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Abstract Background Decentralised health systems in Tanzania depend largely on funding from the central government to run health services. Experience has shown that central funding in a decentralised system is not an appropriate approach to ensure the effective and efficient performance of local authorities due to several limitations. One of the limitations is that funds from the central government are not disbursed on a timely basis, which in turn, leads to the serious problem of shortage of financial resources for Council Health Management Teams (CHMT). This paper examines how dependency on central government funding in Tanzania affects health activities in Kongwa district council and the strategies used by the CHMT cope with the situation. Methods The study adopted a qualitative approach and data were collected using semi-structured interviews and focus group discussions. One district in the central region of Tanzania was strategically selected. Ten key informants involved in the management of health service delivery at the district level were interviewed and one focus group discussion was held, which consisted of members of the council health management team. The data generated were analysed for themes and patterns. Results The results showed that late disbursement of funds interrupts the implementation of health activities in the district health system. This situation delays the implementation of some activities, while a few activities may not be implemented at all. However, based on their prior knowledge of the anticipated delays in financial disbursements, the council health management team has adopted three main strategies to cope with this situation. These include obtaining supplies and other services on credit, borrowing money from other projects in the council, and using money generated from cost sharing. Conclusion Local government authorities (LGAs) face delays in the disbursement of funds from the central government. This has necessitated introduction of informal coping strategies to deal with the situation. National-level policy and decision makers should minimise the bureaucracy involved in allocating funds to the district health systems to reduce delays.

Background: Decentralised health systems in Tanzania depend largely on funding from the central government to run health services. Experience has shown that central funding in a decentralised system is not an appropriate approach to ensure the effective and efficient performance of local authorities due to several limitations. One of the limitations is that funds from the central government are not disbursed on a timely basis, which in turn, leads to the serious problem of shortage of financial resources for Council Health Management Teams (CHMT). This paper examines how dependency on central government funding in Tanzania affects health activities in Kongwa district council and the strategies used by the CHMT cope with the situation. Methods: The study adopted a qualitative approach and data were collected using semi-structured interviews and focus group discussions. One district in the central region of Tanzania was strategically selected. Ten key informants involved in the management of health service delivery at the district level were interviewed and one focus group discussion was held, which consisted of members of the council health management team. The data generated were analysed for themes and patterns. Results: The results showed that late disbursement of funds interrupts the implementation of health activities in the district health system. This situation delays the implementation of some activities, while a few activities may not be implemented at all. However, based on their prior knowledge of the anticipated delays in financial disbursements, the council health management team has adopted three main strategies to cope with this situation. These include obtaining supplies and other services on credit, borrowing money from other projects in the council, and using money generated from cost sharing. Conclusion: Local government authorities (LGAs) face delays in the disbursement of funds from the central government. This has necessitated introduction of informal coping strategies to deal with the situation. National-level policy and decision makers should minimise the bureaucracy involved in allocating funds to the district health systems to reduce delays.

BACKGROUND: Little is known about the barriers to disease prevention and health promotion at the community level--within a decentralized health system. OBJECTIVE: This paper, therefore, presents and discusses findings on barriers (and opportunities) for instituting disease prevention and health promotion activities. DESIGN: The study was conducted in Kongwa District, Tanzania, using an explorative case study approach. Data were collected through document reviews and in-depth interviews with key informants at district, ward, and village levels. A thematic approach was used in the analysis of the data. RESULTS: This study has identified several barriers, namely decision-makers at the national and district levels lack the necessary political will in prioritizing prevention and health promotion; the gravity of prevention and health promotion stated in the national health policy is not reflected in the district health plans; gross underfunding of community-level disease prevention and health promotion activities; and limited community participation. CONCLUSION: In this era, when Tanzania is burdened with both communicable and non-communicable diseases, prevention and health promotion should be at the top of the health care agenda. Despite operating in a neoliberal climate, a stronger role of the state is called for. Accordingly, the government should prioritize higher health-protecting physical, social, and economic environments. This will require a national health promotion policy that will clearly chart out how multisectoral collaboration can be put into practice.

Background: During the 1990s, the government of Tanzania introduced the decentralization by devolution (D by D) approach involving the transfer of functions, power and authority from the centre to the local government authorities (LGAs) to improve the delivery of public goods and services, including health services. Objective: This article examines and documents the experiences facing the implementation of decentralization of health services from the perspective of national and district officials. Design: The study adopted a qualitative approach, and data were collected using semi-structured interviews and were analysed for themes and patterns. Results: The results showed several benefits of decentralization, including increased autonomy in local resource mobilization and utilization, an enhanced bottom-up planning approach, increased health workers' accountability and reduction of bureaucratic procedures in decision making. The findings also revealed several challenges which hinder the effective functioning of decentralization. These include inadequate funding, untimely disbursement of funds from the central government, insufficient and unqualified personnel, lack of community participation in planning and political interference. Conclusion: The article concludes that the central government needs to adhere to the principles that established the local authorities and grant more autonomy to them, offer special incentives to staff working in the rural areas and create the capacity for local key actors to participate effectively in the planning process.

BACKGROUND: While over 70% of the population in Tanzania reside in rural areas, only 25% of physicians and 55% of nurses serve these areas. Tanzania operates a decentralised health system which aims to bring health services closer to its people through collaborative citizen efforts. While community engagement was intended as a mechanism to support the retention of the health workforce in rural areas, the reality on the ground does not always match this ideal. This study explored the role local communities in the retention of health workers in rural Tanzania. METHODS: An exploratory qualitative study was completed in two rural districts from the Kilimanjaro and Lindi regions in Tanzania between August 2015 and September 2016. Nineteen key informant interviews (KIIs) were conducted with district health managers, local government leaders, and health facility in-charges. In addition, three focus group discussions (FGDs) were conducted with 19 members of the governing committees of three health facilities from the two districts. Data were analysed using the thematic analysis technique. RESULTS: Accommodation or rejection were the two major ways in which local communities influenced the quest for retaining health workers. Communities accommodated incoming health workers by providing them a good reception, assuming responsibility for resolving challenges facing health facilities and health workers, linking health workers to local communities and promoting practices that placed a high value on health workers. On the flip side, communities could also reject health workers by openly expressing lack of trust and labelling them as 'foreigners,' by practicing cultural rituals that health workers feared and discrimination based on cultural differences. CONCLUSION: Fostering good relationships between local communities and health workers may be as important as incentives and other health system strategies for the retention of health workers in rural areas. The role communities play in rural health worker retention is not ...

Similar to many other low- and middle-income countries, public private partnership (PPP) in the training of the health workforce has been emphasized since the launch of the 1990s' health sector reforms in Tanzania. PPP in training aims to contribute to addressing the critical shortage of health workforce in these countries. This study aimed to analyse the policy process and experienced outcomes of PPP for the training of doctors in Tanzania two decades after the 1990s' health sector reforms. We reviewed documents and interviewed key informants to collect data from training institutions and umbrella organizations that train and employ doctors in both the public and private sectors. We adopted a hybrid thematic approach to analyse the data while guided by the policy analysis framework by Gagnon and Labonté. PPP in training has contributed significantly to the increasing number of graduating doctors in Tanzania. In tandem, undermining of universities' autonomy and the massive enrolment of medical students unfavourably affect the quality of graduating doctors. Although PPP has proven successful in increasing the number of doctors graduating, unemployment of the graduates and lack of database to inform the training needs and capacity to absorb the graduates have left the country with a health workforce shortage and maldistribution at service delivery points, just as before the introduction of the PPP. This study recommends that Tanzania revisit its PPP approach to ensure the health workforce crisis is addressed in its totality. A comprehensive plan is needed to address issues of training within the framework of PPP by engaging all stakeholders in training and deployment starting from the planning of the number of medical students, and when and how they will be trained while taking into account the quality of the training. ; Originally included in thesis in manuscript form.

BACKGROUND: The World Health Organization advocates that health workforce development is a continuum of three stages of entry, available workforce and exit. However, many studies have focused on addressing the shortage of numbers and the retention of doctors in rural and remote areas. The latter has left the contribution of the entry stage in particularly the deployment process on the shortage of health workforce less understood. This study therefore explored the experiences of medical doctors (MDs) on the deployment process after the internship period in Tanzania's health sector. METHODS: A qualitative case study that adopted chain referral sampling was used to conduct 20 key informant interviews with MDs who graduated between 2003 and 2009 from two Medical Universities in Tanzania between February and April 2016. These MDs were working in hospitals at different levels and Medical Universities in eight regions and five geo-political zones in the country. Information gathered was analysed using a qualitative content analysis approach. RESULTS: Experiences on the deployment process fall into three categories. First, "uncertainties around the first appointment" attributed to lack of effective strategies for identification of the pool of available MDs, indecision and limited vacancies for employment in the public sector and private sector and non-transparent and lengthy bureaucratic procedures in offering government employment. Second, "failure to respect individuals' preferences of work location" which were based on the influence of family ties, fear of the unknown rural environment among urbanized MDs and concern for career prospects. Third, "feelings of insecurity about being placed at a regional and district level" partly due to local government authorities being unprepared to receive and accommodate MDs and territorial protectionism among assistant medical officers. CONCLUSIONS: Experiences of MDs on the deployment process in Tanzania reveal many challenges that need to be addressed for the deployment to contribute better in availability of equitably distributed health workforce in the country. Short-term, mid-term and long-term strategies are needed to address these challenges. These strategies should focus on linking of the internship with the first appointment, work place preferences, defining and supporting career paths to health workers working under the local government authorities, improving the working relationships and team building at the work places and fostering rural attachment to medical students during medical training.

Background: Responsiveness has become an important health system performance indicator in evaluating the ability of health care systems to meet patients' expectations. However, its measurement in sub-Saharan Africa remains scarce. This study aimed to assess the responsiveness of the health care services among the insured and non-insured elderly in Tanzania and to explore the association of health insurance (HI) with responsiveness in this population. Methods: A community-based cross-sectional study was conducted in 2017 where a pre-tested household survey, administered to the elderly (60 + years) living in Igunga and Nzega districts, was applied. Participants with and without health insurance who attended outpatient and inpatient health care services in the past three and 12 months were selected. Responsiveness was measured based on the short version of the World Health Organization (WHO) multi-country responsiveness survey study, which included the dimensions of quality of basic amenities, choice, confidentiality, autonomy, communication and prompt attention. Quantile regression was used to assess the specific association of the responsiveness index with health insurance adjusted for sociodemographic factors. Results: A total of 1453 and 744 elderly, of whom 50.1 and 63% had health insurance, used outpatient and inpatient health services, respectively. All domains were rated relatively highly but the uninsured elderly reported better responsiveness in all domains of outpatient and inpatient care. Waiting time was the dimension that performed worst. Possession of health insurance was negatively associated with responsiveness in outpatient (− 1; 95% CI: − 1.45, − 0.45) and inpatient (− 2; 95% CI: − 2.69, − 1.30) care. Conclusion: The uninsured elderly reported better responsiveness than the insured elderly in both outpatient and inpatient care. Special attention should be paid to those dimensions, like waiting time, which ranked poorly. Further research is necessary to reveal the reasons for the lower ...

Despite global awareness of the key factors surrounding antimicrobial resistance (AMR), designing and implementing policies to address the critical issues around the drivers of AMR remains complex to put into practice. We identified prevalent narratives and framing used by epistemological communities involved in the response to AMR in Tanzania, interrogated how this framing may inform policymaking, and identified interventions that could be tailored to the groups believed responsible for AMR. We interviewed 114 key informants from three districts and analysed transcripts line by line. Our results suggest that many different groups help drive the spread of AMR in Tanzania and need to be involved in any effective response. Human health is currently perceived as driving the response, while other domains lag behind in their efforts. For AMR programmes to be successful, all sectors need to be involved, including civil society groups, community representatives, and those working in communities (e.g., primary care physicians). However, current plans and programmes largely fail to include these viewpoints. The perceived presence of political will in Tanzania is a significant step towards such a response. Any strategies to tackle AMR need to be tailored to the context-specific realities, taking into account constraints, beliefs, and power dynamics within countries.

Despite global awareness of the key factors surrounding antimicrobial resistance (AMR), designing and implementing policies to address the critical issues around the drivers of AMR remains complex to put into practice. We identified prevalent narratives and framing used by epistemological communities involved in the response to AMR in Tanzania, interrogated how this framing may inform policymaking, and identified interventions that could be tailored to the groups believed responsible for AMR. We interviewed 114 key informants from three districts and analysed transcripts line by line. Our results suggest that many different groups help drive the spread of AMR in Tanzania and need to be involved in any effective response. Human health is currently perceived as driving the response, while other domains lag behind in their efforts. For AMR programmes to be successful, all sectors need to be involved, including civil society groups, community representatives, and those working in communities (e.g., primary care physicians). However, current plans and programmes largely fail to include these viewpoints. The perceived presence of political will in Tanzania is a significant step towards such a response. Any strategies to tackle AMR need to be tailored to the context-specific realities, taking into account constraints, beliefs, and power dynamics within countries.

Objective To explore and describe the perceptions of policy actors and practitioners on antimicrobial use and resistance in human and animal health in Tanzania. Methods This was an exploratory qualitative study, which involved semi-structured interviews with nine policy makers and 102 practitioners. Results Improved multisectoral collaboration and coordination among experts from the animal and human sectors, government will, improved infrastructures, existence of public awareness campaigns on appropriate use of antimicrobials and existence of antimicrobial stewardship were identified as strengths for the implementation of National Action Plan on Antimicrobial Resistance (NAP-AMR) in Tanzania. Despite these strengths, insufficient public awareness of AMR, limited community engagement and inadequate human resources were among the reported weaknesses. A number of opportunities for the implementation of NAP-AMR were also reported including the presence of integrated disease surveillance and response strategy in health sector and development of a coordinated surveillance system. Furthermore, the inadequate laboratory capacity and poor resource mobilization were identified as challenges facing the implementation of NAP-AMR. Conclusion The future policies of AMR need to capitalize on the identified strengths and opportunities as well as design interventions to improve public awareness of AMR and community engagement, deployment of adequate human resources and ensure adequate resource mobilization to meet AMR needs.

Tanzania launched its first National Action Plan (NAP) on antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in 2017 to reduce the burden of AMR in the country and contribute to the global response. We aimed to analyze the implementation of the NAP on AMR in Tanzania using the governance framework. In-depth interviews were conducted with human and animal health practitioners and national-level policy actors. We adapted Chua's AMR governance framework to analyze the development and implementation of the NAP in Tanzania. Implementation of the NAP has realized several achievements, including: (i) the establishment of a functioning Multi-Sectoral Coordinating Committee for coordinating the implementation of AMR activities; (ii) existence of governance structure; (iii) establishment of human and animal surveillance sites; (iv) creation of AMR awareness in the community and (v) availability of guidelines at the health facility level to ensure AMR stewardship. However, some dimensions of the governance areas, including reporting and feedback mechanisms, accountability, transparency and sustainability of AMR plans, are not effectively implemented. Addressing these challenges should involve strengthening the collaboration of the different sectors involved at different NAP implementation levels by careful planning and coordination, and provision of adequate resources to ensure sustainability.

Tanzania launched its first National Action Plan (NAP) on antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in 2017 to reduce the burden of AMR in the country and contribute to the global response. We aimed to analyze the implementation of the NAP on AMR in Tanzania using the governance framework. In-depth interviews were conducted with human and animal health practitioners and national-level policy actors. We adapted Chua's AMR governance framework to analyze the development and implementation of the NAP in Tanzania. Implementation of the NAP has realized several achievements, including: (i) the establishment of a functioning Multi-Sectoral Coordinating Committee for coordinating the implementation of AMR activities; (ii) existence of governance structure; (iii) establishment of human and animal surveillance sites; (iv) creation of AMR awareness in the community and (v) availability of guidelines at the health facility level to ensure AMR stewardship. However, some dimensions of the governance areas, including reporting and feedback mechanisms, accountability, transparency and sustainability of AMR plans, are not effectively implemented. Addressing these challenges should involve strengthening the collaboration of the different sectors involved at different NAP implementation levels by careful planning and coordination, and provision of adequate resources to ensure sustainability.