SOS Children Villages in Ethiopia launches a new project titled “Leave No Youth Behind: Young Care Leavers Claim Their Rights In Ethiopia.”
The project focuses on young care leavers and advocates for their rights and needs and is financed by the Danish International Development Agency.
The project will be implemented in all the 11 sub-cities of Addis Ababa to a total of 1,400 young care leavers and indirectly 2.8 million young people over the country will be addressed through the project initiative.
The project engages different stakeholders in its implementation including Addis Ababa women children and social affairs, Addis Ababa youth and sport bureau, Addis Ababa finance and economic bureau in addition to other CSOs.
In Ethiopia more than 70 percent of the population is made up of young people and like many countries the country is facing challenges in meeting the needs and rights of the booming young generation.To decrease these impacts the project aims to create an enabling environment for young care leavers and empowered young care leavers.
SOS Children Villages launches project to leave no youth behind
Meta launches Meta Boost in Ethiopia to spur digital business
Meta jointly launches the Meta Boost in Ethiopia in collaboration with the Ministry of Labour and Skills and Summer Media in a ceremony held on Thursday September 22, 2022 at the Ethiopian Skylight hotel with the presence of government officials and representatives of Meta.
As indicated on the ceremony, Meta Boost is a suite of tools and training programs and events dedicated to helping small businesses grow by equipping more people with the digital skills they need to compete for jobs in the digital economy while also making meaningful connections with potential consumers.
Following its successful pilot in 2020, the program, which is being implemented by Summer Media, has so far trained over 7,000 Small and Medium Businesses (SMBS) in Ethiopia on how to use Meta’s apps (Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp) to boost their businesses online. The program is set to train an additional 5,000 SMBs this year with the training being held virtually across the country to ensure accessibility for all.
Speaking on the ceremony, State Minister of the Ministry of Labour and Skills, Nigussu Tilahun said, the Ministry of Labour is appreciative of this partnership with Meta and Summer Media. “We are cognizant of the role digital technologies play in promoting small and medium businesses in Ethiopia and believe businesses that have signed up for this program have benefitted tremendously.”
“Meta is committed to the economic recovery of Ethiopia by implementing the Meta Boost Program to support micro, small and medium-sized businesses. We are encouraged by the progress of the program since its inception to date and we believe it has benefited businesses that have signed up,” said Mercy Ndegwa, Meta’s Director of Public Policy in East and Horn of Africa.
Meta has been supporting SMBs across Sub-Saharan Africa through a number of Economic Impact programs, including Boost with Facebook, SheMeans Business, Digify Pro, and Aspiring Entrepreneurs Program. These have been critical in equipping thousands of SMBs to leverage digital tools to achieve their business goals. Since June 2020, Meta has been offering these programs virtually through instructor-led live webinar sessions featuring presentations, demos and virtual discussions.
OLA Energy Ethiopia sets up one stop shop services
OLA Energy Ethiopia in partnership with Chaka Buna PLC launched Chaka Buna Café and restaurant within the premises of Ras OLA Energy Service station.
The partnership is believed to reinforce OLA Energy Ethiopia’s efforts to offer a one stop shop service at its stations in addition to providing an opportunity to Chaka Buna to expand its Café and restaurant service.
The company which was known as oil Libya has legally changed its name to OLA Energy starting from February 7, 2022. OLA Energy is firmly rooted in Africa with a presence in 17 African countries of which OLA energy Ethiopia is a subsidiary of the OLA group- one of the key players engaged in supply distribution and marketing of fuel, lubricant and petroleum products in the market.
Nutrition International, EPHI partner to reduce incidences of NTDs
Nutrition International – a global nutrition organization and the Ethiopian Public Health Institute (EPHI) have jointly launched a project that will enable the sample production and market testing of table salt fortified with folic acid and iodine, and reduce the incidence of Neural Tube Defects (NTDs).
NTDs are a group of congenital anomalies (physical abnormality present from birth) including anencephaly (a baby is born without parts of the brain and skull) and spina bifida (birth defect of the spine) in a fetus.
NTDs are formed within the first 18 days of a pregnancy, often before a woman knows she is pregnant. While anencephaly always results in early death, lucky survivors of spina bifida may adjust to a life-long disability through rehabilitation and surgery.
Studies indicate that in Ethiopia, the live birth rate of babies affected by NTDs may reach up to 13.8 per 1,000 births significantly higher than the African average of 1 – 2.5 with resulted devastating individual, economic, and social costs.
For many populations, it is very difficult to get enough folic acid in a regular diet and prevent NTDs. To supply the required dose, fortifying foods consumed routinely by the great majority of the population such as staples (wheat, rice, oil, etc.) or condiments (sugar, salt, tomato paste, etc.) with folic acid is an alternative.
In many of the countries that have implemented large-scale and mandatory folic acid fortification programs – such as Canada, the United States, Costa Rica, South Africa, Oman and others – the incidence of NTDs consistently declined to 0.5-0.6 per 1,000 live births.
Accordingly, Nutrition International (NI) has designed a project that aims at fortifying Ethiopian produced table salt with folic acid and iodine, i.e. Double Fortified Salt with Iodine and Folic Acid (DSF-IoFA). The project is hoped to reach approximately 25,320,722 women of reproductive age and 11,653,102 adolescent girls. This is more than 35% of the 2022 total population of Ethiopia based on the population projection by the Ethiopian Statistics Agency.
Implemented from 2022-2025 with funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Project shall conduct product development and market testing of a table salt fortified with iodine and folic acid.
Table salt is selected due to its relatively huge potential of being used in almost all foods, and mostly sourced from a single source in Ethiopia offering an opportunity to centralize the processing, thus at a potentially low cost. In this regard, EPHI shall produce a sample product through its laboratory, and conduct a study on a number of parameters: taste, market acceptability, safety, and economic viability.
The other partner of the Project University of California Davis (UC-Davis) will offer oversight in the scientific process of the research.
At the end of the three-year period, the findings of research and market testing are expected to be published, along with recommendations to the Government of Ethiopia to adopt legislative and policy measures, including development of a mandatory standard of an iodine-folic acid fortified table salt.
EPHI’s Director General, Dr. Mesay Hailu, said, “this workshop will enrich the proposed research plan and its implementation to make sure quality evidence and system-based findings will be produced and goes to policymakers and program developers that will allow them to use our limited resource appropriately and cost-effectively.”
“Today’s workshop will provide a platform for stakeholders to engage, discuss and offer their vital inputs for the successful implementation of the Double Fortification of Salt with Iodine and Folic Acid Research Project,” said NI’s Deputy Country Director, Girma Mamo.
“As a global leader in finding and scaling solutions to malnutrition, Nutrition International is committed to support the Government of Ethiopia’s effort in the prevention and control of all forms of malnutrition and in particular Neural Tube Defect,” Girma added.
