ADDIS ABABA – July 11, 2025 (NIPN) - Advisory Committee (AC) of the National Information Platform for Nutrition (NIPN-Ethiopia) appraised here yesterday the performances carried out over the past six months.
Welcoming AC members, Dr. Sisay Sinamo, A/Chair of the AC and Senior Program Manager of the Seqota Declaration (SD) Federal Program Delivery Unit at the Ministry of Health (MoH), and SUN (Scaling Up Nutrition) Focal Person, said that the regular meeting would focus on the major performances and discuss general points raised on the report and the agreed-upon action points from the previous meeting.
Briefing the AC members, NIPN-Ethiopia Coordinator Dr. Aregash Samuel mentioned the major achievements of the program witnessed over the last six months. She said that NIPN-Ethiopia has completed analysis of technical reports for 12 outputs. Impact of scaling up nutrition interventions on reduction of low-birth-weight in Ethiopia: a Lives Saved Tool modeling analysis; effects of school feeding on educational and nutritional outcomes in Ethiopia; updates of policy inputs by nutrition policy makers in Ethiopia; and formative assessment to explore oil use knowledge, attitudes, and practices among urban dwellers in major cities were among the major performances accomplished by NIPN-Ethiopia, according to the coordinator.
Dr. Aregash further noted that NIPN-Ethiopia has made remarkable efforts to strengthen the skill and knowledge capacity of researchers in the health sector at the sub-regional level. “We have also provided materials such as laptop computers and Wi-Fi access points to the public health institutes in three regions. We are pleased that many young researchers have been able to gain knowledge on data management and data processing. We have provided them a training to the data software that is essential for their day-to-day research activities,” she said.
Earlier, the secretary of the NIPN AC and the Director of the Nutrition, Environmental Health, and Non-Communicable Disease Research Directorate at the Ethiopian Public Health Institute (EPHI), Dr. Masresha Tessema, presented a list of the agreed action points from the previous meeting. He raised points such as AC members participation and the need for the scorecard, which has gone operational since last year to ensure regular attendance of members; the AC experience-sharing program with particular focus on the recent visit to India; and the updated dashboard status that should be operational soon. Dr Masresha has also indicated in the agreed action points that NIPN-Ethiopia should promote its outputs across various platforms, including policy dialogue; and follow up on the cost of hunger study.
Key findings of the End User Assessment were presented by Melaku Bayable, NIPN-Ethiopia School Health and Nutrition Advisor, with his special duty station at the Ministry of Education. Melaku touched on in his presentation that the general objective of the study was to explore the uptake of policy makers focusing on NIPN’s contribution to informed decision-making in Ethiopia. He also raised the key findings, stating that NIPN research was highly aligned and valued. “NIPN’s research was appraised as highly relevant as it was conducted on a demand-driven basis,” he stated.
The other presentation made during the biannual AC meeting was by NIPN-Ethiopia advisor from GIZ, Dr. Archana Sarkar, on the Low-Cost School Feeding Menu Booklet for the School Feeding Program. She said that the document was meant for developing a comprehensive guide for creating nutritionally balanced, culturally appropriate, and cost-effective school feeding menus tailored to the needs of primary school students in the capital, Addis Ababa.
Archana also presented key takeaways from the recently held official visit to India. AC members who took part in the visit shared reflections during the meeting.
Following the discussions and reflection on all the presentations by AC members, Dr. Sisay Sinamo wrapped up the meeting by highlighting the major points. He said that performances on policy questions formulation, dashboard, cascading NIPN project, among others, are going well, and much work still needs to be done on the implementation of the sustainability plan, mainly from two perspectives: namely, transitioning activities to other appropriate units ahead of time, and the other perspective is to look for other sources or partners to secure funding.
The regular biannual meeting of the NIPN-Ethiopia AC was held at Harmony Hotel. (NIPN)
