Africa-Press – Tanzania. HEALTH stakeholders in Tanzania have celebrated the climax of a five-year USAID -funded health mega project – christened USAID Boresha Afya – an integrated comprehensive health service delivery, which covered 12 regions and executed interventions in HIV, TB, family planning and malaria, which they described as successful.
The official closeout of the project, held in Dodoma and attended by funders, implementing partners, government officials and beneficiaries, provided an opportunity for knowledge sharing, and showcasing of major programme accomplishments, best practices and lessons learned.
“This is an event that issues hope that we are on the right track towards providing health services to every Tanzanian,” said Minister of State in the President’s Office, Regional Administration and Local Government, Ms Ummy Mwalimu.
Minister Ummy said that Boresha Afya had tremendously impacted on the lives of millions of Tanzanians.
“It can be said with sincerity that in the past five years of execution of Boresha Afya, USAID was the actual key implementing agent for health services delivery in our councils. Our contribution from the government was human resource in health, which also is not sufficient to meet needs,” she said.
The 222 million US dollar scheme, Boresha Afya was aimed at improving health status of all residents in the target areas with focus on three result areas, namely improved enabling environment for health services; improved availability of quality, integrated health services at facility level; and increased access to health services at community level.
The project has been running from October 2016 to September 2021 with funding from PEFPAR though USAID, and was implemented by The Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation and Deloite, together with its key sub-partners, Engender Health, MDH and FHI260.
“As a result of Boresha Afya activities, over 8.3million Tanzanians received HIV testing services of which, nearly 340 thousand learned their HIV positive status,” said Kate Somvongsiri, Mission Director for USAID Tanzania, adding that the project, which employed dynamic and innovative solutions to address the challenges, reached over 10 million clients through the provision of family planning outreach services.
The EGPAF was the prime for the North / Central Zone Award for Arusha, Kilimanjaro, Manyara, Dodoma, Singida and Tabora providing overall leadership and management oversight to the implementation of HIV, Tuberculosis and Health systems strengthening activities.
On the other hand, Deloitte was the prime providing overall leadership and management oversight for HIV/AIDS, TB, Family Planning, MCH and malaria progrmmes for the Southern Zone, which covered Morogoro, Iringa, Njombe, Ruvuma, Mtwara and Lindi.
Director for Deloitte Consulting Limited Caron Jones, said “We look forward to a day when all Tanzanians will be healthy and there will be no more needs for such projects,” He noted that progress in the country can only be realized when all the citizens are healthy.
Prudence Masako, Country Representative for EngenderHealth, which was key sub-partner for both zones, said “We are proud to leave in place a robust functional system that delivers integrated health services to the people,” crediting success of the project to strong leadership and collaboration among stakeholder, great teamwork among consortium leaders and ability to fix technical issues expeditiously.
The Technical Director for USAID Boresha Afya North and Central Zone, Roland Van de Ven, made sure the human side of the project received due attention and highlighted the fact that the project “was about people”. He celebrated Boresha Afya, describing it as “unique’ because it had combined various tested approaches typical of USAID health delivery projects.
Winding up the event, Minister Ummy said the government valued the support of various players in the health sector. Noting that the health investment burden cannot be shouldered by the government alone, she said the current administration will create conducive environment to enable partners and private investor the health sector carry out their projects smoothly.
“The government is committed to creating a better environment for partners in the health sector and private sector players operating investments in health projects. The president has already directed us to sit with stakeholders and discuss their challenges with a view to solving them,” said the minister.
“May I once more promise that the current administration has, and will continue to make the environment friendly, including coming up with better health-related legislation governing private-public joint ventures and the operation of non-governmental organisations.”
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