Speech by Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Dr. Hussein Mwinyi

Ms. Regina Kikuli, Ag. Permanent Secretary, MoHSW
Dr. Donan Mmbando, Ag. Chief Medical Officer,
Dr. Peter Mmbuji, Ag. Director of Preventive Services,
Representatives of Developments Partners,
UN Country Representatives
Representative from Ministry of Health and Social Welfare
Representatives from NGO’s
Representatives of Media Houses
Invited guests,
Ladies and Gentlemen.

Good Afternoon!
It is pleasure to be with you today to share highlights of the family planning summit. Two months ago, as you all may recall, the international community convened in London, at a Family Planning Summit to re-affirm its commitment to strengthen family planning services especially in developing countries. This gathering provided an opportunity to take stock of progress in family planning, as well as determine how we could collectively mobilize the necessary resources for expanding access and method mix to those needing the services.  I am certain that most of you -family planning implementers and stakeholders – have closely followed the Summit deliberations and outcomes, and I will therefore highlight some of the key issues that we find important to pursue as we strive to improve access and quality of family planning services in Tanzania.

Distinguished Guests
The Family Planning Summit co-hosted by the UK Government, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, in collaboration with UNFPA had an ambitious resolve – to ensure an additional 120 million women in the poorest countries in the world such as Tanzania, enjoy access to life saving family planning information, services and supplies by the end of this decade. As you will agree with me, this may appear to be a monumental task by development partners and national governments, but it is a unique opportunity for all of us to reflect on the challenges and successes we have scored over the years, and put in place actions to accelerate the process.

Ladies and Gentlemen
Apart from the various processes involved during Summit deliberations that I will shortly share with you, it is important to re-state that the Summit pledged $4.6 billion, and this will go a long way to improving services and ensure access for 380 million women and girls in developing countries by 2020. Now, with respect to the Summit, it was organized in three segments a ministerial and experts segment and a high level segment followed by parallel sessions. The ministerial and expert segment featured a number of sessions were held around five thematic areas:
-    Increasing access and expanding choice;
-    Integrating family planning with women’s and children’s health services including HIV
-    Ensuring equity and promoting rights (including those of young people)
-    Partnering for progress
-    Role of public/private partnerships and donor commitments

Ministers from invited countries had an opportunity to share their national family planning programs and plans, highlighting key milestones, challenges, gaps and commitments to advance family planning. Televised statements by a number of international dignitaries including UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon, and US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, complimented the discussions, which were also enriched with speeches by Melinda Gates, UK International Development Secretary Andrew Mitchell and a number of UN Agencies Heads.

Ladies and Gentlemen,
The highlight of the Summit – as you all know – was the high level segment which brought together a panel number of high-level speakers including our President HE Dr. Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete other Heads of State and Government, Heads of UN Agencies and CEOs from private companies. This session generated the necessary momentum synonymous to the Summit’s outcome that has brought us here today for follow-up discussions and actions. If I may refresh your memories, apart from the UK Government and the Gates Foundation that pledged Sterling Pounds 500 million and US $560 million respectively, for the period 2012-2020, a number of countries made the following pledges: Germany (€ 100 million 2012/2015); Australia (UD$ 1.6 million); Japan (US$ 36 million contribution to UNFPA 2012); Netherlands (€ 370 million for a period of 2012/2020) and Norway (US$ 200 million for the period of 2012/2020). The Packard Foundation pledged US$ 24 million, Bloomberg Philanthropies (US$ 50 million), and European Commission (€ 23 million);

Ladies and Gentlemen, what does this mean to the developing world including Tanzania? We anticipate additional financial resources will be made available to countries through a range of channels including;
•    support to procurement of cost-effective commodities,
•    support to scaling up services,
•     support to innovative and new approaches to reaching the poorest and most vulnerable women and girls.

Ladies and Gentlemen
Country ownership is a core principal underscored by family planning summit partners. Tanzania has an advantage in that we already have a costed National Family Programme document that outlines the priority strategies and required funding. We also have strong partnerships and coordination in its implementation.


Ladies and Gentlemen
Tanzania committed, to Increase contraceptive prevalence rate to 60% by 2015. This means Tanzania is determined to increase its family planning users from 2.1 m (2010) to 4.2 m by 2015.
In this regard the Government committed to
•    Increase mobilization of domestic resources for family planning. For Tanzania, this means local budgetary funds and also soliciting support from partners to meet the total commodity and supply cost estimated at $88.2m by 2015
•    Strengthen commodity security and logistic systems
•    Accelerate advocacy sensitization and demand creation including re-launch of the Green Star campaign
•    Address regional disparities and special needs of adolescents and
•    Expand quality family planning services through public and private facilities as well as community based services

Ladies and Gentlemen
So what are our plans as a government to implement the London Summit commitments? Tanzania will continue to implement its National Family Planning Costed Implementation Program (2010-2015), which has set a Contraceptive Prevalence Rate goal of 60%. My Ministry will therefore ensure an annual increase in domestic resources to strengthen contraceptive availability while enhancing strategic partnerships for improving access of all contraceptive methods. Parallel to these efforts, we will mobilize resources pledged from the London Summit to compliment our efforts.

Ladies and Gentlemen,
Like many countries in Africa, Tanzania is facing human resource for health crisis, which is evident in our inadequate capacity, particularly in administering long acting and permanent methods in most health facilities. In this respect, the government will actively engage district councils to determine the needs of service providers, provide appropriate training to fill in the critical gaps in family planning services. Along with these efforts, the government is determined to strengthen public-private partnerships to ensure improvement in equipment and supplies, as well as quality of services that also target young people. The government will also continue to improve and sustain demand creation campaigns to increase knowledge and uptake of family planning methods.

Ladies and Gentlemen,
I, therefore, would like at this point to acknowledge the role, commitment and contribution by all bilateral, multilateral partners and the private sector, for their unwavering support in strengthening national efforts to reinvigorate family planning in the country. The Ministry of Health and Social Welfare will continue to treasure the partnerships that have over the years seen a steady increase in both use of family planning services, and a broader acknowledgement of these services in meeting maternal and child health goals

I thank you all for your attention.

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