The EU is supporting IGAD’s effort to mitigate the impact of COVID-19 pandemic in the IGAD region. The EU launched this action last year, as an immediate gesture of solidarity to respond to the call for international support made by IGAD Heads of States, Health and Finance Ministers to help to mitigate the impact of the pandemic in the Horn of Africa.
It is part of the joint efforts of Team Europe (EU and EU member states) to take a comprehensive and decisive action to support partner countries to face the pandemic and its consequences. The programme addresses a very real and critical need in the IGAD sub-region, and promotes regional cooperation and a collaborative response to shared concerns caused by the pandemic, especially to the most vulnerable populations in cross-border areas. This project aims not to leave one behind and focuses on vulnerable groups, including migrants, refugees, internally displaced persons and cross-border communities through a variety of short and long-term interventions. It also aims at increasing access to health, specifically in cross border areas and establishing safe trading areas at border crossings to support the continuation of critical supply chains.
To this aim, the European Union has allocated 60Million Euro in the context of the European Union – Regional Indicative Programme 2014-2020 for Eastern Africa, Southern Africa and the Indian Ocean.
EU supporting the IGAD efforts to mitigate COVID-19 pandemic on the IGAD region
TACKLING HEALTH
The saying “Health is wealth” is a universal accepted quote since for anyone to function in the hustles and bustles of everyday life, health remains key. To this end, apart from government which plays an integral part to secure the health of its citizens, NGOs have played a crucial role in securing the same.
One such acclaimed NGO tackling health at a global playing field is Vital Strategies. Here in Ethiopia, Dawit Bisrat leads the global NGO as the Country Director. He leads the Resolve to Save Lives’ Cardiovascular Health Initiative, Prevent Epidemics, and Data for Health Initiative teams. He also leads the Vital Strategies effort to support the government of Ethiopia’s response to COVID-19. Dawit is a public health and healthcare leadership expert with international experience for more than ten years.
Dawit holds a general MPH from Haramaya University in Ethiopia and an MBA in International Business Analytics from Greenwich University in London. He is currently pursuing a Ph.D. Capital got hold of Dawit for an inside look of the NGO’s programs as well as its activities. Excepts;
Capital: Describe to us what Vital Strategies does?
Dawit Bisrat: Vital Strategies is a leading global health organization, headquartered in New York, that works with governments, non-government organizations and civil society around the world and takes on the most pressing health problems to save millions of lives from preventable death and diseases. Our work focuses on addressing some of the most critical and neglected health issues our world currently faces, including cardiovascular disease, epidemic prevention, road safety, food policy, tobacco control, and more. We envision a world where everyone is protected by a strong public health system.
Our approach revolves around promoting and shaping global health priorities through strengthening the collection and use of data to inform government action; engaging in strategic communication, campaigns, and advocacy to influence policies and behavior; and supporting governments in key aspects of public health practices and managing large scale health initiatives to helping millions of people live longer and healthier life.
Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, we have also been supporting over 60 countries technically and financially in their response. Some of our work in this regard includes providing on-the-ground trainings, producing data-driven tools and guidance, provision of rapid flexible response funds, and leveraging technology to enhance the COVID-19 response.
Vital strategies’ programs reach into more than 70 countries worldwide and have touched the lives of 2 Billion people.
Capital: The Addis Ababa office being relatively new, what went in to the process of choosing Ethiopia as part of Vital Strategies’ global network?
Dawit Bisrat: Ethiopia has shown tremendous improvement on the health system and the health system is utilizing the development support efficiently to benefit the community at the ground level. It is a promising development for any partners to implement programs in Ethiopia.
While we have worked in Ethiopia for years, our new office gives us greater opportunity to support critical health initiatives, supporting our partners in improving health outcomes and overcoming emerging health challenges. We’re better poised to build on and learn from the vibrant community who are taking on the next generation of health challenges that Ethiopians know all too well, including COVID-19 and other infectious threats, to road injury and non-communicable disease.
Our ongoing work includes hypertension control, a road safety program to prevent injury and death on the roads, collecting and using data to inform public health policy decisions, and improving civil registration and vital statistics, and efforts to support the government of Ethiopia’s response to COVID-19. The office has provided a base for our expanded Prevent Epidemics team to work with Ethiopia and support COVID-19 communication and health care worker training. By establishing our office here, we hope to make an even greater impact.
Capital: The Ethiopian Office is set to focus on responding to COVID-19 response, improving cardiovascular health, preventing road injury and supporting civil registration and vital statics amongst other initiatives. Elaborate for us your initiatives and strategic plans to this regard?
Dawit Bisrat: The programs and initiatives in Ethiopia now include Cardiovascular Health Initiatives, Prevent Epidemics, Road Safety, Partnership for Healthy Cities, and Civil Registration an3d Vital Statistics.
In terms of the COVID-19 response in Ethiopia, through an investment of over 1.5 million USD, we have supported activities such as surveillance, non-pharmaceutical intervention survey, training of health professionals, provision of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) to selected health facilities, Rapid Mortality Surveillance to measure if there any excess death from COVID, and we are currently supporting COVID-19 related risk communication work and vulnerable group mapping exercise in Addis Ababa city. Given that the COVID-19 vaccine has been brought into Ethiopia by the Ministry of Health through the COVAX initiative, we are also supporting the Ministry in vaccine related communication work.
With regards to cardiovascular health, there are 11.5 million people who have high blood pressure in Ethiopia and 16% of all deaths are due to cardiovascular disease. Hence, our works focuses on improving hypertension detection and control at primary healthcare, bring behavioral change related to harmful effects of a high salt diet and benefits of reducing salt intake and support the creation of government programs and policies that promote healthy diets through trans-fat elimination, food front of packages labeling and marketing restrictions for unhealthy food. All the above-mentioned interventions would prevent people from dying prematurely of cardiovascular disease and improve quality of life.
The road safety program, one of Vital Strategies’ earliest engagements in Ethiopia, aims to provide support in strategic communications and in social marketing/media campaigns to promote safer driving and compliance with traffic regulations in Ethiopia and to support government to implement best practices and establish funding mechanism for long-term success.
The Civic Registration and Vital Statistics (CRVS) initiative has been supporting the Ministry of Health, Immigration, National, Vital Events Agency (INVEA) and Central Statistics Agency (CSA) to improve national registration, statistical production, and vital statistics respectively. Unlike many other developed countries, Ethiopia does not have a fully developed CRVS system; among other indicators, more than 84% of births and 96% of deaths are not registered in Ethiopia. Hence, our CRVS team is working to revitalize the CRVS system in collaboration with partners, develop strategic documents and targets to achieve the SDG goals. With regards to COVID-19, the CRVS project is also currently working on identifying excess mortality along with causes of death to better understand the magnitude of potential COVID-19 mortality. This program helps the government to make informed decisions for policy designing, resource allocation and also has positive legal and statistical implications.
Therefore, through an approach centered on evidence and data, we hope to contribute to millions of Ethiopians living healthier and longer lives.
Capital: You recently unveiled a campaign to encourage Ethiopians to cut salt consumption in half. Can you further elaborate on this intriguing campaign?
Dawit Bisrat: Non-communicable disease has taken the lives of too many Ethiopians. Excess salt is a primary contributor to cardiovascular deaths in Ethiopia every year. The average salt intake in Ethiopia is 8.3 grams per day, far above the World Health Organization’s recommended limit of less than 5 grams per day. High-salt diets are directly linked to high blood pressure, which can lead to heart attack, kidney failure, and stroke. One out of every six adults in Ethiopia has high blood pressure, and 32.4% of cardiovascular deaths can be attributed to high salt intake. The recently finalized Salt reduction media campaign main goal was to create awareness among the community to reduce their daily salt intake by half. Research showed that the main source of salt consumption in Ethiopia are homemade foods. We believe that the camping will bring behavioral and attitudinal change among the community in reduction of salt consumption.
Capital: Who are your partners and supporters that have been of great contribution to the success of your projects over the years since your inception?
Dawit Bisrat: At Vital Strategies collaboration is an important aspect of our work. Globally, we partner with governments, leading researchers, schools, lawyers, food makers, journalists, technological innovators, and other change makers.
Our collaborations span foundations, non-governmental organizations, and governments across sectors. Some of our major funders globally are Bloomberg Philanthropies, USAID, Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and more.
We work with governments in over 70 countries which means we work closely with ministries of health, road authorities, food and drug regulators, among many other government structures. These partnerships have been critical in designing effective, evidence-based, and sustainable interventions which contribute to strengthening public health systems. We also work closely with global bodies such as the World Health Organization and the World Bank which have been key partners in our work across different countries.
Across the different Vital Strategies initiatives and programs, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (US-CDC), the CDC Foundation, African Field Epidemiology Network (AFENET), The Global Health Advocacy Incubator (GHAI) and many more are key partners in our efforts to champion sustainable public health policies and practices.
It is through such collaborations and partnerships that Vital Strategies can touch the lives of billions across the globe and bring about impressive change in its areas of engagement. For instance, Vital Strategies has helped reduce fatalities from road crashes by as much as 50% in several cities. We will continue to strengthen these collaborations to amplify the work that is being done so more people can benefit from it.
Capital: What have been some of the challenges that Vital Strategies faces around its global networks and Ethiopia? What are your avenues of overcoming such challenges?
Dawit Bisrat: Vital Strategies as a global public health organization works with different governments in strengthening their health system. Globally we implement programs in more than 70 countries including Ethiopia. So far Vital Strategies did not face strong challenges. We believe that is because of the principles that we apply, and our partnership is with governments and civil societies. Furthermore, our support is based on the government needs and we are very much adaptable to fit in their system without compromising the principles of our organization such as scalability, speed, and time sensitive interventions. For example, one of our support areas is on cardiovascular health with a focus on hypertension prevention and control. Generally, non-communicable diseases in Ethiopia did not get due emphasis and it is an area of limited support from other partners. Vital strategies with the initiative of Resolve to Save Lives is currently implementing programs where we supply medication, BP devices and technical support for 70 health facilities. Generally speaking, by supporting the government with real gaps/intervention areas, we are able to minimize challenges we are faced with.
EIB President welcomes COVAX vaccine deliveries in 100 countries
More than one hundred economies have received life-saving COVID-19 vaccines from COVAX, the global mechanism for equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines. The milestone comes 42 days after the first COVAX doses were shipped and delivered internationally, to Ghana on February 24th.
The President of the European Investment Bank Werner Hoyer welcomed confirmation of COVAX delivering of COVID-19 vaccines around the world.
“As part of Team Europe the European Investment Bank is pleased to provide EUR 400 million for COVAX, representing the EIB’s largest ever support for global public health. COVAX has already provided vaccines to vulnerable groups and front-line workers and brought hope to millions more. COVAX demonstrates the benefit of global cooperation to tackle the shared challenge of COVID. Congratulations to the COVAX team and global partners in 100 countries around the world. Together we are ensuring equitable access to vaccines and together we are directing our efforts towards a global recovery.” said Werner Hoyer, President of the European Investment Bank.
The Asian world and international trade
History book well recorded the fact that a millennium ago, the Asian world was a place of great empires and large capital cities. In Southeast Asia were the kingdoms of Srivajaya, Pagan, Angkor, Champa and Dai Viet. China went through dynastic changes but was strongly linked to the rest of Asia. India had empires as well such as the Kushans, the Sultanates and the Mughals based at Delhi, as well as the Cholas and Vijayanagara in the south. Likewise, Central Asia had Genghis Khan’s empire, the largest the world has ever known, and it had the empire of Timur.
Stewart Gordon, in his 2008 published memoir entitled “When Asia Was the World: Traveling Merchants, Scholars, Warriors and Monks Who Created the ‘Riches of the East’” stated that the populations of these realms were, in many cases, larger than the whole of Western Europe. Asia was a vast world of contrast, from deserts to mountains, from monsoon rain forest to dry plains. It held a bewildering variety of cultures and languages of the likes of many local religions and varieties of Buddhism, Islam and Hinduism that spread across wide regions.
But it was its networks that made the great Asian world unique. Bureaucrats, scholars, slaves, ideas, religions and plants moved along its intersecting routes. Family ties stretched across thousands of miles. Traders found markets for products ranging from heavy recycled bronze to the most diaphanous silks. Asian empires tended to promote linkages and connections to other kingdoms in several ways. Often their own territories crossed “natural” ecological boundaries and brought together regions and societies in unexpected ways.
As Stewart Gordon noted, a millennium ago, the Kushans, the Afghans and the Mughals established empires that successfully ruled both sides of the formidable Himalayas. The South Indian Chola kingdom built a navy and conquered the islands of Sri Lanka, Java, and Sumatra, politically tying together India and Southeast Asia. Genghis Khan ruled both the steppe and large areas of agricultural China.
Administrative continuities generally promoted trade between ecologically different regions: the trade in horses from the steppe to the plains of India, in rice from south to north China, in steel from Damascus to Afghanistan. The big states also produced widely used currencies, such as Chinese cash and silver dirhams, and established standards for normalizing local weights and measures.
They also frequently organized postal systems for reliable communication. One could send a letter from Mangalore and have it arrived in Cairo in slightly over a month. A letter of introduction went from the far western border of India to Delhi and back in less than two months. Although the big capital cities such as Delhi, Beijing, Baghdad, Vijayanagara, were impressive and often many times the size of any European city of the time, the importance of medium-sized cities cannot be over emphasized.
These empires, by and large, rose by the expansion of power of a regional family based in a medium-sized city their regional capital. When empires fell, they generally devolved into regional successor states. The regional capitals usually not only survived, but also they thrived. Medium-sized cities thus remained long-term sources of demand, learning, and patronage, and in addition, they produced the bureaucrats necessary to run an empire.
Cities, large and small, needed basic food, fabric, fuel and building materials. The elite of these cities attracted the more sophisticated trade goods of the Asian world. The Chinese urban elite generated an almost insatiable demand for ivory, both African and Southeast Asian, which found its way into religious statues, pens, fans, boxes and the decoration of furniture.
According to Stewart Gordon, their demand for the most aromatic incense in the world was filled by incense logs and bushes from Southeast Asia and India. The demand for elegant clothes and beautiful colours in population centres of the Middle East, India and Southeast Asia pushed discovery of and trade in new plant dyes. The urban centres were also places of specialized manufacture that created trade opportunities and employment for these skills. Cities produced books, artwork, fine fabrics, sophisticated musical instruments, jewellery and scientific instruments, all of which were in demand throughout the Asian world.
Syria’s capital Damascus developed steelmaking to such a high art and in such quantity that traders brought its products to all parts of the Asian world. Damascus blades were just as ubiquitous in Indonesia as they were in Central Asia. China produced prodigious quantities of ceramics that were traded across the Asian world, from the Philippines and Japan to the west coast of Africa. Trade mattered. The volume and variety of trade affected much of the population of the great Asian world.
Tropical spices and medicines moved north to the plains of India, west into the Middle East and east into China. These medicinal plants were not “discovered” by doctors in cities, but much less by the traders who brought them. These spices and medicines were first discovered by the forest dwellers who experimented with their local profusion of plants. The great Asian world included not just traders and courts but reached deep into the forests of Southeast Asia, the hills above the Malabar Coast, and the pearl beds of Sri Lanka.
Stewart Gordon noted that trade served the spread of the universalizing religions. Ritual objects and books of both Buddhism and Islam came from specialized centres and moved along both water routes and caravan routes to Tibet, Central Asia, Southeast Asia and China. Trade in the great Asian world included the exotic, the prosaic and everything in between. At one extreme, a giraffe was somehow transported from Africa to the imperial court of China.
At the other extreme, fish paste produced on the coast of Thailand and ordinary Chinese iron cooking pots were regular, profitable items traded to the islands of Southeast Asia. Rice, the most prosaic of foods in India, China and Southeast Asia, became a high-status food across the steppe world. Every ship and every caravan carried a range of goods from the precious to the mundane.
