Ethiopia News

The United Nations in Ethiopia celebrated the 70th Anniversary of the United Nations in a series of events on 24 October 2015 in the presence of Government and United Nations high level officials, 
the diplomatic community, civil servants, representatives of the public, students, and the United Nations staff and family. 

The celebrations in Ethiopia were themed along the global theme: Stronger UN. Better World. The events highlighted the UN’s contribution to human rights, peace and security, development, health, gender equality, and protecting the planet. 

ADDIS ABABA, 11 November 2015 | Nearly 90 communities, non-governmental (NGOs) and civil society organizations (CSOs) are meeting for a landmark consultation in Addis Ababa today to ramp up efforts to end tuberculosis (TB) - the leading infectious disease killer worldwide along with HIV.

The Hydrotherapy Center established at the Cheshire Services Ethiopia, and which is the first in its kind in Ethiopia was inaugurated in the presence of WHO Representative, Dr. Pierre M'Pele-Kilebou, donors and contributors to the center, guest Rotarians from the USA and Canada, and other polio partners on Monday, 5 October 2015.  Unveiling was done by W/ro Mintwab Abebe, widow of Mr Nahusenay Araya, former District Governor (DG) of Rotary Club.

In response to the emergency situation caused by the El Niño weather phenomenon, the World Health Organization (WHO) has deployed a team of experts to work with the WHO Ethiopia Country Office team in coordinating the health response, assessing health impacts and needs, and strengthening disease early warning and outbreak management systems. The WHO Representative for Ethiopia gives overall direction and guidance to the emergency response activities of the newly reorganized emergency response team. 

A global consultation to draw lessons from the development of Single TB and HIV Concept Notes and defining the way forward for joint TB and HIV programming was held in Addis Ababa on 18-20 November 2015.

ADDIS ABABA, 16 November 2015 | Climate change is threatening to exacerbate health problems in Ethiopia, the World Health Organization warns in a new Climate and Health Country Profile 2015, published today. Increased temperatures, intense heatwaves, more extreme rainfall, floods and landslides, are expected to intensify existing challenges of communicable diseases, food insecurity and poverty unless timely action is taken.

Every year cancer claims thousands of lives in Ethiopia. The country responds to the growing burden of cancer by launching a five year cancer control strategy on 26 October 2015 in Adama Town. The Strategy is said to avert the health and economic impact of cancer by focusing mainly on prevention, and early detection.

In response to the need for access to life-saving surgical care, the World Health Organization's Emergency and Essential Surgical Care rogram has developed and launched the 'Integrated Management for Emergency and Essential Surgical Care'(IMEESC) toolkit via a mobile phone application. The toolkit will make available key resources in obstetric and surgical care literally at users’ fingertips.

ADDIS ABABA, 11 December 2015 | The World Health Organization (WHO) is working alongside the Ethiopian Ministry of Health and 22 partner organizations to respond to the health needs of 3.6 million people vulnerable to health and nutrition emergencies due to the El Niño weather phenomenon. Humanitarian partners came together in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, today to launch joint plans for the crisis response in 2016.

Emergency and WASH teams of WHO and UNICEF hold regular meetings to discuss the best way of coordinating the two UN agencies’ support to the Government of Ethiopia’s response to the ongoing acute watery diarrhea (AWD) outbreak in the country.  The most recent get-together took place on 9 March, where existing gaps, past successes and shortfalls were identified and discussed to best devise the way forward.