- According to a WHO statement, the World Health Organization (WHO) and Canada have signed an agreement to support primary health services in Ethiopia.
- Canada has committed a grant of 9.9 million Canadian dollars to the WHO to strengthen the primary health care capacity to deliver essential health services, with a special focus on women, girls and vulnerable populations.
According to a WHO statement, the World Health Organization (WHO) and Canada have signed an agreement to support primary health services in Ethiopia. Canada has committed a grant of 9.9 million Canadian dollars to the WHO to strengthen the primary health care capacity to deliver essential health services, with a special focus on women, girls and vulnerable populations.
Primarily the grant will provide frontline health workers with the training, medicine, and equipment, including the personal protective equipment, to respond to COVID-19, said Stephen Weaver, acting Minister-Counselor and Senior Director (Development) in the Embassy of Canada to Ethiopia. Apart from enabling an effective response to COVID-19, the grant will be used to reduce preventable sickness and death in the context of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, particularly among women and girls in Ethiopia.
Approximately 6.5 million Ethiopian populations with 50 percent of women are expected to benefit from the grant. Others will be indirect beneficiaries, from a sturdier federal and a regional health system, with focus on sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) services, according to the statement.
Speaking about the agreement, the WHO Representative to Ethiopia, Boureima Hama Sambo said that the grant will help in providing quality, gender-responsive essential health services at the primary care level. It will also improve the health system resilience by building the capacity of regional and city health authorities to deal with current and future crises.
