ENABLE Project Completes Successful First Year

First Year Achievements

The first year achieved significant progress in terms of team recruitment, data mapping, and completing preparations for formative research. The project team now includes 4 PhD students and 3 Postdoctoral fellows that have been onboarded during the past several months and introductions made on the project LinkedIn page.

In addition, the ENABLE team has worked diligently to map existing data and its availability. This activity provided a useful foundation for the formative research study (fhi.no).  

The formative study has engaged in key informant interviews with policymakers, health professionals and community leaders, as well as focus group discussion with pregnant women and health workers at primary health care facilities. The key findings and insights, with existing secondary data, is critical to the planning of the main study and implementation of interventions. Analyses is undergoing. 

There has also been impressive progress by many of the working group teams in preparing deliverables, as planned, such as the Data Management Plan, Stakeholder Identification and Project Management/communication tools.

“The first year of the ENABLE project has had a large preparatory and project management focus. But the team has also focused on building trust and engaging in transparent communications. These are cornerstones to good working relationships, and I look forward to seeing the ENABLE project flourish.” – Dr. Masresha Tessema, ENABLE Co-Principal Investigator

Following the annual meeting, the ENABLE team held a workshop for early career researchers involved in the project to discuss about ethics concerns with the ENABLE Ethics Advisory Board and to practice presentation skills with constructive feedback. The ENABLE Ethics Advisory Board consist of three experts from both Norway and Ethiopia who have the mandate to have an independent overview of ethical issues related to the implementation of our project and support accordingly. 

In addition, we conducted a capacity building seminar on presentation skills for the ENABLE early career researchers where they also practiced how to provide constructive feedback to their peers. 

Upcoming activities in 2025

As the formative research concluded this month, the analysis process has started with a series of meetings and trainings. In the coming months, these analyses will be presented for discussion at the upcoming ENABLE implementation planning workshop. The result of this workshop will be a tailored facilitation and implementation plan.

Following the workshop, the team will enter the process of developing and submitting a protocol for ethical approval for the next phase of our project as well as any additional steps deemed necessary in preparation of the main study in mid-2025.

The ENABLE project is on track and well-positioned for continued growth and impactful research. The team strives to, not only successfully complete this innovative implementation research project, but to continue its focus on global collaboration, short and long-term impactful results and ethical, transparent work.