My Work at the Federal Ministry of Health

VSO has been working in Ethiopia since 1997, first in the area of education and more recently in health.

In 2005 the government put in place the first Health Sector Development Plan (HSDP). This plan in now in it’s fourth phase and a key focus of the plan is to use Information and Communication Technology (ICT) to improve health care delivery and outcomes. Work has been undertaken to pilot electronic systems to collect management information (e.g. for planning, finance and human resource management) and develop an electronic medical record.

My role here in Ethiopia is as a ‘Health IT Expert’ working for the Federal Ministry of Health (FMOH). I will be undertaking an evaluation of the electronic medical record pilot and helping to devise a strategy for national roll-out. The government has defined a very challenging timescale for roll-out, with a target of full implementation across health centres and hospitals by 2015. 

On a day to day basis, I expect to be meeting with various stakeholders and visiting pilot sites across the country to understand what has been implemented and how it works, the barriers and challenges encountered and lessons learnt. Having conducted similar evaluation projects in the UK and Saudi Arabia, it will be interesting to compare and contrast the different contexts and implementation strategies.

These photos show a line taxi which is how I get to work and various sights along the way. My office and desk space don’t make particularly interesting viewing.