Ethiopia Diaspora Trust Fund (EDTF) Responds to the Ethiopian National COVID-19 Mitigation Campaign with USD 1.173 Million Worth of Personal Protective Equipment Addis Ababa: 04 May 2020

Following agreement with the Ethiopian Ministry of Health (MoH), the Ethiopian Diaspora Trust Fund (EDTF) has procured Protective Personal Equipment (PPE) and related medical supplies worth USD 1.173 million to safeguard the well-being of frontline health personnel working to save lives across Ethiopia in the campaign against COVID-19.

EDTF recognizes COVID-19 is an existential threat to the wellbeing and livelihood of the Ethiopian people, particularly the most disadvantaged segments of the population EDTF is established to serve.

Immediately after the establishment of the EDTF Emergency COVID-19 Mitigation window/subaccount on 4 April 2020, EDTF formed an Implementation Committee (IC) to liaise with the MoH/Ministry of Finance (MoF) regarding the items and supplies needed to combat the pandemic and undertake the required steps to secure the supplies. The EDTF IC managed to conduct an expedited international competitive solicitation which resulted in the procurement of the items and supplies listed below from SNS Global Pharma Corporation.

Professor Alemayehu G. Mariam, Chairperson of the EDTF Advisory Council, stated “EDTF is doing everything possible to mitigate the COVID-19 pandemic impact in Ethiopia. We allocated USD1million initial start-up from the EDTF ongoing fund and mobilized an additional USD 130 thousand to-date under a new EDTF COVID-19 Mitigation subaccount. EDTF’s support will be used by the front-line health care staff in hospitals around the country but targeting in particular those hospitals and health facilities in more disadvantaged areas. I thank once again the Ethiopian Diaspora in 93 countries that continue to contribute to EDTF helping it finance critical needs of disadvantaged Ethiopians.”