In September 2013, Ethiopia’s Federal Ministry of Health and UNICEF jointly announced that Ethiopia had succeeded in reducing its under-5 mortality rate by two-thirds between 1990 and 2012. Ethiopia had already achieved Millennium Development Goal 4, two years ahead of the MDG deadline.

In an effort to better understand Ethiopia’s remarkable achievement of MDG 4, a team of researchers led by the Ethiopian Public Health Institute (EPHI), in cooperation with the Federal Ministry of Health and other partners, has conducted an in-depth Countdown Country Case Study, with technical and financial support from Countdown to 2015. The study’s findings were launched at the National Reproductive, Maternal, Newborn, Child, and Adolescent Health and Nutrition (RMNCAH-N) Performance Review Meeting, in Addis Ababa , on June 24th. The case study results were presented by Mekonnen Tadesse of EPHI.

 

Based on rigorous methods for synthesizing evidence, Ethiopia’s Countdown case study offers new insights on how Ethiopia achieved its dramatic reduction in child mortality, and examines key factors, both within and outside of the health sector, that contributed to this success. It also identifies gaps and emphasizes important areas where progress has been too slow – particularly in improving newborn survival and addressing health inequities – and offers practical recommendations for policy and programmatic strategies to accelerate further progress. The Countdown case study results provide valuable guidance on best practices and lessons learned for other low-income countries that seek to accelerate health improvements and reduce child deaths.

 

A new policy brief, entitled COUNTDOWN TO A HEALTHIER ETHIOPIA: Building on Successes to Accelerate Newborn Survival, which lays out the case study’s findings, messages and recommendations, was distributed at the national review meeting. Simultaneous to this in-country dissemination of these important findings, Countdown also released a one-page Case Study Briefing Note that summarizes the study’s key findings in infographic format. The study findings are also being prepared for journal publication later in 2015.

 

The Ethiopia case study is the latest of a series of in-depth case studies for which Countdown has provided technical and financial support. Results have already been disseminated for case studies in Niger, Bangladesh, Peru, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Tanzania, and studies are still underway in China and Kenya.

• Download the policy brief (COUNTDOWN TO A HEALTHIER ETHIOPIA)
• Download the Countdown Country Case Study Briefing Note: Ethiopia