Local innovations and country ownership for sustainable development

Over the last two decades a range of simple innovations have transformed global health. As part of its preparedness to meet the sustainable development goals Ethiopia is establishing a mechanism to review locally-developed measures stimulate new innovations and test and adopt innovations tools and technological solutions that have proven effective elsewhere. These efforts will focus on key areas including neonatal health and early child development maternal health health services tailored to pastoralist communities local evidence generation and translation into sound policy and practice. Monitoring and evaluation will be used to assess the impacts. Innovations that respond to the local context require support understanding and acceptance by partner organizations and international donors. Policies for attaining the sustainable development goals should emphasize country ownership promotion of local innovations and independence from outside donors. After all health is a basic human right that the government has a responsibility to support. (Excerpt)