To improve the health outcomes of its citizens, Ethiopia must take steps to meet SDG3.4 and decrease the number of premature deaths caused by non-communicable diseases (NCDs). NCD deaths are preventable by tackling their risk factors: unhealthy diets, physical inactivity, and air pollution. These risk factors are becoming increasingly prevalent in urban sites and have their origins in fetal life, and focusing prevention policies on pregnancy can yield significant benefits. Pregnancy is a unique opportunity for lifestyle interventions and antenatal care (ANC) has long been a key strategy for health promotion, disease prevention, early diagnosis, and treatment. The high ANC coverage in urban Ethiopia makes it an ideal program to support access and utilization of quality NCD services for prevention and risk reduction in urban populations. Guided by the immediate need for high-quality implementation research and evaluations in real-word settings to tackle the multisectoral and complex challenges of NCD prevention, we will fill the implementation knowledge gaps by developing, implementing, and assessing the impact of a novel prevention program in four diverse urban sites. We will apply user-centered approaches to adapt effective evidence-based WHO guidelines and implementation strategies with beneficiaries and stakeholders. Our approach for achieving behavior change in pregnant women is twofold: i) thorough assessments of women’s environments and environmental risks, as wider determinants of health; ii) integration of implementation strategies into the National Health Information system of Ethiopia. We will provide real-word evidence for the impact of implementation for behavior change, NCD risk reduction and better maternal and child health. ENABLE will support care providers for continuity and quality of overall healthcare and of NCD care and surveillance, and ultimately strengthen the Ethiopian public health system towards better health for all.

An African-European consortium of 6 SSA countries and 3 European countries, gathering 12 partners is proposing a unique and innovative scalable training program and network that will produce empowered infectious diseases experts to lead and drive research from and for sub-Sahara Africa (SSA), at levels of early-stage career (post-graduate certification and doctoral) and mid-stage career (post-doctoral) in an integrated program of health informatics and data sciences (BRIDGE PROGRAM). The program consortium will set up 5 Centre of Excellence (CoEs) in SSA countries (Benin, Ethiopia, Uganda, Kenya, Rwanda and South Africa). The CoEs will serve as training setting, field research setting and a hub for harmonized infectious diseases data, and all will recruit candidates from their countries for certification program, doctoral and post-doctoral fellowships but only 3 CoEs will be the degree awarding institutions. The degree awarding CoEs have been selected based on the existing university capacity to offer a degree awarding program or built on the existing partnerships between selected SSA public health institutes and local universities with degree awarding programs capacity. The program leverages the established collaborations between European and SSA institutions, utilizing accumulated medical data, including Electronic Health Records, registries, and biobanks. At the end of 54 months, program will have strengthened the institutional research leading capacities with at least 20 trainees per CoE with post-graduate certification, a total of 10 graduates with PhDs and a total of 4 post-doctoral fellows, skilled for harmonizing and analysing fragmented large data to derive data-driven insights and guide health policies. The CoEs embedded within public health institutions, with continuous mentorship from an international scientific community and a ready to use large amount of data, ensure the sustainability of training and collaborative research beyond the program grant.

The 21st century witnesses increased incidence of epidemics (Zika, dengue, Ebola, SARS), with as latest highlight the recent COVID-19. Following the outbreak of several infectious diseases during the last few decade, the need for generating real-time pathogen genomic data for public health action has become more important than ever. In the African context, infrastructure, human resource capability, data analysis, including bioinformatics, lack of linkage between clinical, epidemiological, and pathogen genomic data as well the interaction between clinicians, researchers and decision makers are some of the major challenges. The aim of the EpiGen project is to build a capacity for integrated pathogen genomic surveillance for informed public health decision process. The overarching specific objectives include strengthening collection and analysis of clinical and epidemiological data, enhancing the capacity and capability for pathogen genomic sequencing, including strengthening the laboratory infrastructure, human work force, pathogen genomic data analysis, and the integration of metadata with genomic data, developing and implementing innovative digital diagnostic platforms, creating semi-real time mobile phone applications for policy decisions, and promoting communities of practice and knowledge exchange through fostering African collaboration and networking in the domain of pathogen genomic surveillance for infectious diseases. EpiGen project’s multi-disciplinary consortium is drawn from several institutions from Ethiopia engaged in National Public Health Programs, and EU partners (The Netherlands, Spain and Germany). Overall, the model approach proposed by EpiGen will enhance Ethiopia’s national effort in mitigating the threat of infectious diseases. The implementation of a national genomic-informed surveillance for infectious diseases will play significant public health role towards contributing to disease prevention and control programmes in Ethiopia and beyond.