GLOBAL LEADERS HONOR TANZANIA FOR ADDRESSING REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH NEEDS OF UNDERSERVED POPULATIONS

Geneva, Switzerland

Global Leaders Council for Reproductive Health (GLC) on May 20, 2014 presents the 2014 Resolve Award for innovations in reproductive health service delivery to the Tanzanian government.

Tanzania Minister for Health and Social welfare, Dr. Seif Seleman Rashidi, , accept the award at a ceremony celebrating the Resolve Award recipients during the 67th World Health Assembly in Geneva, Switzerland.

The Global Leaders Council for Reproductive Health is composed of eighteen sitting and former heads of state, high-level policymakers and other leaders who build political leadership for increased financial and technical support for reproductive health.

The Council works to revitalize political commitments to reproductive health by increasing awareness of reproductive health issues, supporting the effective use of donor resources, and championing policies dedicated to achieving universal access to reproductive health.

The Resolve Award honors the leadership of country governments for expanding access to essential reproductive health services and recognizes Tanzania’s innovative work to reach underserved populations, particularly women in rural areas and adolescent girls.

Tanzania, a country where about 50% of the population is under the age of 15, Tanzania’s adolescents are a large and growing group with a wide variety of needs.

“The needs of girls, in particular, are multisectoral,” said Dr. Fatma Mrisho of the Tanzania Commission for AIDS (TACAIDS). “For those who are out of school, their immediate need is job security, food security, income, and educational opportunities. But that is the same girl who also needs reproductive health services, and access to information that enables her to make the right choices as far as sexuality is involved.”

To address these needs, TACAIDS, Restless Development and UNICEF partnered in a youth-led, community-centered project called “Mabinti Tushike Hatamu!” (Girls, Let’s be Leaders!).

The program enables adolescent girls to gain access to critical services and make choices impacting their safety, reproductive health, and economic and social well-being. The pilot program has reached over 7,000 individuals directly, and more than 40,000 community members indirectly, helping to change attitudes around the rights of girls and their value to society.

Nearly 75% of Tanzania’s population lives in rural areas and many rural women lack options for planning their families and accessing basic reproductive health care.

“Sometimes women who live in remote areas in Tanzania have twelve or more children, which can make them very weak,” said Dr. Feddy Mwanga of

EngenderHealth. “When women in these areas learn about family planning, they have told us, ‘Thank you for saving my life.’”

The Ministry of Health and Social Welfare is partnering with the U.S. Agency for International Development, and others in an innovative program spearheaded by EngenderHealth to reach women and families in underserved areas.

That program provides a range of reproductive health services, family planning options, and maternal and child health services, raising awareness among community leaders and cultivating their engagement and support.

Since the program’s launch in 2007, there has been a 79% increase in use of long-acting reversible contraceptives in districts that previously had the lowest rates of family planning use.

The GLC is a group of sixteen sitting and former heads of state, high-level policymakers, and other leaders who build political leadership for increased financial and technical support for reproductive health, applauds these impressive achievements and honors Tanzania with the Resolve Award for innovative service delivery.

The GLC selects Resolve Award recipients through a competitive global nominations process. In addition to Tanzania, Peru is also recognized with a Resolve Award for policy development, with special mentions to Cambodia and Afghanistan.

The Resolve Award was been presented by GLC member, President and CEO of the Global Fund for Women, and global champion for women and girls Dr. Musimbi Kanyoro, at a public ceremony held at Domaine de Penthes in Geneva, Switzerland.

“Tanzania and other Resolve Award winners can inspire other countries,” says Dr. Kanyoro.

Their work recognizes that reproductive health is connected to a broad range of development objectives, including education, livelihoods, and security.

By engaging multiple sectors in strategies that meet the needs of young people, including their reproductive health needs, this year’s award winners exemplify innovative models for development.

As the global conversation shifts to the priorities that the post-2015 development agenda will hold, these leaders are pointing the way forward.

“The Resolve Award winners show us the importance of universal access to reproductive health and rights, and effective strategies for making progress toward that goal,” says Dr. Kanyoro.

The Global Leaders Council for Reproductive Health, established by The Aspen Institute in 2010, is composed of sixteen sitting and former heads of state, high-level policymakers and other leaders who build political leadership for increased financial and technical support for reproductive health.

The Council works to revitalize political commitments to reproductive health by increasing awareness of reproductive health issues, supporting the effective use of donor resources, and championing policies dedicated to achieving universal access to reproductive health.

The Aspen Institute is an educational and policy studies organization based in Washington, DC. Its mission is to foster leadership based on enduring values and to provide a nonpartisan venue for dealing with critical issues.

Read More

Population boom worries government

Published in Daily News on Thursday, 08 May 2014

Written by ORTON KIISHWEKO

TANZANIA needs to control the current population growth rate which hampers the fight against poverty and exerts pressure on existing resources, Family Planning Focal Person in the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, Mr Maurice Hiza, has said.

Speaking at a seminar for journalists in Dar es Salaam ahead of a government relaunch of a refocused programme on maternal health, the official said that calling for large families without adequate measures to guarantee the increased population of quality lives and employment will be a recipe for ‘a Tanzanian disaster’ in the long run.

President Jakaya Kikwete is expected to launch the programme tomorrow. Mr Hiza said yesterday that the current annual growth rate of 3 per cent, which is one of the highest in the world, does not correspond with the economic growth and cutting it would influence the direction of the fight against poverty.

He said such a sustained population growth rate has the ability to overwhelm existing public resources such as education, health and housing systems, among others.

The implication, he noted, is that it will have a bigger burden if its economic growth rate does not remain much higher than the rate of population growth. According to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), Tanzania’s population is growing by 1.3 million people per year.

Presently at an estimated 44.5 million, it is projected to grow to 65 million in just 14 years from now. The national coordinator of safe motherhood at the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, Dr Koheleth Wineni, also said that population growth has to correspond with the economic growth statistics.

This means that the population will exert pressure on the existing natural resources. He said that statistics show that families that are planned are far better off than those which are not.

He said that a similar development was playing out at the family level where some parents have produced more children than they can cater for in terms of education, health and social welfare.

Dr Georgina Msemo from the ministry said the Lake Zone is the worst performer in terms of contraceptives prevalence rate at 14 percent while the national average is 27 per cent.

She said that under a new programme, they would start a pregnant women’s registry and carry out census of the group with the aim of cutting maternal deaths For the first time in the current financial year, the government made a budgetary allocation from domestic resources for family planning activities in the 2013/2014 national budget.

The decision is based on the government’s goal to make Contraceptive Prevalence Rate (CPR) grow at more than three per cent annually so that the country attains a 60 per cent CPR by 2015.

The ministry has said Tanzania was committed to increasing the contraceptive prevalence rate to 60 per cent by 2015, exuding the government’s determination to increase family planning users from 2.1 million (2010) to 4.2 million by 2015.

Tanzania has continued to implement its National Family Planning Cost Implementation Programme (2010- 2015), which has set a Contraceptive Prevalence Rate goal of 60 per cent.

The international community convened in London, at a Family Planning Summit in 2012 to re-affirm its commitment to strengthen family planning services especially in developing countries.

Mr Hiza said the gathering provided an opportunity to take stock of progress in family planning, as well as determine how they could collectively mobilize the necessary resources for expanding access and method mix to those needing the services.

He said 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 developing countries in the world, including Tanzania, enjoy access to life saving family planning information, services and supplies by the end of this decade.

The Summit pledged $4.6 billion that would go a long way to improving services and ensure access for 380 million women and girls in developing countries by 2020.

Read More

Can Tanzania achieve contraceptive prevalence targets?

Published in Daily News on Thursday, 17 April 2014

Written by NASHON KENNEDY

LACK of adequate family planning education is the reason for insufficient resources among many families, resulting in unwanted pregnancies and maternal death.

According to Tanzania Demographic Health Survey (TDHS) of 2010, the modern contraceptive prevalence rate among married women is 27 per cent while 45 per cent are sexually active and other 16 per cent of people failed to adopt family planning due to lack of education.

Family planning is the ability of individuals and couples to anticipate and attain their desired number of children and the spacing and timing of their births. A good thing is that, it is achieved through use of contraceptive methods.

According to the survey, 78 per cent of women in Lake Zone regions neither discussed family planning with a fieldworker nor with staff at a healthy facility. The current use of FP for the women of 15- 45 ages, indicates that, 27 of the unmarried women and 45 per cent of sexually active preferred modern method.

That is a fewer number compared to the Tanzanian population of 10 million people who are mature for reproductive health in Tanzania. However, the survey revealed that only three per cent of the citizens got education on FP while 7 per cent of the poorest household they don’t have proper knowledge on FP.

The situation will not make the country meet its target of reaching 60 per cent of the national contraceptive prevalence rate (CPR) by 2015, which the country committed itself at the London Summit of Family Planning 2020.

The objective of the summit was to increase the demand and support for family planning, improving supply chains, systems and services delivery models and fostering innovative approaches for FP just to mention a few. Mary is among many Tanzanian women who have no idea what Family Planning is all about. She had been bearing children every year, while calling her situation development of her life.

“I get pregnant every year. To me this is development, despite the economic challenges we are facing. My husband is jobless and he goes out to drink on a daily basis,’’ she said, adding that she started bearing children at the age of 20 and to date, at age 17, she has six children.

Mary also said that she could not enrol her three children in school due to family problems, which include lack of cash and food to feed her family and medical treatment. “We are poor. My fourth child is sick in bed, I cannot take her to hospital because I have no money.”

According to the woman, she goes out for casual work, from where she gets little food for her six children. Mary is among many people in the country who have not yet adopted family planning. Family planning has a lot of both economic and social advantages.

It helps families to decide the size and number of children to be born, at a specified times and pave the way for a family to do other productive activities. It also maintains reproductive health among families and avoids the number of unwanted pregnancies and maternal deaths.

Family Planning will also help the country to have good plans for its developments which will reflect the size of its population who are in reproductive health. A kind of multilateral intervention is needed at all levels to create awareness and make people adopt family planning as it is ‘a cross cutting issue’ to citizens.

Media also are needed to play their role of disseminating the correct and researched information on the benefits and challenges that hinder family planning.

However, media owners are supposed to equip their journalists with various training on health issues, so that they can have specialised art on family planning issues for both print and electronic media so that they can educate and empower the citizens to know the importance of family planning and reproductive health planning.

Read More

Place ladies first with education, contraception

Published in Daily News on Thursday, 04 July 2013

Written by SUZANNE EHLERS and HALIMA SHARIFF

First Lady Mama Salma Kikwete (left) sits with US First Lady Michelle Obama and her daughters Malia and Sasha, as they attend a dance performance at the National Museum in Dar es Salaam, on Monday. The African First Ladies Summit, “Investing in Women: Strengthening Africa,” was held in Dar es Salaam on Tuesday and Wednesday. Empowering Tanzania’s next generation of women means committing to contraception today. Tanzania has one of the world’s youngest populations, with nearly 45 percent under the age of 15.

That represents a huge number of young women who will soon face choices about education, careers, sex, childbearing and marriage.

There’s been a lot of focus on girls’ education, and for good reason: we know that educating girls not only empowers them, but raises lifetime incomes for them, their families, and their countries.

But it’s harder, and less likely, for more girls to stay in school if comprehensive sexuality education and access to contraceptives are not available. In Tanzania, nearly 25 percent of young women ages 15 to 19 are either pregnant or have given birth, and pregnancy is one of the leading causes of girls dropping out of school.

Less than 30 percent of sexually active Tanzanian women report using any contraception. Part of the reason is the country’s high rate of child marriage: some 40 percent of girls marry before their 18th birthday. Add that to a lack of access to family planning, inadequate information, and restrictive cultural practices and religious beliefs – and “empowering girls” doesn’t seem so simple.

Globally, more than 222 million women want to prevent pregnancy, but lack modern contraception. Many young people are poorly informed about contraception, don’t know where or how to access it, or face stigma and discrimination from adults in their communities.

Reversing these trends is key to ensuring that the next generation of women has a different future from that of their mothers. A World Bank report released last month stressed increased access to family planning and reproductive health services form the linchpin to lifting women and families out of poverty, providing healthier lives and better outcomes for children in developing nations.

When young women have the freedom to plan their families, they are more likely to pursue education, participate in their communities, and earn an income outside of the home. In Tanzania, only 6 percent of teenagers with secondary education had begun childbearing compared with 52 percent of those without.

Even better, education gains are passed down from generation to generation. Educated women are more likely to use contraception and plan their pregnancies, less likely to die in pregnancy or childbirth, and more likely to send their children to school.

In his keynote address at the London Summit for Family Planning last summer, Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete pledged to double the country’s number of family planning users to 4.2 million by 2015, and achieve a national target of 60 percent contraceptive prevalence.

(In 2010, the rate was just 27 percent.) Reaching out to youth through friendly services and empowering messages, and making contraception a smart and responsible choice rather than a taboo, will be integral to reaching these goals.

First Lady Mama Salma Kikwete also spoke out in favor of family planning for the first time last year, as part of a national campaign to improve the health of women and girls. She lamented that many women don’t seek family planning out of fear of a husband’s anger or disapproval, and told them not to be afraid.

It’s a message that should resonate with young people who worry about being judged. Contraceptives help people plan their lives and achieve their goals. Period. Let’s endeavor to give all girls not only the power, but the tools, that First Ladies are lucky enough to have. The tools that we were both privileged enough to have. The tools that each of them deserve.

● Suzanne Ehlers is the President and CEO of Population Action International and Halima Shariff is the Director of Advance Family Planning Tanzania.

Read More

Raising budget to help girls make right health choices

Published in Daily News on Saturday, 08 February 2014

Written by ORTON KIISHWEKO

IN July 2012, President Jakaya Kikwete was in London for a very important occasion. The occasion was the London Family Planning Summit at which one of the most important arguments was that family planning was a cost-effective health intervention --producing $1.40 of benefits for each $1 spent -- as well as an essential tool for "the pursuit of happiness."

The event was one of the most important for the subject in almost 20 years. Subsequent to the event, the government announced that for the first time, it would make a budgetary allocation from domestic resources for family planning activities in the 2013/2014 national budget.

The decision is based on the government's goal to make Contraceptive Prevalence Rate (CPR) grow at more than three per cent annually so that the country attains a 60 per cent CPR by 2015. The Minister for Health and Social Welfare, Dr Hussein Mwinyi, said the government did not initially allocate funds because it was leaving it for the basket fund.

Mid wives attending to a client

He said Tanzania was committed to increase contraceptive prevalence rate to 60 per cent by 2015, exuding the government's determination to increase family planning users from 2.1 million (2010) to 4.2 million by 2015. "In this regard the government is committed to increase mobilisation of domestic resources for Family Planning.

This helps girls and women make informed decisions about their reproductivity, a situation that Gender Equality and Women Empowerment programme (GEWE II) seeks to address.

This means increased local budgetary funds and also soliciting support from partners to meet the total commodity and supply cost estimated at $88.2m by 2015," he said. He said Tanzania would continue to implement its National Family Planning Cost Implementation Programme (2010-2015), which has set a Contraceptive Prevalence Rate goal of 60 per cent.

He said the ministry would 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, they would also mobilise resources pledged from the London Summit to compliment the government's efforts.

He also noted that along with these efforts, the government was determined to strengthen Public-Private Partnerships (PPP) to ensure improvement in equipment and supplies as well as quality of services that also target young people. The international community convened in London, at a Family Planning Summit two months ago 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 mobilise the necessary resources for expanding access and method mix to those needing the services," the minister said. He said the Summit pledged $4.6 billion that will go a long way towards improving services and ensure access for 380 million women and girls in developing countries by 2020.

The Summit included thematic areas of 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 and the role of public/private partnerships and donor commitments.

He said the highlight of the Summit was the high level segment which brought together a panel number of high-level speakers including President Jakaya Kikwete, other Heads of State and Government, Heads of UN Agencies and Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) from private companies. He said what this meant to the developing world, including Tanzania, was anticipation for additional financial resources would be made available to countries through a range of channels.

He said they include support to procurement of cost-effective commodities, support to scaling up services, and support to innovative and new approaches to reaching the poorest and most vulnerable women and girls.

A similar call was made by the wife of billionaire Microsoft founder Bill Gates, Melinda, when she commended Tanzania’s move to put a local budget line for reproductive health in this year’s financial year.

She said in an interview with the ‘Daily News on Saturday’ that it was commendable for countries to follow up on their commitments made since the London Family Planning Summit that took place mid-last year.

“It is important for all countries to honour their commitments, a move that also inspires developed countries that made pledges to honour them too,” Mrs Gates, who is co-founder and co-chairwoman of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, said.

The Foundation is at the forefront of raising $4 billion to extend “affordable, life-saving contraceptive services to an additional 120 million women in the world’s poorest countries by 2020. Her comments come as this year, for the first time, the government made a budgetary allocation from domestic resources for family planning activities in the 2013/2014 national budget.

The decision is based on the government’s goal to make Contraceptive Prevalence Rate (CPR) grow at more than three per cent annually so that the country attains a 60 per cent CPR by 2015, according to the Minister for Health and Social Welfare, Dr Hussein Mwinyi.

Mrs Gates told the ‘Daily News on Saturday’ that maternal mortality deaths could further go down if reproductive health makes further inroads across parts of the country. The current contraception prevalence rate is 27 per cent and the government has pledged to lift it to 60 per cent by 2015.

At the London Summit, which she referred to, President Jakaya Kikwete said Tanzania was committed to increase contraceptive prevalence rate to 60 per cent by 2015, exuding the government’s determination to increase family planning users from 2.1 million (2010) to 4.2 million by 2015.

In the interview, Mrs Gates said countries that have the greatest needs for family planning were at the forefront of global progress to expand access to contraceptive information, services and supplies. “Over a year ago in London, the global community declared women’s health and well-being an urgent priority. Today, we are seeing words translate into action in countries like Tanzania,” she observed.

According to Mrs Gates, health benefits of family planning include preventing unintended pregnancies, reducing unsafe abortions and lowering pregnancy -- and childbirth-related death and illness -- for both mother and child.

She pointed out that increased use of modern contraception by women who do not want to get pregnant has driven nations’ progress in meeting the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) of improving maternal health and reducing child mortality.

Read More