Presentation (CTI)

OBJECTIVES: There is growing interest in LMICs in scaling promising health innovations to accelerate national health goals and achieve the 2030 SDGs. Many existing and promising innovations fail to scale up for various reasons, including a lack of evidence on their cost-effectiveness and budgetary impact. Amidst these evidence gaps and limited fiscal space, the objectives of this research are to develop and test an approach for prioritizing and costing reproductive, maternal, newborn, and child health (RMNCH) innovations in Ethiopia and to develop a scale-up plan for their implementation, informed by cost evidence and aligned with available resources from partners and government.
METHODS: In 2025, a comprehensive RMNCH innovation mapping was conducted with the MOH and partners in which more than 100 innovations were identified. A multi-criteria- decision analysis prioritization framework was developed to enable the MOH to assess, prioritize, and select RMNCH innovations using clearly defined criteria. During the MCDA process, participants selected additional criteria and weights—covering impact, feasibility, scalability, cost-effectiveness, sustainability, and alignment with national priorities. Upon shortlisting innovations, detailed costing analyses and resource mapping are underway to determine the financial, logistical, and operational requirements as well as potential resources available for scaling these prioritized innovations.
RESULTS: In the initial MCDA phase, 25 innovations were shortlisted based on selected criteria and weighting. The MCDA process revealed substantial variation in innovation rankings depending on feasibility, system readiness, and equity considerations. Final selection of innovations is currently underway and will be followed by comprehensive costing to inform costed scale-up plans for the MOH.
CONCLUSIONS: Combining MCDA-based prioritization with detailed costing can provide a practical and transparent approach to selection innovations in resource-constrained settings. This approach supports governments in aligning innovation scale-up with affordability, system capacity, and equity objectives while strengthening the link between priority setting and planning.