ADDIS ABABA – August 18, 2025 - NIPN-Ethiopia team and members of supporting partners, Capacity for Nutrition (C4N), had their Quarterly Progress Monitoring (QPM) meeting highlighting majorly the status of the ongoing project activities.
NIPN-Ethiopia Coordinator, Dr. Aregash Samuel, briefed Zoom meeting participants about the overall status of the project. She said that though the project is on the verge of closure, the team is doing its level best to perform as per the annual work plan.
In the course of the discussion, questions were raised regarding activities that were reportedly thought to remain incomplete in the budget year. However, the coordinator reaffirmed that things are going on well despite the turnover of some staff members. She updated the team about the communications officer and data analyst who recently resigned.
Dr. Aregash said that some employees of the project were transferred to other projects affecting their availability. “Taking into consideration the significance of supporting other projects within the Ethiopian Public Health Institute (EPHI), the progress of some activities of NIPN seems to be affected by the challenge in this regard. For instance, the documentation efforts of the project have been complicated,” she said.
Dr. Aregash emphasized that to address the challenges; the funding issue should be given prior attention. “It is of paramount importance to secure continued funding from EPHI or other partners in a bid to support ongoing activities in general and capacity building efforts in particular,” she said.
Raising the declining involvement of the funding partners to provide the needed financial budgetary allocation, Dr. Aregash underscored the importance of alternative funding sources.
A consultant for C4N, which is supporting the NIPN from a Global perspective, Ingo Neu, asked about the absence of planned activities for capacity strengthening in the policy and data analysis units.
NIPN-Ethiopia coordinator responded to the raised question that there is no need to be engaged in that since the analysts and data manager have already secured proficiency in various techniques.
The other point raised by Ingo was about the discontinuation of the policy question formulation (PQF) process. To this, Dr. Meron reacted saying that due to funding challenges or the project phase out, the issue of the PQF process was not included in the current work plan; however, the feedback is well noted, and it will be included now. The team discussed further the need for a clear strategy to sustain NIPN’s activities and the importance of convincing EPHI to take heed of the resource allocation for continued support of the project.
At length, discussants reached consensus to meet for another discussion regarding the sustainability issue of the NIPN-Ethiopia project. (NIPN)
