Addis Ababa — The government is set to provide family planning services to 8.5 million mothers across the country during the current Ethiopian year, the Ministry of Health announced on Monday.

According to the ministry's Public Relations Service Head Ahmed Imano, the ministry intends expanding health services to every citizen during the reported period.

He said the ministry would distribute contraceptives to mothers through health stations in the country.

The ministry would also train 600 health professionals for the same purpose and they would in turn train nurses already in service at health institutions.

It also plans to revise and distribute family planning guidelines among regional states, partner organisations and educational institutions as part of the set target.

Ahmed said providing health care to mothers and children as well as disease prevention and control were among the priority activities of the ministry, which had strengthened the prevention and control of HIV and AIDS, tuberculoses and malaria.

Encouraging results had so far been achieved through concerted efforts aimed at fighting against the diseases, he said, adding that the ministry planned to provide services aimed at preventing HIV transmission from mother to child.

The service would be provided to beneficiaries at over 600 health stations and 126 hospitals, he said.

This may go a long way to ensuring Ethiopia meets some of the health related targets of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

The MDGs are eight goals to be achieved by 2015 that respond to the world's main development challenges.

They are drawn from the actions and targets contained in the Millennium Declaration that was adopted during the United Nations Millennium Summit in September 2000.