National Strategy for Child Survival in Ethiopia.

The National Strategy for Child Survival in Ethiopia is a nation-wide sectoral document with the overall goal of reducing the current under-five mortality of 140/1000 to 67/1000 by 2015, which means a reduction of more than 50% of the 2004 rate. The Health Services Extension Program (HSEP) is the main pillar of the Child Survival Strategy for increasing access to preventive and basic essential curative health services to the majority of the under served population. The Strategy has two phases: 2005 to 2009 and 2010 to 2015. By 2009, most of the new facilities should have been constructed and their staff trained. The subsequent five years are seen as a period of consolidation of the quality and utilization of the services. The document focuses on the health system, but long term achievements need a cross-cutting interventions in other sectors, including reducing poverty, improving food security, raising levels of maternal education and the status of women in society, and the provision of safe water and sanitation.
Specific objectives connected to this goal are (i) to proportionally reduce the neonatal, infant and child mortality rates while achieving the overall objective; (ii) to ensure the greatest possible reduction of mortality among the children of the poorest and most marginalized sections of the population; (iii) to contribute to the reduction of maternal mortality to achieve the Millennium Development Goal by 2015; and (iv) to ensure the availability of quality essential health care for women and children in the community and health facilities.
To help eliminate hunger, food insecurity and malnutrition, key interventions of the Strategy focus on (i) promotion of breast feeding for the first six months of life and the continuation of breastfeeding for at least 24 months; (ii) supplementary feeding for malnourished children and pregnant women; (iii) vitamin A supplementation for under-fives and growth monitoring for children under 3 years of age; (iv) appropriate feeding advice and counselling for children with mild malnutrition; (v) introduction of the WHO Guidelines on the Management of the Child with a Serious Infection or Severe Malnutrition to all Hospitals and Health Centers; and (vi) assessment of the needs for safe water and improved sanitation, together with the protection of water sources and the digging of wells and latrines.
Rural poverty reduction will be tackled mainly through (i) increased coverage of essential health services to the rural community; and (ii) provision of health care for the children of pastoralists through the development of relevant strategies as part of the Health Services Extension Package.
As for the Governance, The national health policy emphasizes the importance of achieving access to a basic package of quality primary health care services for all segments of the population, via a decentralized state system of governance. To this end, it proposes a structure for the management and coordination of the Strategy, and, in general, of the health system, to be assumed by the Federal Ministry of Health, passing through national and regional structures, up to local centers and to the NGOs participating in the health sector.