The U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) organized a week-long capacity building training for 31 senior Monitoring and Evaluation Officers from regional health bureaus around the country on February 4-8, 2019 in Addis Ababa.

This training invested in the capacity of regional Monitoring and Evaluation leaders to more effectively monitor public health programs, collect reliable data, and identify areas for improvement.

The 2015 strategy for the United States President’s Emergency Plan For AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) involves the use of all available data, “down to the most granular site level,” to inform decisions about priority locations, populations, interventions, and partnerships within a target country in order to achieve epidemic control. 

The benefits of the investments through PEPFAR training programs can extend to other areas as well, supporting Ethiopia’s ability to manage and improve public health programs overall. 

Monitoring and Evaluation helps in collecting, analyzing and transforming health data into strategic information for informed decision making, improved effectiveness and enhanced advocacy in health programs, which are critical components to achieving and sustaining the epidemic control. 

The partnership between the United States Government and Ethiopia has resulted in remarkable progress in achieving the epidemic control in Ethiopia. Ethiopia is among only a few countries in Africa that are within reach of meeting the UNAIDS treatment goals by 2020, namely: having 90 percent of those infected know their status; having 90 percent of those diagnosed receive treatment; and having 90 percent of those receiving treatment achieve viral suppression.