Helping Communities Manage risks from the ground up.

The MIA was recently subcontracted by the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute (Swiss TPH), as part of a 10 year project on Health Promotion and System Strengthening in Tanzania, funded by the Swiss Development Corporation (SDC). 

MIA performed a situational analysis on the issues surrounding health financing and public financial management in the project’s 6 districts within the Dodoma region of Tanzania. The project (considered as a pilot to develop solutions that can be scaled up and applied to the rest of the country) has three main components: i) Health Promotion, ii) Health Financing and Public Financial Management, and iii) Drug and Physical Resource Management.  

Health financing remains a high-priority issue. Therefore, the situational  analysis performed by MIA began with a comprehensive desk review, followed by three weeks of field work in Dar es Salaam and Dodoma region, during which information and view points were gathered through Key Informant Interviews (KII) from over 100 resource persons, and 7 Focus Group Discussions (FGD) with community members (separately with males and females ).   The aim of situational analysis was to develop a comprehensive and integrated support package that can strengthen the health system and be used at the district and health facility level.

The analysis specifically looked at the country's community-based insurance scheme (Community Health Fund), the formal sector insurance scheme (National Health Insurance Fund), and the flow of funds from the two schemes to the health facilities. MIA provided international expertise on these issues and developed potential interventions to be used during project implementation.   

A Planning Workshop is planned to be convened on 21st and 22nd September 2010, in Dodoma, with the participation of Some 100 policy makers, multilateral and bilateral contact persons, development workers, and other relevant stakeholders.  MIA representatives will also participate with the view to strengthening project design, reaching consensus on the action plan, and contributing to a spirit of collaboration by all concerned.