The Tanzania country collaboration includes Ifakara Health Institute, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and the Institute for Global Health at the University of Manitoba. It aims to strengthen the analysis and synthesis of health data to inform national and local reviews of progress and performance in the context of the national health plans and Global Financing Facility (GFF) investment case for reproductive, maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health and nutrition. 

Background

Tanzania’s main health sector strategic plan, the Health Sector Strategic Plan: July 2015-June 2020 HSSP IV, guided the overall health sector from 2015 to 2020. In addition, there was a GFF investment case called The National Road Map Strategic Plan to Improve Reproductive, Maternal, Newborn, Child & Adolescent Health in Tanzania (2016-2020), One Plan II.  HSSP IV and One Plan II had an extensive midterm review in 2019 which helped form the basis for the new five year plan, Health Sector Strategic Plan July 2021-June 2026 (HSSP V) and the Strategic Plan for Reproductive, Maternal, Newborn, Child and Adolescent Health and Nutrition (2021/2022-2025-2026), also called One Plan III. An extensive End term Review report was prepared and overarching objective of the End-line Review of the extended HSSP IV: 2015-2021 aimed to assess the performance of the Health Sector at the end of the implementation cycle and develop a Populated Template of the Regional and Council Health Profiles that will be useful to inform the National Annual Health Sector. The review was done by a team including the Ministry of Health, Ifakara Health Institute, Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences, University of Dar-es-Salaam, Countdown to 2030 and WHO. 

 

Planned research for 2023-2025

Plans including supporting the Ministry of Health with monitoring regional and national progress based on the Health Sector Strategic Plan July 2021-June 2026 (HSSP V) and supporting the priorities identified through the Global Financing Facility (GFF) partnership. In addition, the collaboration will conduct analytical report to support the ministry of health monitoring of progress of the health sector and reproductive, maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health (RMNCAH) and nutrition plans, with a focus on producing statistical profiles for the 184 councils and 26 regions. Tanzania will also join upcoming multi-country analysis projects on maternal and newborn health strategies, immunization, and family planning. Sophia Kagoye from Ifakara Health Institute has been selected as a Countdown fellow for 2023.  

Achievements for 2020-2022

The Tanzania Countdown country collaboration’s work during the years of 2020 to 2022 focused on: 

  • Providing technical inputs to the Ministry of Health working groups developing the Monitoring and evaluation (M&E) plans for HSSP V and One Plan III. 
  • Further analysis of DHIS2 data focusing on council-level statistics and progress. Tanzania had about 185 councils, and the Countdown team worked with the Ministry of Health to calculate council-specific coverage for RMNCAH+N and other health indicators. These analyses fed into annual reviews at local and national level and helped to assess the impact of council and regional prioritization. This analysis also includes recent trends in service utilization and coverage with monthly data. 
  • Peer-reviewed journal articles describing the maternal child health services in terms of  household costs and payment for performance. 
  • In-depth analysis on specific RMNCAH+N topics which resulted into a peer reviewed article “Quality of reporting and trends of emergency obstetric and neonatal care indicators: an analysis from Tanzania district health information system data between 2016 and 2020” https://bmcpregnancychildbirth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12884-023-06028-z 
  • Tanzania is also a part of the Urban Health Project which resulted into a peer reviewed article in the journal DOI 10.1007/s11524-023-00813-z 
  • The Tanzania team participated in and completed analysis for Countdown annual meetings in 2022 and 2023. 

Tanzania Countdown Collaboration Team

Ifakara Health Institute
Jacqueline Minja

Samwel Lwambura

Sophia Kagoye

Peter Binyaruka

Georgina Msemo

Josephine Shabani

Honorati Masanja

Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences
Daudi Simba

Institute for Global Health, University of Manitoba
Ties Boerma

Ministry of Health
Ephraim Magafu

Habib Ismail

Dhamira Ramadhani Mongi

Maro Chacha

Kilimanjaro Christian Medical University College
Caroline Amour

Julieth Sebba

Laura Shirima

Sia Msuya

University of Dar-es-salaam
Masoud Mahundi

London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine
Claudia Hanson