blog
January 18, 2012

Voices on Ownership: Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

John Donnelly

This is the second of a series of perspective pieces on country ownership from the “Advancing Country Ownership for Greater Results” roundtable organized last week by the Ministerial Leadership Initiative for Global Health (MLI), a program of Aspen Global Health and Development. This high-level dialogue included senior officials from developing countries, the US government, development partners and NGOs. These stories will run every day this week.

The second of four pieces covers the perspective of Ethiopia Minister of Health Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

Minister Tedros said for many years he has been pushing for more country ownership. His approach is consistent: One vision, one set of priorities, and one group -- donors, partners and countries – working together.

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December 14, 2011

Linking family planning and country ownership: Ethiopia shares five strategies for success

Rosann Wisman

It is great when all  the pieces come together. At the final plenary of the International Conference on Family Planning in Dakar earlier this month, I was struck by how State Minister Kesetebirhan Admassu of Ethiopia’s Federal Ministry of Health connected the importance of country ownership and aid effectiveness with access to reproductive health and family planning.

Ethiopia has made great progress on reproductive health in recent years, increasing contraceptive prevalence from 14 percent to 29 percent since 2005.   Minister Kesete (as he is known) shared the five strategies that he believes have led to their success.  They do not pertain to just family planning. Or even just the health sector. They are applicable to every sector in development and reflect a growing movement toward country ownership and good governance. And they are a constant theme in the work carried out in MLI countries

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December 02, 2011

At closing session, Ethiopian official calls for more country ownership of programs

Sarah Lindsay

At the closing plenary of the International Conference on Family Planning, State Health Minister Kesetebirhan Admassu of Ethiopia calls for more country ownership of health programs. One of the benefits, he said, was much stronger family planning programs. Sarah Lindsay reports.

State Minister Kesetebirhan Admassu, of Ethiopia’s Federal Ministry of Health, wanted to send a message to African governments at the closing plenary of the International Conference on Family Planning:

“We need to say ‘no’ to donors and projects that are not aligned with national plans,” Minister Keseste, as he is commonly known, said. “One of the problems in Africa is that governments do not show strong leadership and do not guide donors in their countries.”

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August 31, 2011

Country ownership gets clean water flowing

Sarah Lindsay

Country ownership has led to an increase in rural access to clean water and sanitation services in many sub-Saharan African countries according to a report released this week by The World Bank’s Water and Sanitation Program (WSP) in partnership with the African Development Bank, UNICEF, and the WHO. “ Pathways to Progress: Transitioning to Country-Led Service Delivery Pathways to Meet Africa's Water Supply and Sanitation Targets,” reported that economic growth, debt relief, and increasing political stability have allowed for many countries to take charge of their water supply and sanitation sectors while developing sustainable service delivery pathways.

The report states that this success could not have been achieved without development partners’ funding; however the large impact of donor money was attributed to countries leading the implementation of services through their own systems:

“Country performance is not only the result of greater funding but also the nature of that funding. As aid modalities have shifted from donor-driven projects to country-led programmatic approaches to service delivery—along the lines of the Paris Principles for aid effectiveness—line ministries have increasingly used core government systems (public financial management systems and decentralized service delivery capacity) and capacity in the wider economy (markets, civil society, and private sector).”

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August 12, 2011

What we're reading

Sarah Lindsay

Ministry of Health and Sanitation leads partners in creating biennial work plan

In late July, the WHO country office in Sierra Leone held a consultative meeting with the Ministry of Health and Sanitation as they put together the 2012-2013 biennial work plan. At the session, co-chaired by Deputy Minister of Health and Sanitation Mr. Borbor Sawyer and WHO Representative Dr. Wondimagegnehu Alemu, strong praise was given to the Ministry for its leadership. Without it, Alemu said, “it would have been difficult to implement prioritized programmes.” Alemu’s complimentary remarks reflect what he told MLI’s Leading Global Health blog earlier this year about Sierra Leone’s increased country ownership of national health programs and its improved relationship with donors. “The top leadership of the Ministry is strengthening the relationship with health development partners,” Alemu said.   At the end of July’s meeting, participants were ready to make contributions to the biennial work plan that reflect national priorities and greater ownership of the document.

Emphasizing Community Health Care to Combat TB in Mali

TB remains a prominent health threat in Mali despite the availability of free care for the disease. Dr Faran Sissoko, a lung specialist at the Pape Clinic in Bamako states that "Tuberculosis continues to be an important cause of mortality in Mali.

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