Abstract:
To respond to the low utilization of preventative health services in Ethiopia, the Federal Ministry of
Health (FMOH) launched the Health Extension Program (HEP) in 2003 with a strong emphasis
placed on rural health care services. In a novel approach to task sharing, this program included the
development of the rural health extension worker (HEW) as a new cadre of government-employed
health worker. The HEWs provided an opportunity to expand family planning (FP) services to rural
areas in Ethiopia. Thus in 2009, the FMOH launched a program to train HEWs to insert Implanon, a
single rod contraceptive implant, at health posts (HP) as a means to expand the method mix that
had previously been composed largely of short acting methods. With the expansion of the Implanon
initiative, in 2010, the FMOH also launched a revitalization program for the intrauterine
contraceptive device (IUCD), initially in 116 woredas from six regions of Ethiopia. The expansion of
the method mix to include long-acting methods will inevitably support the Government of Ethiopia
(GoE) to meet Millennium Development Goals (MDG). The government has set the goal to achieve a
total fertility rate (TFR) of 4 and a contraceptive prevalence rate (CPR) of 65% by 2015.
