The French program L’Initiative, along with its partners Armauer Hansen Research Institute (AHRI), APOPO, Health Development and Anti-Malaria Association (HDAMA) and REACH Ethiopia, have launched three projects to support the fight against tuberculosis and malaria in Ethiopia, during a ceremony hosted at the French Embassy in Addis-Abeba.
This ceremony was the occasion for L’Initiative – to which Ethiopia is eligible since 2017 – to strongly reaffirm its commitment to support Ethiopian civil society actors in the health sector, with a view to uphold their efforts in the fight against the three pandemics and to strengthen their capacities.
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The projects’ launching was attended by Rémi Maréchaux, French Ambassador in Ethiopia, Dr Hiwot Solomon, Disease prevention and control lead executive officer at the Ministry of Health, Eric Fleutelot, technical director of L’Initiative, as well as the executive directors of the partners organisations and the portfolio manager of the Global Fund.
Ethiopia and L’Initiative have seen their partnership grown stronger since 2017, with almost half a million euros in technical assistance and about €4,6 million for projects, including the three following that were launched on this occasion:
– The first project, “Reaching the Unreached Addis Ababa Population Towards Finding and Treating All to End TB”, is an operational research project aiming at designing, implementing and evaluating a community-based TB intervention package to find and treat more TB cases among the currently underserved urban poor population of Addis Ababa. It will be implemented by AHRI in partnership with APOPO, a Belgium-based international NGO, and the Addis Ababa City Administration Health Bureau, for an amount of almost €2 million (€1,2 million by Expertise France).
– The second project, “Reaching Vulnerable and Key Affected Populations to improve access to TB
care in Pastoralist Areas of Ethiopia”, will mainly aim at improving TB detection, diagnostic and
treatment services for the pastoralist population of Afar region (zone 3), which is a key population
to target towards the National End TB target by 2035. It will be implemented by Reach Ethiopia, an
Ethiopian non-Governmental organization created in 2010 in partnership with Organic Health Care
Service Ethiopian Residents Charity (OHCS), a local organization established in 2017 by former drug-
resistant TB patients and people living with HIV, for an amount of € 1 209 917 funded by Expertise
France.
– The third project, “Sennay – Reducing malaria burden among seasonal mobile workers through innovative approaches in the Amhara Region”, will contribute to reducing malaria morbidity and mortality in the five districts of the Amhara region by 2025, by improving malaria services for seasonal mobile workers (SMWs). It will be implemented by HDAMA, an Ethiopian non-Governmental organization created in 1998, in partnership with Malaria Consortium, a UK-based international NGO implementing projects in Ethiopia since 2004, for an amount of € 1 221 579 funded by Expertise France.
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On the same day, L’Initiative also announced a technical assistance support for an amount of 66 500 to the Regional Health Bureau of Tigray, in order to facilitate the fast resumption of Global Fund funded activities in this region – harshly affected by the conflict between 2020 and 2022, which strongly impacted the situation of HIV, tuberculosis and malaria pandemics.
This important scale up in L’Initiative engagement in Ethiopia attests its will to critically contribute to the effectiveness of the response to pandemics and health system in Ethiopia, ensuring the needs of Ethiopian population.