Ethiopia Starts Second Generation Health Extension Program

Addis Ababa  October 15   /2019 The Ministry of Health announced that the second generation rural health extension program has been started in over 1600 health posts throughout the country.
This was disclosed at the 21^st Health Sector Annual Review meeting opened today in Addis Ababa.

The second generation rural health extension program includes upgrading health extension workers (HEWs) to level four community health nurses, renovation and expansion of health posts.

The program also embraces equipping and supplying health posts with the necessary equipment and supplies, shifting basic services to the community level and institutionalizing the WDA platform.

Addressing the meeting, Minister of Health, Dr.Amir Aman said the second generation health extension program mostly focuses on creating quality in health service and infrastructure development in rural areas.  

So far, trainings have been given for over 23,000 health extension workers to upgrade their professional status from level three to four in order to implement the program effectively, he said.

He noted that the health extension program will be used as a key priority to achieve major plans of the ministry.

Ethiopia will continue to be model country for the rest of the world by attaining the second generation health extension program, Amir added.

The health extension program is planned to create quality in health services and infrastructure program, he said adding that “a study has conducted to identify what was missed during the implementation of the first generation health extension program”.

In this regard, the identified problems of the first generation health extension program will be discussed on the 21^st health sector annual review meeting.