This is a continuing activity for the Ethiopian Public Health Association (EPHA) to continue to improve public-health practice around HIV/AIDS/STI and TB. EPHA supports and conducts public health evaluations, surveillance, operations research, and builds local capacity for designing and implementing evidence-based policies and interventions. Key activities include building local capacity in strategic information (SI) and the use of SI related to HIV/AIDS, STIs, and TB. EPHA also provides support for HIV surveillance among MARPS and their size estimates, strengthen public health laboratory capacity in the private sector, and support the Ethiopian Public Health Laboratory System (EPHLA). The emerging area of support also includes capacity building for the GOE particularly the FMOH/HAPCO and EHNRI in staffing and monitoring HIV surveillance activities. EPHA will also build its own capacity for effective management of its projects. EPHA operates at the national level. EPHA provides support and TA to RHB managers, lab staff; FMOH, FHAPCO, and EHNRI in their effort to improve HIV prevention and care services across the country. To be cost efficient, EPHA will continue to involve its members (more than 3000) who work all over Ethiopia in the public and private sectors. Aligning its activities with stakeholders, EPHA will collaborate with other professional associations. A comprehensive M&E plan with specific indicators for each activity will be used to track the progress. There will also be regular discussions, site visits, and project staff meetings as well as bi-annual review meetings, quarterly and semi-annual reports will also be in place.

In COP2010 EPHA carried out a pain management assessment in Ethiopia and the assessment results have been submitted to FMOH for endorsement. Currently, EPHA is waiting for approval of the protocol: Assessment of Implementation of the Basic HIV Preventive and Care services Program in Ethiopia from GAP. The findings of this assessment will be utilized to define the menu of care and support services and also used to revise national care and support guidelines and develop training manuals. Lack of resource mapping and service directories were some of the reasons observed in field visits and in the continuum of care assessment completed in 2011. Therefore, under COP2012 EPHA will undertake resource mapping activities in order to enhance the two way referral linkage of PLHIVs from the community to the health facility in an effort to increase service accessibility. The resource mapping and service directory will be further communicated to all partners and will be available in all health facilities. Based on the assessment findings of the pain management, EPHA will advocate for inclusion of the pain management recommendations in the pre-service as well as in-service trainings. EPHA coordinates the in service trainings on pain management.

The EPHA has been rendering support to the local capacity development of laboratories in partnership with the Ethiopian Public Health Laboratory Association (EPHLA). EPHLA was instrumental in filling the gaps in laboratory training programs in the private sector, emphasizing the development of technical and laboratory management capacity. This effort complemented the national effort to address the gaps identified in laboratory management in many facilities. EPHLA also supported the development and review of the National Laboratory Policy Guideline. In 2012, EPHA will support EPHLA to strengthen its administrative, project and financial management capacity in addition to its core mission of strengthening technical and management capacity of laboratory professionals and laboratory networks in Ethiopia. Under this support, EPHLA will build its capacity and evolve as a national professional organization in the field of public health laboratory science to make a difference in the public health laboratories in the country. EPHLA will also work toward empowering laboratory professionals by supporting and strengthening capacity-building trainings to member public- and private-sector laboratory professionals in collaboration with EHNRI, HHS/CDC and other stakeholders focusing quality laboratory towards accreditation. EPHLA should finalize and refine its 5-year strategic plan and align all its activities towards attaining the strategic goals included in the plan. It will work closely with the National Laboratory Technical Working Group (NLTWG), EMLA, APHL, training institutions and other stakeholders/advocates for the implementation of laboratory policy and quality lab service via accreditation. EPHLA will support the development of local organizational capacity through laboratory education, review meetings, workplace HIV/AIDS prevention, care and treatment program. In addition, EPHLA will work with training institutions to advance their development, harmonize and standardize laboratory trainings, and support development of accreditation systems for laboratories and laboratory professionals for ownership, transition and sustainability.

This is a continuing activity. The goal of this activity is to build local capacity for evidence based decision making related to HIV/AIDS/STI and other public health challenges in Ethiopia. This includes support for the Ethiopian Field Epidemiology and Laboratory training program (EFELTP), leadership in strategic information (LSI) course, dissemination and use of SI through standing EPHA publications, and support for local demographic health surveillance (DHSS) sites. EPHA will also support FHAPCO, FMOH and EHNRI through key staff technical secondments and provide support for M&E of surveillance and survey activities including site assessments.The low capacity to prevent and control epidemics, the lack of skilled personnel, and poor surveillance systems are identified by the FMOH as key challenges in responding to the epidemics in Ethiopia. LSI and EFELTP trainings are designed to respond to these gaps. EPHA has supported 13 masters-level graduates and recruited 23 new trainees in EFELTP, and supported more than 160 trainees in LSI. In FY 2012, EPHA will continue supporting both these trainings. EPHA will continue to support the dissemination of SI through its annual national conferences, and development and dissemination of standing EPHA publications. EPHA has worked with six local networked university partners to strengthen DHSS for major sections of Ethiopia. This has enabled EPHA to collect, analyze, disseminate and use information on major causes of death, other vital events, and support the pre-service education of surveillance officers. In FY 2012, EPHA will focus on sustainability by continuing support for its own printing press and providing support for local capacity building and evidence based decision making through the training of RHB staff and local experts on research methods and human subjects protection. EPHA will continue to strengthen its technical, managerial and leadership capacity to effectively manage its activities. EPHA will continue supporting DHSS sites at Addis Ababa, Haramaya, Jimma, Gondar, Mekele, and Arba-Minch Universities and will also support MARP surveys.

This is a continuing activity. EPHA will involve its expert members in conducting further analysis of upcoming results from DHS and the national MARPs survey, to assist in future intervention designs. One example is a pilot project to increase uptake of couple HIV testing in the context of antenatal care and delivery. Interventions to increase uptake of HCT among couples in high risk contexts (transactional sex, mobile workers, etc) is also being considered.