New Leadership in Primary Health Care in Ethiopia

The Ethiopian government has developed and prioritized a safety and quality strategy to improve care at various levels of its health system. The USAID Quality Healthcare Activity (QHA) operationalizes this work and, in its first year, has promoted high-quality care at public and private primary and referral health facilities in urban and peri-urban areas. Yenealem Tadesse, QHA’s deputy chief of party, has championed this work and will now oversee this large-scale, ambitious initiative as chief of party.

Dr. Tadesse has spent her career in service to Ethiopia’s primary health care system. Starting as a pediatrician in primary health care units and referral hospitals across the country, she moved into leading health care initiatives with local and global partner organizations in Ethiopia. She has worked closely with the Ministry of Health to improve reproductive, maternal, newborn, child, and adolescent health services nation-wide.

QHA has the ability to transform service offerings for women and children, and I am thrilled to lead this highly skilled team of experts toward our mission to enhance health outcomes and ensure system accountability, while guiding innovative and sustainable health care solutions,” said Dr. Tadesse

Through QHA, JSI’s locally led team and partners are building a whole-systems approach to quality that includes continuous and adaptive learning and scale-up of proven strategies and innovations. QHA offers custom structural and performance quality improvement interventions across 2,239 health facilities in 67 woredas. A learning, monitoring, and evaluation foundation guides data use to inform interventions, direct evidence to enhance outcomes, and ensure accountability.

Check out the latest viewpoint from the USAID Quality Healthcare Activity team.