Eritrea News

A national conference aimed at launching a campaign to end child marriage in Eritrea was held at Hotel Asmara Palace in June 2016. The national launch was coordinated by the Ministry of Health, and a number of line ministries and other organizations like the Ministry of Labor and Human Welfare, Ministry of Education, the national Union of Eritrean Women, and the National Union of Eritrean Youth and Students participated actively. The launch was organized in partnership with the African Union Commission, WHO, UNFPA and UNICEF.

The WHO Package for Essential NCD (PEN) interventions provides policy and technical guidance on a core set of essential interventions for prevention and control of NCDs through a  Primary Health Care approach. The interventions that have been selected are evidence based and affordable even for low resource settings. Eritrea was one of the countries selected to test the package as a pilot project.

he Adolescents and Young People Health (AYPH) is one of the priorities of Government of Eritrea. The Adolescents and Young People (10 to 24 years) constitutes one third or 33.3% of the Eritrean population. To fulfill their health need the Eritrean Government has endorsed an Adolescent Policy in 2004 and developed a five year strategic plan recently in August 2014.

Sixth ENLM Review Consensus Building workshop was held from 18 to 20 Nov. 2014 at Orotta Conference Hall. The objective of the workshop was to adopt a draft 6th edition on the list, taking into account the efficacy, safety, quality, cost-effectiveness of the medicines in the current context of the national health system.

Based on the National Health Policy, the MOH developed the Health Sector Strategic Development Plan (HSSDP 2012-2016). It provides the guidance and priorities to move from policy to action and sets the overall objectives, strategies, outputs and targets that are to be attained. The HSSDP is implemented through Annual Operational Plans, specific for each level of service provision. It has been over two and half years since the HSSDP has been implemented.

From 2nd to 5th September 2014, Orientation sessions have been conducted on UN Cares by Mr. Dan Onyango-Maina, Regional Coordinator UN Cares in Asmara. UN Cares is the UN system-wide workplace programme on HIV that is aimed at providing comprehensive support to UN personnel and their dependents to respond to HIV.

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World Breastfeeding Week 2012 was observed in Eritrea under the theme, “Understanding the past – planning for the future.” It was nationally celebrated from 1 to 7 August.

The objective of the event was to raise awareness of the community on the advantages of breastfeeding. Various awareness activities were carried out in the country.

The event was officially opened by Dr Andebrhan Tesfatsion, acting Director General of Public Health Division. He elaborated on the successes and achievements Eritrea has made in breastfeeding.

World No Tobacco Day was nationally commemorated in Eritrea on the 2nd of June 2012 under the theme, “Tobacco industry interference.” The event was marked at the capital city in Asmara through an advocacy meeting that was organized by the Ministry of Health in collaboration with the Regional MoH office with the support of the WHO Country Office.

One of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) aims at improving maternal health - MDG 5. The two targets of this goal are reducing by three quarters, between 1990 and 2015, the maternal mortality ratio; and achieving, by 2015, universal access to reproductive health.

According to a WHO, UNICEF, UNFPA and World Bank 2012 report, “Trends in maternal mortality: 1990 to 2010”, the annual number of maternal deaths dropped from more than 543,000 to 287,000 – a decline of 47 per cent.