Child Health Care Initiative Launched In Ethiopia
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Thursday, December 18, 2003
An initiative to improve child health care and curtail prevent-
able diseases has been launched in Ethiopia by the World Health
Organization, the World Bank, the U.S. Agency for International
Development, UNICEF and the Canadian International Development
Agency, the organizations said Tuesday.
The Child Survival Partnership will focus on coordinating inter-
national partners and using funding and coordination mechanisms
more efficiently as a way of boosting child survival rates in
the country.
On a practical level, the partnership will work with the Ethio-
pian government to offer immunizations, vitamin A supplements,
and diarrhea, pneumonia and malaria treatment to at-risk chil-
dren (Walta Information Center Web site/BBC Monitoring, Dec.
16).
The program aims to cut Ethiopia's child mortality rate - the
sixth-worst in the world - by two-thirds by 2015, in line with
the U.N. Millennium Development Goals. According to the agen-
cies, almost half a million Ethiopian children die each year
from preventable diseases.
A WHO official, Joy Phumaphi, said simple treatments for diar-
rhea, malaria and pneumonia alone could save thousands of lives
in Ethiopia and millions worldwide (Integrated Regional Informa-
tion Networks, Dec. 17).
--
Dr Rana Jawad Asghar
Program Manager Child Survival, Mozambique
Provincial Coordinator Sofala Province, Mozambique
Health Alliance International, Seattle, WA, USA
http://depts.washington.edu/haiuw/
Coordinator South Asian Public Health Forum
http://www.saphf.org
mailto:jawad@alumni.washington.edu
http://www.DrJawad.com