CHAMPS Ethiopia
About Our Work
CHAMPS Ethiopia joined the Network in 2016 and completed its first MITS in 2019. The program operates in Ethiopia’s Oromia region, with activities based in the urban city of Harar and predominantly in the rural area of Kersa. The primary facility for data-driven activities is Hiwot Fana University Hospital, where CHAMPS staff work to develop effective strategies to address the causes of child mortality. CHAMPS Ethiopia is implemented through Haraghe Health Research (HHR), a partnership between Haramaya University and the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. Additionally, CHAMPS works closely with the Ministry of Health and the Ethiopian Public Health Institute (EPHI), which serves as the Ministry’s technical arm.
Our Impact
In Ethiopia’s Harar and Kersa, CHAMPS is transforming lives of over 181,000 people addressing high child mortality rates through innovative and data-driven strategies. By collaborating with local partners, we create a hopeful future and save the lives of vulnerable children in these communities.
Harar
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Population Under Surveillance
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Under 5 Mortality Rate
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Infant Mortality Rate
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Neonatal Mortality Rate
Data updated: 2021
Kersa
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Population Under Surveillance
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Under-5 Mortality Rate
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Infant Mortality Rate
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Neonatal Mortality Rate
Data updated: 2021
Meet the Directors
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Meet our Directors
Dr. Nega Assefa is a public health expert in reproductive health and maternal and child health. He has supervised and mentored more than 70 Masters and 6 PhD students at Haramaya University. He has also contributed to course work on sexual and reproductive health, family planning, HIV/AIDS, child growth and survival, and nutrition and dietetics. From 2009-2012, Dr. Nega was the chair of the College of Health and Medical Sciences at Haramaya University and since 2014, he spearheads the Research Groups and Partnerships Directorate at Haramaya University.
Dr. Nega’s research focuses on the areas of pregnancy and childbirth, family planning, child growth and development, and infant and child survival, and he has published 45 peer reviewed articles on reputable national and international journals. Since 2007, Dr. Nega has established and led a Health and Demographic Surveillance under Haramaya University. He assists in monitoring demographic and health changes in 190,000 populations in rural and urban areas of Harar and Kersa in Eastern Ethiopia. He has led a Pneumococcal Conjugate Vaccine study, an adolescent health study, a pregnancy outcome study, and a sanitation and hygiene study.
Dr. Nega is an Honorary Associate Professor at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) and Consultant Associate Professor at the Harvard School of Public Health. He is a member of the Maternal and Child Health Advisory Group for the Federal Ministry of Health (FMOH) in which he participated in the development of a policy brief for the Maternal and Child Health Directorate of the FMOH, which was released during the 2016 annual meeting. He is a distinguished member of several editorial boards, including the Training and Research Advisory Group for the Ethiopian Public Health Association, the East African Journal of Health and Biomedical Sciences, and the East African Journal of Sciences.
Anthony Scott is a Wellcome Trust Senior Research Fellow in Clinical Science at the KEMRI-Wellcome Trust Research Programme in Kilifi, Kenya and Professor of Vaccine Epidemiology at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM). He trained in clinical infectious diseases and epidemiology in Oxford and London before moving to Kilifi in 1993, to study the etiology of pneumonia in adults. Apart from 2 years spent at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, he has spent the last 25 years in Kenya, studying pneumococcal disease and pneumonia in children and adults, and vaccines to prevent them. He joined LSHTM in 2013 after 15 years based at Oxford University. In addition to his research he has developed a surveillance network for invasive bacterial diseases in East Africa (Netspear) and he co-directs the Kilifi Health and Demographic Surveillance System, the largest population under continuous surveillance in Africa. He works frequently with WHO and GAVI on vaccine preventable diseases and with the Ministry of Health in Kenya on the evaluation of pneumococcal vaccine.
In the UK, he is the Director of the Vaccine Centre at LSHTM, and co-director of a short course in Vaccinology. He is a member of the UK’s Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunization (JCVI) and Director of the NIHR Health Protection Research Unit in Immunization at LSHTM which involves a portfolio of research on disease burden, vaccine effectiveness, vaccine safety, modelling, cost-effectiveness, vaccine acceptability and policy implementation in collaboration with Public Health England.
Key Partners
Stories of Transformation and Hope
Discover how CHAMPS is saving children’s lives in Ethiopia. Read more about our transformative, data-driven work and inspiring stories of change.
Site Stories
Publication
Leulseged, H., A. Rees, C., Alemu, A. et al. The discrepancy of antemortem clinical diagnosis and postmortem autopsy diagnosis of lung pathologies in under-five deaths and the reasons for discrepancies: a case series analysis. BMC Pediatr 24, 365 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12887-024-04854-4
Publication
Tefera, M., Mezmur, H., Jemal, M., & Assefa, N. (2024). Midwives’ experiences of performing obstetric ultrasounds in antenatal care in eastern Ethiopia: Qualitative exploratory study. Women’s Health, 20. https://doi.org/10.1177/17455057241228135
Publication
Tefera, M., Mezmur, H., Jemal, M., & Assefa, N. (2024). Health professionals’ perspectives on the role of obstetric ultrasonography in maternity care in rural eastern Ethiopia: A qualitative descriptive study. BMJ Open, 14(e075263). https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2023-075263
Publication
Muir, J.A., Dheresa, M., Madewell, Z.J. et al. Prevalence of food insecurity amid COVID-19 lockdowns and sociodemographic indicators of household vulnerability in Harar and Kersa, Ethiopia. BMC Nutr 10, 7 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1186/s40795-023-00815-9
Publication
Muir, J., Dheresa, M., Madewell, Z. et al. Household hardships and responses to COVID-19 pandemic-related shocks in Eastern Ethiopia. BMC Public Health 23, 2086 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-023-16982-0
Publication
Madrid, L., Alemu, A., Seale, A. C., Oundo, J., Tesfaye, T., Marami, D., Yigzaw, H., Ibrahim, A., Degefa, K., Dufera, T., Teklemariam, Z., Gure, T., Leulseged, H., Wittmann, S., Abayneh, M., Fentaw, S., Temesgen, F., Yeshi, M. M., Dubale, M., … Getnet, F. (2023). Causes of stillbirth and death among children younger than 5 years in eastern Hararghe, Ethiopia: A population-based post-mortem study. The Lancet Global Health, 11(7), e1032–e1040. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2214-109X(23)00211-5
Publication
Degefa, K., Tadesse, A., Ackley, C., & et al. (2022). Using traditional healers to treat child malnutrition: A qualitative study of health-seeking behaviour in eastern Ethiopia. BMC Public Health, 22, 873. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-022-13323-5
Publication
Madrid, L., Alemu, A., Seale, A. C., Oundo, J., Tesfaye, T., Marami, D., Yigzaw, H., Ibrahim, A., Degefa, K., Dufera, T., Teklemariam, Z., Gure, T., Leulseged, H., Wittmann, S., Abayneh, M., Fentaw, S., Temesgen, F., Yeshi, M. M., Dubale, M., … Getnet, F. (2023). Causes of stillbirth and death among children younger than 5 years in eastern Hararghe, Ethiopia: A population-based post-mortem study. The Lancet Global Health, 11(7), e1032–e1040. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2214-109X(23)00211-5
Publication
Assefa, N., Hassen, J. Y., Admassu, D., Brhane, M., Deressa, M., Marami, D., Teklemariam, Z., Dessie, Y., & Oundo, J. (2021). COVID-19 testing experience in a resource-limited setting: The use of existing facilities in public health emergency management. Frontiers in Public Health, 9, 675553. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2021.675553
Publication