03/08/2022
Global warming, the pandemic, food and energy shortages, as well as wars are making our world more vulnerable and unstable. Countries like Ethiopia, with an HDI ranking of 173/189 and Multidimensional Poverty Index score of 0.367, are losing their momentum which they have successfully been building in the last few years to improve their situation. In Ethiopia, the Tigray crisis and an ongoing water shortage are amplifying the effects of these threats.
Based on the MPI-Report of the UNDP and University of Oxford, in the healthcare sector, this resulted in:
🩺 22% of households having no medical care due to a lack of medical staff (Dec. 2020)
🩺 40% of households not receiving medical care because hospitals and clinics did not have enough supplies or tests (March 2021)
🩺 34% of households not receiving any medical care because medical facilities were closed (April 2021)
Under these circumstances, the United Nations Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework for Ethiopia (2020-2025) has determined that working towards the stabilization and subsequent improvement of the third SDG "Good Health and Well-Being" is essential for Ethiopia to enable long-term sustainable development.
(https://ethiopia.un.org/en/90108-united-nations-sustainable-development-cooperation-framework-2020-2025)
In order to stabilize SDG 3, a strong focus needs to be laid on the quality, accessibility, use and effectiveness of health services. With a physician density of 0.077 per 1000 inhabitants, Ethiopia's physician density is very low compared to the worldwide average of 3.37 per 1000 and the World Health Organization (WHO) recommended a minimum of 10 physicians per 100.000 inhabitant in countries with low incomes.
Additionally, the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (Germany) (BMZ) has found that in Ethiopia:
"(...) biomedical equipment in hospitals and healthcare facilities is non-functional (...). Existing equipment is often old and broken, while newer, more advanced equipment remains unused due to lack of training, of which quality of care is severely impacted."
(https://health.bmz.de/stories/biomedical-technology-a-new-focus-of-ethiopian-german-cooperation/)
While Ethiopia is struggling to create a national strategy including coherent regulations for the management of biomedical equipment, a rapid expansion of the university system is making it difficult for teachers to meet demand while upholding the necessary quality in education capacity.
These circumstances underline the technical and developmental relevance of an appropriate and sustainable biomedical engineering education in order to eliminate the above-mentioned health care crisis and to work effectively towards the implementation of SDG 3 in Ethiopia.
This is where bejim’s* collaboration between Jimma University and its Jimma University Institiut of Technology. in Ethiopia and Hochschule Anhalt in Germany comes in!
Through our partnership and thanks to the funding by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), we are aiming to upgrade and adapt the biomedical engineering program at Jimma University to exactly these circumstances. We are determined to lay the foundation in education and training required to move forward in overcoming the above-mentioned challenges Ethiopia is facing.
*Funded by the DAAD with funds from the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ)
