Ministry Launches $35m Health Project in Pastoral Communities
A 35-million-dollar project on nutritional and maternal health support to pastoral communities was launched last week. The five-year project aims to boost the capacities of health infrastructures in 35 weredas of four regional states with unique geographical topographies. It is financed by USAID which provided nearly 200 million dollars in annual support to Ethiopia’s health sector. The launch ceremony was attended by Minister of Health Mekdes Daba (MD) and Eleanor TanPiengco, deputy director of USAID in Ethiopia. She said rehabilitating health facilities in lowland areas, where communities are highly exposed to extreme weather events caused by climate change is vital. Frequent conflicts compounded the difficulties of addressing the disease and famine faced by the pastoralist population in the last few years, according to Eleanor.