CPD Accreditation Guide Final March 20131

Health professionals must maintain, update and enhance their knowledge, skills and
attitude in order to adequately deliver quality health care. This is particularly important
due to a changing disease pattern in which diseases that had been eradicated are now
reemerging, as well as an increase of non-communicable diseases. There is a need for
CPD in order to maintain professional competence in an environment of numerous
challenges, rapid organizational changes, information technology, increasing public
expectations and demand for quality and greater accountability.
The Federal Ministry of Health (FMOH) of Ethiopia is committed to ensure the quality
and standards of health services in the Country. One of the five strategic areas on
which human resource development (HRD) should focus as identified by the health
policy of Ethiopia is developing appropriate continuing education for all categories of
workers in the health sector.
Besides, ensuring that health science education and
training is responsive to the health needs of the nation is one of the strategic objectives
of the national Human Resource for Health (HRH) strategy. Moreover, initiating and
strengthening continuing education including in-service training is an essential objective
of the HRD component of the fourth Health Sector Development Plan (HSDP IV).
Currently, CPD activities in Ethiopia are fragmented as there are no standardization,
regulation and accreditation mechanisms. Besides, CPD activities have never been
linked to re-licensure of health professionals. Hence, the Ethiopian Food, Medicine,
Health Care Administration and Control Authority (EFMHACA), the legally mandated
agency to license and re-license federally regulated health professionals, believes that
CPD should be systematically organized, tied to relicensing system and occur in
concerted with other developments in health care system so as to improve the quality
of health services.