The Addis Ababa Private Health Facilities employers’ association (AAPHEA) is asking for a better private public partnership (PPP) to improve health care service facilities in Ethiopia.
AAPHEA thinks that PPP helps health care providers improve services. It allows for better coverage, quality and infrastructure, and develops healthier communities.
AAPHEA is working closely with the public and private sector to improve health care. They previously lobbied for consistent health care standards that the Ministry of Health mandated in 2014. The standards largely address physical structures like the size of the room, number of rooms that service providers must have. It also requires health facilities to have a laboratory, hire licensed professionals at all levels and to hire a professional midwife.
“The association was engaged with the health office to revise some of the standards that did not did not take into account the actual capacity of private health care operators,” says Zelalem Fisseha
According to the President, by helping to revise the standards AAPHEA increased the survival rate of private facilities even though a long journey remains. Health care is still challenged by access to finance, foreign exchange, and medical imports.
Established in 2014, the association has members from private health institutions, medical health colleges, diagnostic and imaging centers, pharmaceutical importers and drug stores with the objectives of advocacy, policy issues and to work on improving the skills of health care providers.
Amir Aman (MD) Ministry of health disclosed in his recent tweets the need for Public Private Partnership (PPP) projects in selected health services in areas of laboratory imaging, sterilizing and laundry, pathology and pre hospital emergency care will begin soon after the proposal is accepted by the Minister of Finance.
Private Health Association asks for better PPP
Pre-school enrolment sees dramatic increase
UNICEF has released a global report on early childhood education showing that Ethiopia’s commitment to promoting pre-primary education has led to an increase in gross enrollment from less than two per cent in 2000 to more than 45 per cent in 2017. However, despite these impressive gains, more than half of children of pre-primary age across the country remain excluded, contributing to the 175 million children missing out on pre-primary education globally.
The report notes that the growth in pre-primary enrollment in Ethiopia was encouraged by the National Policy Framework for Early Childhood Care and Education, which focused on making one year of pre-primary education widely available for children. However, this growth has not been even as evidenced by persistently huge variations across regions. For example, while Addis Ababa and Tigray have high gross enrolments rates of 93 per cent and 88 per cent respectively, only 4.5 per cent of children in the Somali Region and 14 per cent in the Afar Region are enrolled.
Countries with the highest numbers of children not in pre-primary education are missing a critical opportunity to build human resources and are at risk of suffering deep inequalities from the start, the report notes. In low-income countries, on average only 1 in 5 young children are enrolled in pre-primary education.
“Pre-primary education is foundational for our children’s success in primary and secondary education and beyond,” said Gillian Mellsop, UNICEF’s Representative in Ethiopia. “Yet too many children in Ethiopia are denied this opportunity. This increases their risk of repeating grades or dropping out of school altogether and relegates them to the shadows of their more fortunate peers.”
A World Ready to Learn: Prioritizing quality early childhood education – UNICEF’s first ever global report on pre-primary education – reveals that children enrolled in at least one year of pre-primary education are more likely to develop the critical skills they need to succeed in school, less likely to repeat grades or drop out of school, and therefore more able to contribute to peaceful and prosperous societies and economies when they reach adulthood.
Children in pre-primary education are more than twice as likely to be on track in early literacy and numeracy skills than children missing out on early learning. In countries where more children attend pre-primary programmes, significantly more children complete primary school and attain minimum competencies in both reading and math by the time they finish primary school. A 2016 study by Young Lives, a collaborative research project led by a team from Oxford University, found that urban children in Ethiopia who attended pre-primary education were 26 per cent more likely to complete secondary education at the proper age than their non-pre-school counterparts.
Globally, the report notes that household wealth, mothers’ education level and geographical location are among the key determinants for pre-primary attendance. However, poverty is the single largest determinant. Across 64 countries, the poorest children are seven times less likely than children from the wealthiest families to attend early childhood education programmes.
Across countries with available data, children born to mothers who have completed secondary education and above are nearly five times more likely to attend an early childhood education programme than children whose mothers have completed only primary education or have no formal education.
In 2017 an average of 6.6 per cent of domestic education budgets globally were dedicated to pre-primary education, with nearly 40 per cent of countries with data allocating less than 2 per cent of their education budgets to this sub-sector.
This lack of worldwide investment in pre-primary education negatively impacts quality of services, including a significant lack of trained pre-primary teachers. Together, low- and lower middle-income countries are home to more than 60 per cent of the world’s pre-primary-age children, but scarcely 32 per cent of all pre-primary teachers. Ethiopia currently has only 23,000 pre-primary teachers and needs nearly half a million by 2030.
Sugar Corp privatization closer to reality
The Ministry of Finance (MoF) will begin the pre privatization process for one of the multiple grand privatization operations that was announced by the ruling party late last budget year.
The ministry has stated that it will invite interested potential buyers to provide responses for a Request for Information (RFI) as of tomorrow, Monday April 15.
At a press conference held on Friday April, 12 at MoF, they and the Ethiopian Sugar Corporation are collaborating to invite responses for RFI aimed at completing the necessary pre privatization activities to fully or partially privatize the corporation assets in the form of 13 sugar projects that are either operational or greenfield projects.
The government stated that it will transfer major public properties fully or partly. The enterprises including Ethiopian Airlines, Ethio Telecom, Railway, Logistics, electricity and sugar and other factories are expected to be sold out as per the projection period which has not been disclosed.
It is expected that the government would transfer industries like sugar fully and then Ethiopian Airlines, Ethio Telecom, the Railway, and Shipping.
In this mega privatization program, the sugar sector has become the first transferred into the second privatization process step.
“This RFI has been published to facilitate information gathering from interested parties that previously have shown an interest in acquiring the Sugar Corporation properties and new prospective buyers in a structured and transparent format,” the statement of MoF read.
It is issued as a means of general approach discovery to complete the necessary steps for pre privatization activities, and for the information gather only, according to the ministry.
The RFI has 15 questions but these are starting points and should not restrict interested parties from including information and strategies that may be beneficial and pertinent to the privatization process.
The RFI will be issued on April 15 on the web site of the corporation and ministry and the Public Enterprises Holding and Administration Agency, while written inquires shall be submitted until April 26 and the final submission date is on May 24.
Gov’t to install solar panels in eight rural towns
To help off the grid places with another power option, the Ethiopian government is tendering a bid to install solar panels in eight rural cities and generate 300MW.
The tender which is being processed by the Ministry of Finance, will be floated to potential private investors who will put up solar panels in strategic areas. The cost and the duration of the project will be revealed after the tender winner is announced.
Frehiwot Woldehanna State Minister of Water, Irrigation & Energy (MoWIE) told reporters that solar panels will enable rural households to light their homes, shops and streets.
“Implementing efficient energy schemes in rural areas of Ethiopia will play a major role in alleviating poverty and reducing inequalities in some of the country’s most vulnerable communities.
“This project will continue to have a life changing impact by enabling communities to develop new enterprises, supporting schools and helping hospitals.”
He added that the project will eventually expand to 200 towns.
In Ethiopia, only eight percent of the rural population gets electricity, while 90 percent of the urban population has access to it, according to the Central Statistical Agency (CSA)
In related news, The Africa Enterprise Challenge Fund (AECF) in partnership with United
Kingdom Government has launched the Household Solar Round 2 competition worth £ 16 million. The competition seeks to accelerate access to transformative solar home systems to rural poor households in Ethiopia, Somalia, Ghana, Nigeria, and Senegal.
One in 7 people live in energy poverty and are forced to light and power their lives with candles, kerosene and batteries. “The increasing demand for electricity, high cost of power generation and limited supply of electricity to rural areas in sub-Saharan African is a narrative that constantly repeats its self across the continent,” said Dr. Christian Rogg, Head of Office, DFID Ethiopia.
“Although the situation persists, initiatives promoting household solar systems through the private sector have started to offer affordable solutions to rural communities for lighting and economic use.”
In Ethiopia, approximately 11 million rural households do not have access to electricity, making the off-grid market attractive for private sector.
Frehiwot Woldehanna, State Minister of Water, Irrigation and Electricity, said,
“We are committed to working with AECF and DFID to support companies that provide access to electricity for our rural populations. Rapid growth and transformational development requires reliable energy production, supply and efficiency. Without adequate and reliable supply of energy, no industrialization, agricultural value additions, job creation, economic and sustainable growth are achievable. ”
REACT Household Solar-Round Two funding will provide a mix of interest free loans, repayable grants and technical assistance to the private sector. As a critical component of Africa Clean Energy (ACE) Programme, the competition seeks to increase the supply of household systems to rural markets at affordable costs, facilitated through innovative financing models, operating and distribution models such as PAYGO and micro-financed interventions.
“Renewables provide just 18% of Africa’s current power generating capacity, therefore developing off-grid alternatives could create many more opportunities and transform millions of lives. Solar home systems are a simple solution that do not appear in the macro-economic statistics yet they have the ability to transform the lives of millions of school children,” Daniel Ohonde, CEO, of AECF.
Over the past seven years AECF has funded private sector companies that take advantage of market drivers like mobile network and data services, mobile payment systems, growing micro- finance networks and an appreciation of social collateral to accelerate access to solar home systems in rural sub-Saharan Africa.
Daniel added, “With REACT Household Solar Round One investing a total of US $7 million in 10 companies spread across 4 countries, the additional funding for Round Two will enable AECF to continue investing in private sector companies to deliver business models which accelerate access to transformative solar home systems to rural markets in sub Saharan Africa.”
