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.

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