Vital Strategies registered its newest global office in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia in the summer of 2020. The location, also home to the African Union, will help us strengthen our organization’s public health capacity in the region.
Vital Strategies began working in Ethiopia in 2012 when we established the East Africa Training Initiative in partnership with Addis Ababa University and Black Lion Hospital. This Fellowship program trains Ethiopian doctors as lung health specialists to fill an important gap in addressing tuberculosis and other lung diseases. In 2015, working with the city of Addis Ababa and other local partners, we initiated a successful road safety program to improve communication, surveillance and coordination of global road safety partners in an effort to prevent road crashes and save lives.
The Addis Ababa office opened in the midst of the pandemic and has provided a base for Resolve to Save Lives initiative’s Prevent Epidemics team to work with Ethiopia and support COVID communication and health care worker training. Our other ongoing work includes support for healthier food policies, collecting and using data to inform public health policy decisions, and improving civil registration and vital statistics.
We envision a world where everyone is protected by equitable and effective public health systems.”
VITAL STRATEGIES’ GLOBAL VISION
About Vital Strategies
Vital Strategies is a global organization made up of researchers, experts, and strategists in multiple fields, who work with governments and advocates to tackle some of the world’s most difficult public health challenges. We develop and implement targeted, evidence-based programs in critical areas such as tobacco control, overdose prevention, environmental health, road safety and food policy in countries around the world. Our diverse staff represents more than 37 nationalities, which is critical to our approach of creating local partnerships with policymakers, civil servants and administrators, and media and civil society groups in order to build capacity and advance progress.