Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and Washington, DC, November 9, 2023 – The American International Health Alliance (AIHA) announced today the award of a new project to strengthen the capacity of the Ethiopian Pharmaceutical Supply Service (EPSS) and improve pharmaceutical supply chain management throughout this East African nation of more than 120 million people.
With funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF), this two-year project will focus on bolstering human resource management and practices within the country’s supply chain workforce, which has been identified as a key challenge impeding the availability of pharmaceutical commodities.
Specifically, AIHA will work with EPSS to improve division of labor, workflow management, and collaboration with the private sector. In addition, we will build the institutional and human resource capacity of EPSS through targeted training and mentorship on financial management, leadership, communication and information management, and other critical competencies.
“This project leverages AIHA’s expertise at strengthening human resources for health across more than 40 countries over the past three decades,” said AIHA President & CEO David Greeley. “This is the fifth project we’ve implemented in Ethiopia since 2016 with support from the Gates Foundation,” Greeley explained, noting that it will build on human resource capacity building and leadership training AIHA has designed and delivered through several current projects in that country.
According to Kidest Hailu, AIHA’s Country Director in Ethiopia, “The success of this new project will be measured by EPSS possessing the internal leadership and management skills, behaviors, and practices needed for the organization to perform its function at a high level. This means being responsive to the needs and challenges in the country, so our population has better access to high-quality, properly managed medicines. The end goal is for EPSS to become an autonomous agency with modern human resources and management practices.”
AIHA will launch this project in the coming weeks, commencing with stakeholder engagement, work plan development, and implementing a monitoring and evaluation framework that will provide a roadmap for future activities.