Female Reproductive Health: Addis Ababa (Urban) Versus Harar (Rural) (Research Paper Sample)

Female Reproductive Health: Addis Ababa (Urban) Versus Harar (Rural)
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Female Reproductive Health: Addis Ababa (Urban) Versus Harar (Rural)
Ethiopia is one of the world's poorest countries, ranked 99th out of 103 on the United Nations Development Program’s Human Poverty Index. As a result, the healthcare system is underfunded, understaffed, and underequipped, particularly in rural areas. There is also a scarcity of medical specialists in the country, and those who are available are overworked and underpaid. Furthermore, few students join or graduate from medical school, resulting in a greater demand for quality healthcare than supply. Therefore, female reproductive healthcare declines from Addis Ababa to Harar because of underfunding, inaccessibility of care, and understaffing in rural Harar compares to urban Addis.
The first cause of the decline in female reproductive health between Addis Ababa and Harar is understaffing. The Ethiopian government is poor and cannot provide enough trained personnel, especially in rural areas. As a result, “less than five skilled health workers” serve at least 10,000 people nationally (the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, GBC Health & the Aliko Dangote Foundation, 2019, p. 24). In rural areas, the number is even lower because most Ethiopian doctors prefer working in urban localities. Therefore, most women in rural areas like Harar and Afar have to consult untrained, unequipped, and uncertified traditional medicine men and women (Assefa et al., 2019). These healers perform procedures in unsanitary conditions that increase the risk of death. For this reason, rural Harar has a higher maternal and mortality death rate than urban Addis Ababa.
Another reason for the decline is the inaccessibility of quality care in rural Ethiopia compared to urban regions. There are fewer medical facilities and hospitals in rural than urban Ethiopia in Ethiopia. Most of the country’s 338 public and 43 private hospitals are located in Addis Ababa (The U.S. Commercial Service of the U.S. Department of Commerce, 2020). Rural dwellers have to travel long distances before accessing healthcare services. In research by Shiferaw et al. (2017), most women in rural Ethiopia do not live within walking distance (4 kilometers and below) of a healthcare facility. Even those women in rural areas who can access these facilities have to settle for less quality care due to understocking with medical supplies. Doctors in rural regions have to cope with what little the government provides, which creates a sharp contrast between the quality of care in rural and urban areas.
Finally, Ethiopian healthcare facilities are highly underequipped to handle female reproductive healthcare. There are few female reproductive healthcare specialists for such a populous nation, especially in rural areas. Since 45% of Ethiopians live below the poverty line, the transition from high school to tertiary institutions like medical schools is low (United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, GBC Health & The Aliko Dangote Foundation, 2019). Therefore, the country produces few doctors, primarily general practitioners. Furthermore, available specialists are mainly in urban Addis Ababa, where they are overworked and underpaid (Assefa et al., 2019). For this reason, most Ethiopian doctors prefer working abroad, where they will earn higher wages and work fewer hours. Hence, women in Harar are more predisposed to reproductive medical issues like cancers and STIs needing specialist care than women in Addis Ababa.
In all, underfunding, understaffing, and ill-equipping lead to a sharp decline in female reproductive healthcare from Addis Ababa to Harar. Ethiopia is poor and underdeveloped. Therefore, the government can hardly provide supplies, specialist care, or more med