Meseret Zelalem

Director, Maternal Child Health and Nutrition

Federal Ministry of Health Ethiopia

Dr. Zelalem is the Lead Executive Officer for Reproductive, Maternal, Newborn, Child, and Adolescent Health at the Federal Ministry of Health (MOH). She joined the Ministry of Health in 2017 as Director of Maternal and Child Health. Prior to joining the MOH, Dr. Meseret was the Medical Director at the University of Gondar Referral and Teaching Hospital. She is also practiced as a pediatrician and is passionate about neonatal, child, adolescent, and youth health. As one of the few woman leaders in the health sector, Dr. Meseret aims to bring about sustainable change through health systems strengthening and health diplomacy.

Event Schedule

DAY 1

18 July 2023

DAY 2

19 July 2023

Start Time	End Time	Session	Description	Action
06:30 pm EEST	08:00 pm EEST	Government Leadership and Accountability to Scale: Lessons from Ethiopia Side Event Kigali Marriott Hotel - Rubavu & Nyungwe & Akagera Rooms	It is imperative that the global development community move beyond boutique, unscalable program designs towards sustainable scale-up of promising interventions, Read More It is imperative that the global development community move beyond boutique, unscalable program designs towards sustainable scale-up of promising interventions, particularly through public sector leadership and accountability. This event will leverage the experience of the Ethiopian FMOH in leading the institutionalization and scale of an innovative ASRH intervention targeting married adolescent girls in Ethiopia, Smart Start, as a case study for the pursuit of sustainable scale-up. Representatives from the MOH, PSI Ethiopia, and BMGF will discuss their experience and lessons learned from this scale-up, asking the question what does government need to truly lead scale-up of promising SRH programming? Organizer: Population Services International (PSI) Read Less Speakers Dereje Duguma State Minister Federal Ministry of Health Ethiopia Dereje Abdena Bayisa Deputy Head, Oromia Regional Health Bureah Ethiopia Ministry of Health Seyoum Atlie Director, Roadmap for Integrating Smart Start in Ethiopia (RISE) Population Services International (PSI) Ethiopia Ann Starrs Director of Family Planning Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) Meseret Zelalem Director, Maternal Child Health and Nutrition Federal Ministry of Health Ethiopia

Start Time	End Time	Session	Description	Action
12:30 pm EEST	02:00 pm EEST	Stories for Change: How champions are making progress toward GBV-SRH integration Side Event Kigali Convention Center - Room AD 12-2	At this side event, gender-based violence (GVB) champions will tell stories to inspire and catalyze participants to advance the integration between GVB and sexual and Read More At this side event, gender-based violence (GVB) champions will tell stories to inspire and catalyze participants to advance the integration between GVB and sexual and reproductive health (SRH) in their countries and communities. We aim to inspire advocates to leverage the power of storytelling in contexts where quantitative data may be hard to come by and/or is unreliable. Participants will leave with practical tools for using the power of stories to improve GBV-SRHR integration. Organizer: Pathfinder International Read Less Speakers Rebecca Herman Sr. Technical Advisor GBV & MNH Pathfinder Joseph Komwihangiro Country Director, Tanzania Pathfinder Meseret Zelalem Director, Maternal Child Health and Nutrition Federal Ministry of Health Ethiopia Lilian Sospeter Youth engagement officer Voluntary Service Oversea(VSO ) Tanzania office.