News

On September 24th, 2019, USAID Ethiopia’s new Mission Director, Sean Jones, visited Growth through Nutrition sites in Lume Woreda, East Oromia Region accompanied by a team of USAID and Save the Children staff. The visit was primarily aimed at introducing the project’s implementation at the community level.

The 6th project research and learning meeting took place on Friday, the 27th of September 2019, at the Sapphire Hotel, in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The meeting brought together around 20 participants from nutrition and WASH projects to discuss the findings from the recent SCI WASH research conducted on behalf of USAID. The findings are expected to inform the revision of USAID’s WASH and Nutrition guidelines anticipated to be finalized in Spring 2020. The presentations were followed by a question and answer session and discussion.

The Ethiopian Demographic and Health Survey (EDHS) has been conducted about every five years since 2000 in Ethiopia to measure health, nutrition status, and population. The survey’s results are vital in maintaining awareness of both national and regional health and nutrition indicators.

Developing and implementing the WASH products promotional strategy for Growth through Nutrition is a critical step forward toward increase community access to WASH products. The recent Population Services International (PSI) and Save the Children’s (SCI) learning visits in North Oromia, East and West Amhara, indicated the inadequate use of Growth through Nutrition existing platforms, i.e.  Enhanced community conversations (ECCs), saving groups, WASHCOs etc., for WASH products’ promotion.

From the 6th-9th of August 2019, Save the Children (SCI) organized the Fourth Annual Review and Planning workshop for Feed the Future Ethiopia Growth through Nutrition Activity at Sodere Resort Hotel in Adama. The workshop brought together team members from SCI, partner organizations and local NGOs and served as a platform for team-building activities.

The 5th project Research and Learning Working group that was held on July 12 at KZ hotel brought together more than 20 research and learning focal persons from different projects to attend the presentation and participate in the discussion of Seqota Declaration success, challenges and lesson learned. In addition, a complementary study by Tufts University on assessing the effectiveness of multisectoral coordination bodies for policy effectiveness was presented and discussed during the event.

Feed the Future Ethiopia Growth through Nutrition Activity, USAID’s five-year flagship multi-sectoral nutrition and WASH project has recently reached its mid-year project implementation period.

On April 18, 2019, Save the Children International (SCI) held a half-day visibility workshop at the Hilton hotel in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The event welcomed Save the Children International’s CEO, Ms. Carolyn Miles, Save the Children Ethiopia’s Country Director, Mr. Ekin Ogutogullari, Growth through Nutrition Activity’s Chief of Party, Mr. Daniel Abbott, USAID’s acting Deputy Mission Director, Mr. Shelby Hunt, partners from the Government of Ethiopia, implementing partners, project advisors and over 100 participants.

On March 20, 2019, the Tufts University Growth through Nutrition Activity team hosted the 4th Project Research and Learning Working Group Meeting. The technical working group meeting which serves as a platform for experts in research, learning, and knowledge management in the Nutrition, WASH, and Agriculture projects to share learning convened at KZ Hotel in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia for a half-day meeting.

To support the need for additional capacity of advance nutrition professionals within Ethiopia, the former USAID ENGINE project awarded PhD scholarships to eight students (three from Jimma University, two from Hawassa University, two from EPHI and one from Tufts University local staff) to undertake their doctoral studies through a dual-degree program implemented by Jimma University in collaboration with several European universities.