Africa-Press – Tanzania. TANZANIA, in collaboration with United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), will this year conduct a survey to evaluate reproductive health commodities and services in the country.
The 2020 Service Delivery Points Survey (SDP 2020) will evaluate the availability and stock of family planning and reproductive health commodities.
The survey, scheduled to start this month, will investigate the existence of a supply chain, staff training for family planning and staff supervision for reproductive health, including family planning.
It will also collect information on the availability of guidelines and protocols, check lists and job aids, availability and use of information communication technology (ICT) and a waste disposal system.
Speaking on Friday during the opening of a one-day stakeholders’ meeting held at RITA Tower in Dar es Salaam, Ms Sabina Raphael Daima from the Office of Chief Government Statistician in Zanzibar (OCGS) said results obtained from the survey would determine the status of reproductive health commodities in the country.
Ms Sabina, who was representing the management of NBS and OCGS, added that survey results “will specifically help the government, UNFPA and other health partners, including partners in FP2020 global partnership to measure and track the results of reproductive health commodities and service (RHCS) interventions.”
Indeed, Ms Sabina, who is Labour Statistics Manager at OCGS, noted that the survey results would act as a catalyst for health programmes and policy makers to set relevant priorities in family planning and maternal health service interventions.
She informed survey stakeholders that since 2010, UNFPA had been supporting the strengthening and mainstreaming of the reproductive health commodities and services (RHCS) into the existing health system through a global programme to enhance reproductive health commodity security (GPRHCS).
Meanwhile, UNFPA said partnering with NBS and OCGS was conducting the survey as part of its engagement with the government of Tanzania particularly in the production of official statistics.
Mr Samwel Msokwa from the UN, told stakeholders attending the meeting that UNFPA had been working with national statistics offices in implementing various surveys to support the production of official statistics used to inform policy formulation and decision-making in the country.
The UNFPA official urged workshop’s participants to focus their attention on survey tools to reach consensus on survey questions, but cautioned them to adhere to the principle of comparability as the survey was an international one.
Tanzania has conducted four service delivery point surveys. However, the 2020 survey is the second to be implemented by NBS and OCGS. The first was conducted in 2018. Service delivery point surveys are implemented in 43 countries in the world.
According to survey coordinator Cosmas Stephano from NBS, data collection will start this December for 30 days in 424 enumeration areas involving 56 enumerators.
