Ethiopia

Pathfinder’s work greatly expanded in 1995, with the opening of our Ethiopia country office. Serving an area that encompasses 85 percent of the population, including many people living in remote, rural areas, our programs are pioneering and effective.

Mengistu Asnake, Pathfinder’s Ethiopia Country Representative, knows progress has been made. He remembers the state of reproductive health in 1990, when the country’s contraceptive prevalence rate was a mere 3%.

He recalls visiting a group of women in a rural village. “They had all been married by 15, had an average of 7 or 8 children, and believed pregnancy needed to occur every year—to prove their fertility to their husbands and community.”

“In the last few years, we’ve seen a significant shift,” he says. Preliminary data from the 2011 DHS show that the CPR increased by almost 30%. This makes Ethiopia one of only 3 countries to document a percentage change of this magnitude.

Today, our partnerships with governments, local NGOs, and communities are leading to advances in maternal and child health; postabortion care; services for young people and those affected by HIV and AIDS; and family planning.

More women can access the services they need, thanks to the government of Ethiopia; mobilization of donor resources; and strong collaboration with civil-society organizations, the private sector, and international nonprofits, like Pathfinder.

Ethiopia faces a tremendous number of challenges to development, compounded by a rapidly growing population and a vast, rugged geographic expanse.

Over 83 percent of the population resides in isolated, hard-to-reach villages, presenting major difficulties in health care and service delivery. Harmful traditional practices-like female genital cutting and early marriage-make gender inequality highly visible, limiting educational and employment opportunities for women and girls.

Ethiopia has the second largest population in sub-Sahara Africa, with the average woman bearing 4.8 children, placing an insupportable burden on families, communities and a country facing chronic food shortages and environmental degradation. Additionally, the need for increased access to family planning and reproductive health care is demonstrated by Ethiopia's high rate of maternal mortality and low rate of contraceptive use. And while Ethiopia's HIV prevalence rate is lower than many countries in sub-Saharan Africa, HIV and AIDS continue to impact communities and the health systems on which they depend.

In the 1950s, Pathfinder supported the establishment of the first family planning and reproductive health clinic in Ethiopia by providing funds to what is now known as the Family Guidance Association of Ethiopia. By providing technical and financial assistance, Pathfinder helped expand community-based family planning and service delivery through a community distribution network managed by local civil society organizations and the private sector. Today, Pathfinder supports the Ethiopian government's community-based health extension program, providing technical assistance and financial support at federal, regional, zonal, district, facility, and community levels.

While 45 percent of births in urban areas of Ethiopia are attended by skilled health personnel, this is true for only 3 percent of births in rural areas.