientific way. S/r yezabnesh acknowledge the ministry of health, regional health bureaus, UNICEF, EMwA’s board, chapter offices, midwives and health workers for their tireless support and commitment showed throughout the implementation of the program.
S/r Aster Teshome, representative of the ministery of health on her keynote Speech said Ethiopia has made spectacular improvements in terms of child survival and overall health of its people especially in the last 15 Years. This was possible through the prevailing peace and stability in the country; healthcare reforms with community empowerment and ownership through the flagship Health Extension Program (HEP), midwives and other health practitioners; sustained political commitment at all levels; innovative solutions to problems like task-shifting; emphasis on building a resilient health system by leveraging domestic and international support; and ensuring equity of access to primary healthcare, providing key priority services and ensuring the worse off are not left behind.
Ensuring "Quality"& Equity" in health care, Developing caring, respectful and compassionate health professionals agenda continuing The woreda transformation agenda and through sustaining the Information Revolution agenda will build a strong and resilient health system. In turn, a strong & resilient health system is the very foundation whether it is for improving Maternal Child Health (MCH), Disease prevention and Control, or effective management of public health emergencies…etc S/r Aster added.
The representative said With the effective implementation of the HSTP in collaboration with health practioners including midwives, we are looking at reducing maternal, under-5 and neonatal mortalities by more than half and hitting 199/100000 LBs, 30/1000 LBs and 10/1000 LBs by 2020.
Midwives have a key role to play as the global community strives to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals of reducing maternal and newborn mortality and ensuring universal access to healthcare services. To ensure that there are enough qualified midwives to care for all women and newborns, we will continue in the education of midwives and growing the midwifery workforce S/r Aster added.
The federal ministry of health is working in collaboration with midwives association it is also through this collaboration that the ministry has outsourced the project to the association. Regional health bureaus are also following this trend. The ministry is also supporting the program through its technical working group; this evaluation will also help the upcoming national emonc assessment study.
The workshop concluded with valuable inputs from more than 40 participants drawn from governmental institutions, regional health bureau, donors, partners, sister associations and chapter offices.