By: Shimelash Bitew Aster is a young woman living in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. She has a BSc from Hawassa University in statistics. Prior to joining the Performance Monitoring for Action (PMA) project, she had various experience collecting and analyzing data. …

Understanding the complexities of unintended pregnancy and postpartum family planning use. By Jennifer Choi Unintended pregnancies are pregnancies that are usually either unwanted or mistimed. The research on this topic suggests that women who have had an unintended pregnancy are likely to have another unintended pregnancy at some time in the future. However, little is known about the influence of the…

PMA Ethiopia Hosts Data use workshop for regional health bureaus and Ethiopian-based researchers. By Shimelash Bitew. Performance Monitoring for Action Ethiopia (PMA ET) conducted two separate workshops on data use for Ethiopian-based researchers and regional health bureau experts from August 10–11,2023 and August 14–15,2023, respectively. …

Work still to be done: Home-based optimal newborn care practice in Ethiopia. By: Shikur Mohammed. Over the last two decades, Ethiopia has shown remarkable progress in reducing infant and under-5 mortality; however, the decline in neonatal mortality is not as pronounced. Optimal essential newborn care is a series of effective interventions to decrease neonatal mortality. However, the practice is low in many developing countries including…

By Dr. Elizabeth Stierman — Despite improvements in recent decades, significant equity gaps persist in access to quality maternal health services in Ethiopia. Increasing numbers of women are choosing to give birth at a health facility instead of home, but the quality of childbirth care services they encounter at these facilities varies widely. …

This month we are featuring the Master’s Essay presentations of three students at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in the Department of Population and Reproductive Health. The three students, Maanasa, Isabella and Shira, all used PMA Ethiopia data for their research papers. …

By Zemene Yohannes PMA Ethiopia, in collaboration with the Ministry of Health of Ethiopia (MOH), conducted a national data dissemination event to share the results from the second cohort 6-week follow up survey. The event was held on April 28th, in Addis Ababa. …

By Zemene Yohannes Ayele Tsegaye, a supervisor for PMA Ethiopia and previously PMA2020 Ethiopia, has worked in this role since 2014. Ayele recently spoke to us about his journey with PMA Ethiopia, and the experience he gained as a supervisor working in the SNNP region. In reflecting on his experience…

By Elizabeth Stierman Every woman has a right to dignified, respectful care during pregnancy and childbirth. Unfortunately, disrespectful treatment of patients during childbirth is far too common, and too little attention is given to ensuring effective communication and emotional support. …