Ethiopia and Global Fund launch latest grants to speed up progress in fight against HIV, tuberculosis and malaria; Strengthening health systems – updates

Ethiopia and Global Fund launch latest grants to speed up progress in fight against HIV, tuberculosis and malaria; Strengthen health systems

June 18, 2024

– Today, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (The Global Fund) and the Ethiopian Ministry of Health launched three latest grants price over USD 441 million. The grants will sustain progress within the fight against HIV, tuberculosis (TB) and malaria, while strengthening health systems and communities across the country throughout the 2024-2027 grant period.

“The last two decades have been great; we have achieved a lot, but in recent years, our country has also faced many challenges, including Covid-19, conflicts and climate change,” said the Honorable Minister Mekdes Daba Feyssa, Minister of Health of Ethiopia. “This new grant cycle is a great opportunity to acknowledge that we are back, we want to do more and be closer to our community. We can turn these challenges around and use them as an opportunity to bounce back and strengthen not only our health infrastructure and digitalization, but also our health care capacity and resources.”

“Ethiopia has been a key partner of the Global Fund over the years, achieving significant progress in the fight against HIV, tuberculosis and malaria, while building resilient and sustainable health systems,” said Mark Edington, director of grant management on the Global Fund.

For HIV, the grant will support Ethiopia in its efforts to realize and maintain epidemic control by 2027 by reducing the number of recent HIV infections and the AIDS mortality rate. The national strategic plan goals to deal with essential gaps, particularly in eliminating vertical transmission, improving HIV case detection and reaching key and priority populations – resembling individuals who inject drugs, high-risk adolescent girls and young women, and folks in humanitarian settings .

The purpose of the TB subsidy is to speed up the fight against the TB epidemic, which stays a serious public health problem within the country. Ethiopia is amongst 30 countries on the earth with high rates of TB, TB/HIV and drug-resistant tuberculosis (DR-TB). Finding and treating missing individuals with TB/DR-TB is a priority within the fight against the TB epidemic in Ethiopia.

The malaria grant will enable continued malaria control efforts and support Ethiopia in its malaria elimination process. Over the past decade, the country has achieved significant success in reducing the intensity of malaria transmission, which has led to a discount in malaria-related illnesses and deaths. Encouraged by these achievements, Ethiopia has initiated an elimination program geared toward eliminating the disease by 2030. However, since 2020, the burden of malaria has increased across the country as a result of latest challenges resembling conflict, drought, emergence of a brand new malaria vector – Anopheles Stephensi – and at the identical time the Covid-19 pandemic appeared.

The additional grant goals to further strengthen Ethiopia’s capability to offer its population with an equitable, effective and efficient package of comprehensive, high-quality health services. About 20 years ago, the Ethiopian government launched a nationwide medical examiner program called the Health Extension Program (HEP) to alleviate critical health human resource shortages and improve rural people’s access to primary health care in order that nobody has to walk greater than 5 kilometers to achieve the health point. In addition to investing in HEP, the grant goals to further strengthen laboratory systems; national supply management systems and last mile delivery of health goods; health regulatory capability; data systems; digitization; and field and laboratory epidemiology training programs.

Since 2003, the Global Fund has invested $3 billion in Ethiopia to support the country in continuing significant progress within the fight against HIV, tuberculosis and malaria, constructing more resilient and sustainable health systems, and protecting existing achievements within the face of armed conflict, mass displacement, lack of food security and severe drought.