The Horn Economic and Social Policy Institute (HESPI) in collaboration with the Institute of Public Finance (IPF) from Nairobi, Kenya organized a project inception workshop on 10^th May 2023 in Addis Ababa on quantifying government investment in Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs) prevention and elimination programs across all sectors and expenditure tracking from all sources at Federal level and in two regional states- Amhara and Oromia. Partners were drawn from diverse partners in preventing and eliminating the Neglected Tropical Diseases-NTDs, colleagues from the Health & Finance Ministries, IPF colleagues from Nairobi and the research team members from HESPI, IPF and the federal level and the two target regions. The NTDs are treatable and preventable diseases, but are affecting many people in the tropical and subtropical countries with a devastating impact on impoverished communities by disproportionally affecting children, women & PWDs. Factors exacerbating the impacts of the NTDs include the abject poverty, water and sanitation problems, stigma and discrimination (lepers), lack of funding and its inefficient utilization. Because the NTDs affect many of the poorest & most vulnerable communities, their voices are not heard and these diseases are not tackled with the resources that they deserve. The impacts are observed on individuals, families, communities and the economies. Many agencies contribute to the NTDs prevention and elimination programs, but valuation and tracking of the effective utilization of the resources is not often done, which could have helped to address the financing challenges and better chart out future funding opportunities and resources management. Therefore, the aspect of NTDs this initiative focuses on has to do with the Financing of the NTD programs. That being the case, with funding support from The END Fund, we are planning to conduct a study and analysis on the following:

1. Valuation of government contribution towards prevention and elimination of the NTDS, both at the federal level and in Oromia and Amhara regions for the period 2021-22
2. Expenditure Tracking for NTDs from all financing agencies or entities at Federal level and in Oromia and Amhara regions for the period 2021-22

The findings of this analysis will ultimately be of great benefit in addressing the question on the sustainability of the future NTD funding by monitoring spending from various sources as well as support the evaluation of the performance of the country’s 3^rd NTD Master Plan (2021-2025). Therefore, this inception session has provided us a unique avenue to (i) understand the NTD Country program (ii) have overview of the project (iii) share ideas on the purposes and approaches of the program (vi) create awareness on the program and prepare you all for the facilitation of the upcoming data collection process. The partnership we have established, helped us to join hands on the prevention and elimination of the NTDs (which are very important public health problem in Ethiopia-a country with high burden of the NTDs in the SSA). The event also has furthered the partnership between HESPI and IPF on the lines of recognizing the benefits derived from increased partnership on efforts to advance the implementation of sound economic and social policies to meet the challenges facing the countries in the region, in particular conducting and assisting research in support of policy formulation and building of human and institutional capacity.