General description

The National Institute for Control and Eradication of Tsetse and Trypanosomosis (NICETT) is the specialized governmental structure with a nation-wide mandate to tackle the burden of AT in Ethiopia. NICETT is an authonomous institution established in 2013 by the Council of Ministers (Regulation No.304/2013), and it operates within the Ministry of Agriculture. NICETT’s main goal is to contribute to ensuring food security, alleviating poverty and improving lives and livelihoods in the communities affected by trypanosomosis. NICETT’s merit includes national-level coordination and harmonization of AT control activities, capacity building, demand-driven applied research, development and adaptation of control tools, resource mobilization, and the promotion of appropriate, sustainable land use and natural resources management following reduction or elimination of the tsetse and trypanosomosis challenge.

The Institute is headed by a Director General, who is supported by a Deputy Director, Parasitologists, Entomologists, Epidemiologists, and GIS and Data management experts, all located at the Head Office in the capital city of Addis Ababa. NICETT carries out field activities through its five regional centres based in the capitals of the tsetse-infested regional states, i.e. Arba Minch (Southern Nations, Nationalities, and People's Region), Bedelle (Oromia region), Finoteselam (Amhara region), Assossa (Benshangul Gumuz region) and Gambela (Gambella region). In addition five substations such as Arbaminch, Sodo and Dilla in the SNNPR, Jimma (Oromia region) and Bambasi (Benshangul Gumuz), were strategically placed in the affected regions. The main responsibility of the head office is program planning, supervision, human resource management, institutional capacity development and resource mobilization, while the regional centres and field offices are responsible for the implementation of tsetse and trypanosomosis control and monitoring. The institute operates using funds obtained mainly from the government treasury with some support from national and international partners and donors.

Role in the project

In WP3, NICETT will work on the national information system/atlas of AT and its vectors in Ethiopia, by completing, updating and enhancing a database of tsetse and AT recently developed. In particular, missing information will be identified, gathered and included in the atlas, as well as raw data from scientific publications.

New field data will be also collected in areas previously not surveyed to enhance geographical coverage. New surveys will include tsetse-free areas, where AT is transmitted by other mechanical vectors. Within WP3, NICETT will also strengthen the national surveillance network through improved reporting and better linkage with the national information system/atlas. Within WP5, NICETT will focus on the development of a roadmap for the progressive control of AT, based on a recently developed PCP-smart national strategy. NICETT will carry out overall coordination and management of the project components in Ethiopia, including capacity building, reporting and dissemination of information.