Reduce anaemia among women of reproductive age

The Ethiopia government commits to reduce the prevalence of anaemia among women of reproductive age from 20% to 13% by 2030 by performing the following actions through multisectoral coordination and partnership with the UN, civil society organisations, donors, academia and the private sector.

• Government

Action 1: Strengthen health systems. Increase the availability and accessibility of quality healthcare services, particularly in rural areas.

Action 2: Improve nutrition. Implement nutrition education programmes to promote the consumption of iron and folate-rich foods.

Action 3: Improve access to clean water and sanitation facilities and promote good hygiene practices to reduce the risk of infections.

Action 4: Strengthen response capacity during conflict and disasters. Ensure the continuity of essential health services, including iron and folic acid (IFA)/multiple micronutrient supplements (MMS) and weekly IFA supplementation programmes.

Action 5: Foster multisectoral collaboration.

• Civil society organizations

Action 1: Support the government’s effort in reducing anaemia among women of reproductive age.

Action 2: Foster community engagement. Use community-based approaches to engage women and their families in anaemia prevention. Empower women to make informed decisions.

• UN

Action 1: Support health systems to improve nutrition services. Support a smooth IFA to MMS transition, expansion and scale-up of MMS.

National Scaling Up of Weekly Iron and Folic Acid Supplementation (WIFAS) to Adolescent Girls

Action 2: Support food production, social and behaviour change communication interventions and national fortification. Improve nutrition by supporting the implementation of mandatory food fortification. Support household food production and linking to vulnerable communities.

Action 3: Support and advocate for local production and domestic financing.

• Donors

Action 1: Finance anaemia prevention efforts by other stakeholders, including the government, UN agencies, CSOs, the private sector and academia.

• Academia

Action 1: Strengthen research and monitoring. Conduct research to better understand causes and risk factors of anaemia in different contexts. Evaluate the effectiveness of different interventions. Establish and strengthen surveillance systems to monitor the prevalence of anaemia. Continue supporting the piloting and further scale-up of double-fortified salt with iron and folic acid. Use data to inform programme planning, implementation and evaluation.

• Private sector

Action 1: Foster implementation of the national mandatory food fortification agenda.

Action 2: Food processing companies to enrich foods with more iron and folate source foods.

Action 3: Strive for technology transfer and start the production of premix, MMS, weekly IFA and IFA in the country.

• Community

Enhance diversified household food production to improve women diets. Strengthen collaboration and enhance community movements. Mobilise community resources. Support the implementation.