Addis Ababa, January 20, 2021(Walta) – Health professionals, Civil Society Organizations (CSO), community members, among others appreciated the ongoing EU-IGAD response to the health and socioeconomic impact of corvid-19 in the member states through establishing the concrete cross-border committee.
Recently, the European Union (EU) and Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) held a cross-border committee meeting in Arbaminch-Moyale cross-border site with pertinent stakeholders organized from donor agencies, member states, government agencies, health professionals, community members, among others.
Participant of the meeting and Ethiopian Public Health Institute (EPHI) Moyale Border Communicable Diseases Case Team Coordinator Tamiru Tadesse said that the COVID-19 pandemic requires multi-agencies coordination and collaboration. Thus, the support of the EU-IGAD cross border committee will have significant contributions towards expediting regional protection capacity and reducing the pandemic’s socio-economic impact, he added.
As to him, the cross-border committee will have continuous consultations with various stakeholders on realizing the project.
Oromia State Moyale Women Affairs Office Expert Yiftusira Wako for her part said that COVID-19 has brought severe challenges to the Moyale border areas.
However, the implementation of the EU-IGADproject cross-border committee helps strengthen the virus protection measures, she noted.
“Prior to the EU-IGAD project implementation, there were several myths on the COVID-19 vaccination. Currently, the project contributed a lot to create awareness on the importance of the vaccination among the community.”
IGAD COVID-19 Response Health and Social Development Division Regional Coordinator Dr. Girum Hailu the EU-IGAD COVID-19 response establishes cross-border committees that help facilitate service provision and maximize the efficiency of the response to attain its objectives. The cross-border committees in different member countries also promote equitable resource mobilizations and counter the pandemic, he added.
He calls upon every citizen’s engagements to protect themselves from the pandemic through properly implementing the COVID-19 precaution mechanisms.
According to EPA, “so far, the EU-IGAD response has provided more than 60 million Euro worth supports to the member states,” he said.
Accordingly, the EU-IGAD COVID-19 response to health and socio-economic impact provides various supports to the member countries like; COVID-19 tests, extraction kits, Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) various items, nitrile gloves, mobile clinics, ambulance, mobile lab as well as PCR machine and supplies.