ARUSHA, TANZANIA- Up to 8 million Tanzanians should have access to better health services up to 2015 following the World Bank approval of $100m for the basic health services project.
The new project is designed to build on Tanzania's success in improving access to health services, which has helped to cut infant and child mortality rates by nearly half over the past decade.
"This will enable the Tanzania government to edge closer achieve the 2015 Millennium Development Goal on reducing child mortality," said a World Bank statement issued recently in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.
It said children in Tanzania stand a much better chance of survival today than they did 20 years ago, or even five years ago.
This is attributed to investments that made vaccinations, mosquito nets, vitamin supplements and other basic health services available, said Mercy Tembon, World Bank Acting Country Director for
Tanzania. She noted that more needs to be done to improve the quality of services at public health facilities so that faster progress is made towards other health-related goals such as reducing maternal mortality. Tembon said the project is expected to contribute about a fifth of the total health basket fund (Tanzanias main vehicle for donor financing for health) and will further support the governments efforts to focus on quality and to bring in new financing mechanisms that strengthen management of health services at the local level.
'Access to quality health services is expected to benefit millions of women, including in remote areas such as Tabora District where the share of women giving birth in health facilities was just 28% in 2009," she noted.
"The project aims at improving health results by helping to change the way that funds are allocated to district and frontline health facilities from the current unconditional grants to a greater emphasis on equity and the efficient and effective use of these funds," said the project's task team leader Dominic Haazen.
The statement said that component one include support to local government service delivery of the project that will finance annual per capita grants to local government authorities of approximately $0.30 per person per year to support district-level service delivery, as well as medical supplies, medicines, vaccines and contraceptives.
The second and third components provide funding to improve the capacity of local governments to manage health services and central programmes to support local service delivery.
The World Banks support to Tanzania is consistent with its overarching objectives in Africa, which include reducing vulnerability while enhancing governance and public sector capacity so that public funds deliver better education, health and infrastructure for citizens.
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