ADDIS ABABA – December 25, 2024 (EPHI) - The Nutrition, Environmental Health, and Non-Communicable Disease Research Directorate (aka Nutrition Directorate) held a day-long general bi-annual meeting here yesterday, December 24, 2024, where employees reviewed and discussed performance reports from various divisions within the directorate.
Dr. Masresha Tessema, Director of the Nutrition Directorate, opened the meeting by highlighting the various promising activities the directorate has accomplished over the last six months. He said that the directorate is making good progress and is on track to meet the objectives outlined in the annual plan. He also mentioned, among other things, that efforts had been made to establish new partnerships with various stakeholders, including governmental and non-governmental organizations, as well as academic institutions. “Our directorate has initiated new projects that significantly impact public health,” he stated.
Dr. Masresha further said that his directorate had facilitated opportunities for over 13 researchers to pursue advanced education at prestigious institutions in Europe and the United States. He also highlighted the challenges the directorate faced while implementing its annual performance plan. Among the issues mentioned were low salary payments and high employee turnover.
Dr. Masresha concluded his opening remarks by expressing gratitude to the employees for their unwavering dedication to the directorate’s success. “Our achievements would not have been possible without your efforts,” he said.
Coordinators from various divisions within the directorate presented updates on their respective performances. Each coordinator discussed progress, strengths; challenges encountered and proposed plans for moving forward.
Many of the division coordinators highlighted key challenges affecting their daily operations, including high staff turnover, inefficient procurement process, lack of motivational incentives, insufficient laboratory chemical reagents, shortage of laboratory technicians, and inadequate provisions of field vehicles.
Meeting participants shared questions, comments and suggestions. One employee proposed that, given the limited time available to thoroughly follow the presentations of all projects, it would be beneficial to dedicate one or two days each month to research discussions. This would allow everyone to learn from each other and exchange experiences, according to him.
Dr. Masresha, the director, concluded the day-long meeting with directives and comments. He emphasized the importance of learning from each other’s strengths and weaknesses to foster collective improvement. “We should strive to become a center of excellence for the WASH project,” he said. He also underscored the need for consistency in Power Point presentations that could be improved through training on institutional capacity building, which the NIPN (the National Information Platforms for Nutrition-Ethiopia) could help coordinate.
Dr. Masresha mentioned that researchers could use the NIPN’s platforms to present their projects. He further noted that studies conducted by the Ethiopian Public Health Institute (EPHI) should not be presented or shared for any other purpose in any forum without prior permission from the EPHI. “Researches conducted here are the properties of the institute,” he noted.
Over 50 employees of the Nutrition Directorate attended the bi-annual meeting, which was held at the National Training Center of EPHI. (EPHI)