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OTTAWA (October 25, 2004) - Child mortality rates in two large rural districts of Tanzania have fallen by more than 40 per cent over five years. This dramatic improvement is the result of a unique decade-long project carried out by a team of Canadian and Tanzanian researchers and health workers.

 

The book “Fixing Health Systems,” to be launched tomorrow in Ottawa, describes how the Tanzania Essential Health Interventions Project (TEHIP) has dramatically improved people’s health in one of the world’s poorest countries.

 

“This was achieved, not by applying new technologies or large sums of money, but by spending available resources – a mere US $12 per person per year– more strategically,” said Don de Savigny, of Canada`s International Development Research Centre (IDRC) and research manager for the program. “We achieved these results with a range of simple measures, not by a single intervention.”

                                                           

TEHIP is a unique collaboration between IDRC, the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), and the Tanzanian Ministry of Health. During the past 10 years, it has provided health planning teams in the districts of Morogoro and Rufiji with the tools, strategies, and funding increases of US $1 per person per year  to improve on-the-ground health care delivery.

 

The key was focusing not on how much was spent on health care, but on how it was spent. By ensuring that meagre resources were spent on the diseases that caused the greatest ravages, that the right medicines were available at the right time, and that health personnel were trained to treat patients effectively, the project has proven that an integrated approach to managing a health system is key to improving community health.

 

"The study has demonstrated that decentralized government health services can be revitalized with a modest financial input, along with training and capacity building of district health management teams and frontline workers," said Harun Kasale, TEHIP coordinator.

 

“The currently established multibillion-dollar package of initiatives aimed at tackling major diseases in poor countries require adequately functioning health systems if they are to be able to register the desired impact,” said Anna Abdallah, Minister of Health for Tanzania. “I am proud that Tanzania was one of the first countries to offer to test  new ways for low income countries to strategically target areas where the needs are greatest.”

 

The challenge now, says Dr. Gabriel Upunda, Tanzania’s Chief Medical Officer, is “to promote systemic health reform in the remaining 119 districts in Tanzania.”

 

The book, recently launched in Tanzania, will also be released in Mexico at the Global Forum for Health Research in November.

 

 

News 8 of 15