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Strengthening government systems
Annual report 2018
UNICEF applies a twin-track strategy when working with the Government to improve the quality of social services. First, the organization has a long track record for designing and implementing programmes that effect real change for children and demonstrating these programmes to the woreda and regional governments. Second, to complement these efforts, UNICEF advocates and leverages financing for these programmes and strategies at a national scale (including building policies and guidelines and conducting research), so that the Government can reach its large population of children with new and improved services.
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Data for Children
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Nutrition and health
- UNICEF worked with the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs to integrate health and nutrition interventions within the Government’s US$600 million PSNP, where certain activities are now mandated, such as vitamin A supplementation, deworming, and malnutrition screening, thereby scaling-up and allowing government ownership and management of the interventions.
- UNICEF’s technical support helped develop and finalize the Government’s Comprehensive Integrated Nutrition Services (CINUS) implementation guideline, which is a reference handbook for frontline health workers to implement high-impact nutrition interventions for children, adolescents, and pregnant and lactating women.
- Emergency responses were integrated into government routine health services, thereby building a resilience approach for the health sector. UNICEF piloted the Sustainable Outreach Strategy (a cost-effective resilience model to strengthen routine service delivery) in Somali region by conducting trainings for woreda governments and primary healthcare units.
Education
- Due to UNICEF’s global technical expertise in pre-primary education, the Ministry of Education has requested UNICEF to dedicate resources and lead the efforts to improve pre-primary services due to the considerable needs in Ethiopia.
- As a result of persistent advocacy efforts, for the first time in Ethiopia, refugee primary schools have been integrated within the Government’s Education Statistics Annual Abstracts. Refugee children are now officially counted within the education system and are being supported through standard educational assessments and the development of school improvement plans. These investments have helped accelerate the implementation of the Government’s Pledges to the Comprehensive Refugee Response Framework.
- Through engagement within the Government’s General Education Quality Improvement Programme (GEQIP) (a US$ 550 million fund with contributions from development partners, including UNICEF), UNICEF is advocating to leverage these funds to improve quality, efficiency and effectiveness of Ethiopia’s education system. UNICEF’s programmes are provided alongside complementary investments from GEQIP, which support larger-scale improvements. For example, the UNICEF-introduced Assessment for Learning initiative (a teacher training programme on how to continuously assess student learning) is being scaled up and financed through GEQIP and regional governments.
WASH
- Through UNICEF’s convening role, the National Standards for Reusable and Disposable Menstrual Pads in Ethiopia was finalized, and UNICEF continued to work closely with the ministries of health and education to deliver the MHH programme across the country.
- With UNICEF’s persistent advocacy efforts, the Public Rural Utility Model (which moves from voluntary WASH committees to large-scale multi-village water schemes) was endorsed by Ministry of Water, Irrigation and Energy and introduced in Somali, Afar and Amhara regions for piloting in pastoralist and agrarian settings. The schemes have seen a reduction in seasonal water trucking. In addition, where possible, new water schemes were installed with solar pumping systems.
- UNICEF worked with the Government to introduce the Lixil SaTo Pan, a cost-effective product to improve latrine quality, limit disease transmission, and offer a more cost-effective solution to concrete slabs. Advocacy efforts resulted in a signed agreement with the Ministry of Health to begin rolling-out the new product in 2019.
Child Protection
- UNICEF’s leadership and successful advocacy efforts led to the inclusion of GBV mitigation within the National Disaster Risk Management Commission.
- UNICEF’s strategic approach to support children on the move, including conflict- and IDP-affected girls and boys, yielded positive results through mainstreaming emergency efforts via ‘regular’ services of the arms of Ministry of Women Children and Youth at woreda, zonal and regional levels.
Social Policy
- A child-specific SDG study conducted by UNICEF in 2018 showed that to benefit from demographic dividend and achieve child-related SDGs, Ethiopia needs to accelerate investments from US$ 40 per-capita to US$ 230 per-capita by 2030. For this to be a reality, ongoing fiscal reforms are imperative, and increase in tax revenue can be a strategy to increase public sector investments.
- UNICEF engaged the Government on fiscal reforms, with the aim to expand the tax base and increase resources available for domestic development financing. A 2018 study supported by the Ministry of Finance and UNICEF Ethiopia suggested that with the declining opportunities to rely on foreign assistance, the Government should mobilize more resources for public expenditure. The ongoing economic reforms could mobilize significant resources by attracting official development assistance, foreign direct investment, and contributions from the country’s diaspora.