Rahel Gizaw, MLI Country Lead, Ethiopia

When I was a public health graduate student at Johns Hopkins University, my native country of Ethiopia was all too often a topic of conversation. Every time talk centered on poor health indicators, Ethiopia was there. I asked myself why, despite the efforts of the government, donors and NGOs, the situation could not be improved. Hearing my country discussed this way strengthened my resolve to go back and work for Ethiopia.

As Ethiopia Country Lead for the Ministerial Leadership Initiative for Global Health (MLI), I have finally found some answers. I am convinced country ownership is the key to making significant improvements in health status.  Country ownership is when the government drives development of a sound national plan and strategies, and coordinates, mobilizes and streamlines existing and new local and international resources to support the plan. This is only possible with the establishment of collaborative, trusted and supportive relationship between the government, development partners and NGOs.

With the strong leadership of the Federal Ministry of Health under Hon. Minister Tedros, the health sector has focused on harmonizing and aligning the procedures and practices of development partners with the government.

 Progress toward this movement includes signing of International Health Partnership compact (IHP+), which ensures donors work toward a single national plan, budget and reporting mechanism. The government of Ethiopia has also been committed to improving financial management of aid, monitoring and evaluation systems and validation/appraisal of national plans and strategies to increase development partner confidence in the national health plan, system and procedures..

As a result of these and many other  inventive reforms, Ethiopia is now listed as an “MDG trailblazer” by the Center for Global Development, and is considered likely to meet the health Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). While this is a laudable achievement, it is important donors show greater improvement in aligning their efforts with government procedures and priorities to ensure further progress in the coming years and continue fostering country ownership.

MLI is playing an exemplary role toward this goal by supporting the Ministry of Health’s Balanced Scorecard Initiative (BSC)--a country led program to strengthen planning and performance management of the health system. BSC improves systems by helping managers devise performance measures they can track over time. Proper implementation will enable the health sector to monitor and manage performance and facilitate MDG successes.  MLI is one of the few organizations that really listened to the Ministry and tried to accommodate its goals, including its desire to implement the balanced scorecard.

My role as country lead gives me the opportunity I always wanted-- to come back to my country of origin and join the many people working to improve the health of Ethiopians. I have assisted the Ministry of Health in implementing the BSC. I know we are working on an important tool that can make a significant difference in improving health. I hope other development partners and NGOs will continue to focus their attention on filling the gaps identified by the Ministry to ensure MDGs can be met in the next five years.  Then, Ethiopian public health graduate students can hear different stories about their country—stories about its success in improving the health of its people.