Publications

Women’s empowerment significantly influences maternal and child health by enhancing access to healthcare and enabling autonomous reproductive decisions, including timely family planning during postpartum. However, in Ethiopia, the specific role of contraceptive empowerment in postpartum family planning (PPFP) use remains insufficiently studied despite the low level of women’s empowerment. The objective of the study wat to assess the effect of contraceptive empowerment on PPFP use in Ethiopia.

Malaria remains a significant public health challenge in Ethiopia, with over 7.3 million cases and 1,157 deaths reported between January 1 and October 20, 2024. Despite extensive distribution campaigns, 35% of insecticide-treated nets (ITNs) remain underutilized, hindering malaria control efforts. Traditional statistical approaches have identified socioeconomic and demographic factors as predictors of ITN use, but often fail to capture complex, nonlinear interactions. This study applies machine learning to identify non-apparent factors of ITN utilization and investigates its performance in prediction as compared to traditional logistic regression

To examine the effect of four or more prenatal care (PNC) contacts on healthcare-seeking behavior (HSB) for immediate postpartum complications (IPPC) in Ethiopia.

The aim of this study was to assess the level of continuum of maternal, newborn, child and reproductive health coverage using the composite coverage index (CCI) and to identify its determinants, including socioeconomic, community context, individual and family, and health service-related factors, among postpartum women one year after childbirth in Ethiopia.

Adolescent and young women in Ethiopia have a high unmet need for family planning. The Family Planning 2020 strategy prioritized improving reproductive health among women aged 15–24 years. This study aims to assess the changes in the unmet need for family planning among adolescent and young women aged 15–24 years in Ethiopia during the Family Planning 2020 period. 

Facility delivery attended by skilled health professionals is a critical strategy for reducing maternal and neonatal mortality. Despite substantial efforts to expand maternal health services in Ethiopia, a large proportion of births still occur at home. This study aimed to predict facility delivery and identify its associated factors among reproductive-age women in Ethiopia using machine learning approaches.

The aim of this study was to assess vaccination coverage and inequalities in childhood immunisation among children aged 12 months in Ethiopia.

Postpartum convulsions, defined as seizure episodes occurring after childbirth during the postpartum period, remain a major cause of maternal morbidity and mortality in Ethiopia. This study aimed to develop and validate machine learning models to predict postpartum convulsions using clinical indicators from performance monitoring for action (PMA) Ethiopia data set.

Family planning in PMA Ethiopia 2023 (November 2023–February 2024): modern contraceptive prevalence showed no significant national change at 25.8% among all women and 37.1% among married women, but unmet need fell sharply to 9.9% and 14.7% respectively, pushing demand satisfied by a modern method to 70% — the highest across all ten rounds. Regional trends diverged, with Oromia and Addis rising since 2014 while Amhara declined and Tigray fell to 21%; implants continued gaining share (37% of the married method mix versus 51% injectables), and 75% of women got their method from a public facility, mostly government health centers. Counseling improved but stayed weak — 24% met the full MII+ standard and 84% had received no provider information in the past year — and health centers offering the full range of two long-acting plus three short-acting methods slipped from 80% in 2019 to 76%.

Family planning in PMA Ethiopia 2021 (October 2021–January 2022): modern contraceptive prevalence showed no significant national change at 24.1% among all women and 34.7% among married women, with unmet need steady at 13.2% and 19.1% respectively and demand satisfied by a modern method holding at 63%. The shift toward long-acting methods continued in every region — implants reached 35% of the married method mix while injectables fell to 52-53%, down from 74% in 2014 — and regional gaps were wide, from Sidama (56.8% mCPR among married women) and Addis (54.1%) to Afar (2.9%). Counseling improved slightly but remained weak: 19% of women met the full MII+ standard and only 14.5% had received family planning information from a provider in the past year, while 35% of use episodes were discontinued within 12 months. On the supply side, the share of health centers offering two long-acting plus three short-acting methods fell from 86% in 2018 to 79%, and health posts largely did not offer IUDs.

This report summarizes key findings from the second cohort’s one-year postpartum survey.

During the one-year postpartum interview, resident enumerators collected information on women’s sexual and reproductive health, postnatal care PNC, and child health, including child nutrition, immunization, and experiences of illness.

Training for data collection for the six-month and one-year interviews took place simultaneously in February 2022. Data collection for the one-year postpartum interview occurred between September 2022 and September 2023. The analytic sample included 1,858 women aged 15-49 who provided complete one-year postpartum survey data. Children-level analyses included in this report were restricted to all alive children who remained in follow-up 1,831 out of 1,822 live births.

This report summarizes cross-sectional data collected from service delivery points that participated in the 2021 PMA Ethiopia survey, summarizing their readiness to provide reproductive, maternal, and newborn health (RMNH) services.