ESOG News

Expression of Endorsement, Dr. Tedros Adhanom

We, the Executive Board members at the Ethiopian Society of Obstetrics and Gynecologists (ESOG) hereby endorse the candidacy of Dr. Tedros Adhanom unanimously for the post of Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO). 

This endorsement was based on our expressed confidence in his outstanding ability, capacity and visionary leadership which were demonstrated while he was the Minister of Health and his current post as Minister of Foreign Affairs.

Dr Tedros had introduced a number of health system reforms which significantly improved access to health services in general and that of the maternal, women and newborn health in particular.

Some of the most outstanding achievements were, among others, the training and deployment of over 38,000 Health Extension Workers (HEWs) who were instrumental to revolutionalize the primary health care delivery system.

Furthermore, it was under Dr. Tedros’s leadership that the scale up of the training of the health workforce and deployment strategy were made possible and become operational following which thousands of doctors, nurses, pharmacists, laboratory technologists, integrated emergency officers and health officers were trained and deployed with improved working condition and level of motivation than ever before.

Following the introduction of the above mentioned and other measures, he had contributed to the significant decline of maternal mortality and morbidity and the newborn mortality. Moreover, he was instrumental in improving the family planning uptake, antenatal care coverage, skilled birth attendance and institutional delivery.

He had been supportive in his role at both ministerial offices for our Society activities as an important partner and had played a pivotal role and in the smooth organization and conduct of the first ever FIGO Africa conference in October 2013 without whom it would have been difficult to carry out such an important and big event.

Finally, if he is elected for this important global post, we believe he will continue to provide his strong leadership so as to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals in health globally.

 

Sincerely,

 

 

Dereje Negussie, M.D/Obgyn, PgD-RM, MPH

President, ESOG

CME on MDSR Continued

The Ethiopian Society of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ESOG) and the Evidence for Action (WHO/E4A) conducted a Continuing Medical Education (CME) on Maternal Death Surveillance and Response (MDSR) in Hawassa on May 14, 2016. The trainees were obstetricians and gynecologists, midwives, emergency surgical officers, hospital management bodies, regional health bureau officials and relevant people from zonal health offices.  Having started in Bahir Dar, there will be 4 more similar CMEs to be conducted until the end of June 2016 in Jimma, Dessie and Adama.  

National Symposium Conducted on MDSR

A National Symposium on Maternal Death Surveillance and Response (MDSR) system was conducted at Capital Hotel and Spa on April 20-21, 2016. The symposium was organized by the Federal Ministry of Health (FMoH) in collaboration with World Health Organization/ Evidence for Action (WHO/E4A), Department for International Development Ethiopia (DFID-Ethiopia), UKAID, and the University of Aberdeen. The Ethiopian Society of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ESOG) took the role of organizing the event.

The event started with a series of opening remarks by dignitaries including Dr. Ephrem Tekle, director of Maternal and Child Health at FMoH and Bobby Stansfield, acting head of Human Development Team at DFID-Ethiopia. Following was an award given to Prof. Wendy Graham for her active role in reproductive health issues in Ethiopia and presentations by the Professor herself and Dr. Ruth Lawley and Dr. Azmach Hadush from WHO.  

Attending the event were also representatives from the Regional Health Bureaus (RHBs), who presented their performances on MDSR, except for the Oromia and Afar regions who were not present during the two days event. The event did not complete without seeing presentations from RHBs on their action plans what they will do to improve their MDSR performances.