Improving Health Care Provision in Tanzania (completed)

Context

After several decades of strong growth, Tanzania has made steady progress across key health and development indicators, including higher life expectancy and improvements in maternal and child health. However, like many resource-constrained countries, Tanzania has struggled to reduce high rates of maternal and neonatal mortality. Still too many women and their newborn babies die from what should be largely preventable causes linked to pregnancy and childbirth. Women and children have also suffered disproportionately from measures taken to manage the Covid-19 pandemic  which resulted in reduced access to  health services.

Objective

Citizens of the partner regions have improved access to quality-assured health services.

Approach

The programme works on improving health system performance and facilitating access to better quality health services in the regions of Tanga and Mbeya. For this, it builds on more than 25 years of support to Tanzania’s health sector. IHCP cooperates with decision makers at regional, district and health facility level across the following areas of work:

• It improves maternal and neonatal care and family planning services through trainings of healthcare providers. It supports the establishment of Newborn Care Units in selected health facilities and integrates family planning into routine services, such as antenatal care and immunisation.
• It promotes leadership and governance on health facility level in the context of Tanzania’s decentralisation process. To achieve this it supports data management, planning and budgeting, and citizen involvement in facility management.
• IHCP digitalises key hospital work processes by rolling-out two electronic hospital information management systems: AfyaCare used at referral hospitals; and GoTHOMIS used in district hospitals.

In response to Covid-19, the programme added a component to support Tanzania in pandemic preparedness and response.

Last update: November 2021