Second Year Rungwe PBF training Closing Ceremony

The second year Rungwe PBF Training was officially closed today by Dean Rev. Geoffrey Mwakihaba- Assistant Bishop of ELCT Konde Diocese as the guest of honour.

Before his speech, the course participants read a brief note which was mainly thanking the EU and Cordaid for financing PBF project, which resulted to training health staff in Rungwe so that they become change agents in propagating the PBF in the area.  They noted that they have benefited much from training on how to implement PBF project.  They added that the training was user friendly as it was conducted in Kiswahili which is a national language understood by all the people.

Additionally, they shared the information from the field visit on application of PBF especially to facilities whose staff were trained on PBF and those had who chances to attend other training conducted by the project at Rungwe.  Some of the application included development of strategic plans, costing of services and better management of income and expenditure.   They also noted community participation through facility governing committees and initiatives of signing service agreement between two hospitals in Rungwe (Itete and Igogwe ) with District Council- hopefully September 2011.

Thereafter, Dr. Manongi- PBF Training Coordinator from KCMC gave a brief note of training modules covered all in Swahili, and further said that they have incorporated the comments from last year’s training as a result they have a first draft PBF Manual- in Swahili which however need to  be rechecked by PBF practitioners so that the concept are kept intact from the original manual (Soeters, 2011) book on PBF in Action Theory and Instruments. She elaborated that this year the average pass mark has greatly increased as compared to last year training.  Definitely, the reason for the improvement could be due to maximum use of Swahili in the training sessions, which is understood clearly by all the participants.   She, welcomed the guest of honour for his speech and to hand over certificates to the participants.

In his closing speech, the guest of honour acknowledged the financial support from EU and Cordaid for Rungwe PBF Pilot Project.  Furthermore, he commended the great efforts of KCMC team for conducting this  intensive ten days training for Rungwe Team on New health financing approach  which is performance Based Financing.  He argued the trainees to bring change in their facilities on Performance by being Pioneers and advocates on this new approach.  He assured them that this is possible as they have acquired required knowledge and skills to effect that and they have all the backing from the owners of the health facilities and the local Government authority.  Thereafter, he submitted the certificate of attendance to all 20 participants for the PBF Course.

Finally, the participants departed with high morale on PBF and enthusiastic to bring difference in the health facilities they work, and they put on T-shirts and caps provided by Rungwe PBF pilot Project as part of Promotion for PBF in the District.

See the group Photo of the Trainees and trainers in a smiling face with the Guest of Honour (in a Clerical Shirt).

ON GOING RUNGWE PBF PROJECT TRAINING IN SWAHILI ''BUILDING CRITICAL MASS FOR PBF MOVEMENT IN TANZANIA''

On 12^th September 2011, the second year training for Rungwe Performance Based Financing (PBF) Pilot project started at Romanc Catholic church Youth Centre based in Tukuyu. The training will be ten days, from 12^th Sept to 22^nd September 2011. The training is being facilitated by KCMC team, Zonal PBF Coordinator and one facilitator from Igogwe Hospital. The training objectives are enable participants: firstly, to provide participants with an understanding of the relationships between national policies, health policy and economic policies and how they are influenced by Performance Based Financing. Secondly to understand the objectives, theories, best practices and instruments of Performance Base Financing and thirdly  to provide participants with knowledge and skills to enable them to improve the implementation of PBF in their work place.

What make this training peculiar is that it is mainly conducted in Swahili language, unlike last year which was in English and Swahili.

There are 20 participants, 14 are from Faith Based organization (FBOs) health facilities and 6 are from government owned health facilities.

The training was officially opened by the District Medical Officer (DMO), Rungwe District – Dr. N. Sungwa.  In his opening speech, he thanked the KCMC team for coming all way to conducting PBF Training in Rungwe.  Again, he thanked the participants for the response to attend this important course.  The DMO expressed that PBF pilot project is promising, but its implementation is tricky as basic prerequisite are not in place, referring to the policies which either need to be changed or adapt new ones.  However, he argued participants to study hard as the course is important for widening their scope on new health financing and for institutions they represent to effect change.  Additionally, he pointed out efforts done by the district, which include adopting some PBF principles, to start with they have set target to reach on Vaccination and Outreach; whereby if the staff reach target of over 80% they will be paid some kind of bonus.

Importantly, he noted the efforts to sign service agreement between Itete and Igogwe Hospitals with Rungwe District Council next month on maternal and neonatal Child health and under five years.

The DMO further said that, he expect to see the performance of health facilities whose staff  are taking part in this training to increase in terms of service coverage such as vaccination coverage, institutional delivery, and drugs supply. He, challenged the trainees to be change agents when they go back to their facilities. Finally Dr. Manongi, the PBF Training Coordinator from KCMC, thanked the DMO for the motivating and a well articulated opening speech.

See the Group Photo for PBF Trainees and  Trainers with Guest of Honour after Course opening.

Seated in front of participants: Second from right is the DMO Rungwe,

and followed by PBF Training Coordinator from KCMC- Dr. Manongi and

the Chairperson for the course on the left side. First from the right is the course

 participant.