Operational Research: Family planning service utilization and women empowerment in western Ethiopia 82 views

Amref Health Africa, headquartered in Kenya, is the largest Africa based international non-governmental organization (NGO) currently running programs in over 35 countries in Africa with lessons learnt over 60 years of engagement with governments, communities and partners to increase sustainable health access in Africa.

Amref Health Africa has been active in Ethiopia since the 1960s and became fully operational as an international NGO in 2002. Amref Health Africa partners with the Government of Ethiopia and local  stakeholders  to  implement  a diversified  health  project  portfolios  throughout  the country focusing on three key programmatic areas: Reproductive,  Maternal,  Neonatal, Adolescent, Youth  and Child Health (RMNAYCH); Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) and Diseases Prevention and Control (DPC).

Gender and human resources for health are crosscutting, reflected throughout the organization’s health portfolio.  Our organization also engages in clinical outreach interventions and emergency programs including nutrition and resilience building of affected communities.

Amref Health Africa has projects in Addis Ababa, Afar, Amhara,  Benishangul-Gumuz,  Gambella,  Oromia, SNNP, Somali  regions and  nationwide health systems  strengthening interventions focusing  the capacity  building  of  the  National  Health  Extension Program.

Background information

The government of Ethiopia has invested heavily on primary health care (PHC) as a means towards achieving Universal Health Coverage (UHC) and is one of the few countries in Africa to integrate health extension workers (HEWs) as part of its health workforce. Despite the government has made a promising progress in creating access to a full range of family planning services and information in Ethiopia, the national modern contraceptive prevalence is lower than the global FP targets. In response to this, Amref Health Africa with the generous support of Packard Foundation has initiated a quality of care improvement initiative at primary health care units especially at the health posts (HPs) level to improve acceptance and utilization of family planning methods by providing quality family planning services in Oromia Region, Jimma and East Wollega Zones since 2015.

Overview of the project

Amref health Africa is implementing a project entitled “Enhancing reproductive health care quality to accelerate utilization of family planning services”/Quality is not as costly as you think (Q-CAT) at health post level. The project has been implemented in two phases. Phase one, which was launched in January, 2015 to enhance reproductive health care quality to accelerate utilization of family planning services have been designed and implemented in Oromia region, Jimma and East wollega zones focusing on 160 health posts. The ultimate outcome of the project was to increased access to quality community based reproductive health/ FP services.

 Now in phase II the extension of first phase has been implemented by Amref health Africa in the same geographical location but by addressing 40 more health posts and focusing on a total of 200 health posts. Specifically this project is implemented in Oromiya region Jimma Zone: Dedo, Mancho, Shebe Sombo and Seka Chokorsa districts and East Wollega Zone: Diga, GutoGida and Leka Dulecha districts. This project intends to benefit 230,000women in reproductive age (15-49) and catchment population of the eight  woredas who are served at the 200 health posts directly and it will benefit all women of non-reproductive age as well as male population of the target woredas indirectly.

·               Minimum of 5 years of proven and strong research experience in areas of Maternal and child Health in general and Policy analysis in particular

·               Consultants that have an excellent understanding on the interaction between economics and Health Development

·               Excellent writing and verbal communication skills in English. Language editors are advisable in the team or willing to give language editors at the end

·               The consultant is expected to bring team members with excellent knowledge and experience in research including

·                Experience in managing and analyzing qualitative research data

·               Strong analytical skills and cable to produce publication

·               Show commitment to conduct in stress situations and capable to producing the results