Improving health care in Tanzania

Context

The sexual and reproductive health of women in Tanzania has significantly improved over the last 20 years. Maternal mortality fell by nearly 40 per cent and the use of modern family-planning methods almost doubled between 2000 and 2016.

Nonetheless, more progress is needed to achieve equality in terms of women’s sexual and reproductive rights and to safeguard their health. Births remain dangerous for mothers and babies alike. Many young women struggle to unlock their full education and career potential due to early pregnancies.

One of the main reasons for this gender-based discrimination is the inadequate quality of reproductive health services, especially when it comes to addressing the needs of young people.

Objective

Reproductive health services in the Tanga region are upgraded and the health of mothers and newborn babies is improved.

Approach

The project works with partners in government and civil society to reduce the gender-specific disparities in women’s health outcomes. Its efforts focus on three thematic areas:

• Obstetric and neonatal care: Here the project develops a system of comprehensive care for obstetric emergencies and sick or premature babies. This is done by providing further training to the health workers in health centres and hospitals and making essential medical equipment available.
• Reproductive health and family planning: The project trains specialists to give age-appropriate counselling and advises health care facilities on organising youth-friendly clinics. Local NGOs are used to provide comprehensive education to young people in secondary schools.
• Planning health services: The project promotes digitalisation and trains community representatives of all genders and age groups to feed their concerns into the planning of the health services.

Last update: September 2023