Rungwe PBF Pilot Project established District PBF forum in 2010 August for the aim of bringing state, church and community members in the District to discuss various issues of interest on health, whereby Performance Based Financing (PBF) which is a new Health Financing Approach in Tanzania was priority agenda. However, the forum served a purpose of a Public Private Partnership (PPP) in the District and spearheaded discussion and signing of Service Agreement in Rungwe District. Normally, these forums are held twice per year, at the beginning and at the end of the year.
The members of the forum are drawn from the Church leaders, local government officials, the health facilities representatives and the community representatives.
For the year 2011, the second District PBF forum was successfully held on 13th December 2011. It aimed at updating forum members on Rungwe PBF Pilot Project Progress and assesses the public private partnership through the signed Service Agreement between two hospitals in Rungwe (Itete and Igogwe) and Rungwe District Council.
As an update after the opening remarks, the Zonal Secretary –Fr. Lukas Komba explained briefly the new organizational set- up at the Christian Social Services Commission (CSSC) and welcomed Director of Technical Support Services from Christian Social Services Commission (CSSC) - Mr. Michael Angulile who brought greetings from the Head office and expressed about the coming of the new Executive Director Mr. Peter Maduki who took over from Dr. Adeline Kimambo who finished her contract.
Thereafter, the Chairperson for the Southern Zone- Rt. Rev. Bishop Israel- Peter Mwakyolile informed the members that the Zonal Secretary- Fr. Lukas Komba is called by his Bishop and he will leave in January 2012. On behalf of the Southern Zone he thanked him for his hard work and commitment to make the South Zone amongst the best Zones. Additionally, he acknowledged the great contribution of Ms. Helga Schneider- who was the Technical Advisor for the Southern Zone and who finished her contract in October 2011. He finally acknowledged the good job of the outgoing Executive Director and congratulated the new Executive Director for his appointment.
There were basically two presentations. The first presentation was done by Zonal PBF Coordinator- Mr.Sule, T.Michael on PBF Forum updates. The second presentation was on: Public Private Partnership- A process with both Ups & Down. By Mr. Michael Angulile- Director for Technical Support Services from Christian Social Services Commission ( CSSC).
On Updates, the presentation indicated activities realized since last forum held in May 2011: Finalizing Strategic and Operational Plans for 6 health facilities, Costing of 4 Health facilities out of 12 and Negotiations for Service Agreement Signing between two hospitals with Rungwe District Council. Other activities were Coordination of Training of 20 Health Staff by Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Centre (KCMC), and Christian Social Services Commission (CSSC) for Government and Voluntary Faith Based Organization (FBO) facilities in Sept 2011. Moreover, the Service Agreement was signed between Igogwe and Itete hospitals with Rungwe District Council in October 2011, participation in Mid- Term Review for PBF Pilot Project done in November 2011 for Zambia for Churches Health Association of Zambia (CHAZ) implementing PBF, Participation in PBF Multi-country Network Steering Committee meeting Kigali- November 2011, Re-training of Facility FGC’s in 12 Health Facilities November 2011, and Sharing PBF Information to Zonal Policy Forum (ZPF) Members in Lindi in November 2011,finally, managing the PBF Rungwe Pilot blog with below address http://pbf-rungwe.blogspot.com/, for information sharing and dissemination within the multi-Country network. The blog is serving as the window for Rungwe PBF Pilot Project.
On the other hand, the Challenges Experienced in the project were pointed out being: Process of Signing Service Agreement with the Local Government Authorities is time consuming and complex and the delay in fund Disbursement for Service Agreement to Health facilities and Change of Policy on Consolidated Council health Plans (CCHP), which brought big change in the project set up especially on fund for purchasing of indicators.
On the other hand, the second Presentation focused on Public Private Partnerships
Overview; on General information on Public Private Partnership, the rationale for Public Private Partnership, Some positive results of Public Private Partnership, emerging discrepancies of Public Private Partnership and Lesson learnt. It was noted that with time the partnership is improving to the extent that we have platform to discuss issues and agree jointly on ways to make them better. This appears as small but has significant contribution in the public Private Partnership as manifested by the Rungwe PBF Pilot Project which managed to bring in important stakeholders in health to discuss matters of interest.
Overview; on General information on Public Private Partnership, the rationale for Public Private Partnership, Some positive results of Public Private Partnership, emerging discrepancies of Public Private Partnership and Lesson learnt. It was noted that with time the partnership is improving to the extent that we have platform to discuss issues and agree jointly on ways to make them better. This appears as small but has significant contribution in the public Private Partnership as manifested by the Rungwe PBF Pilot Project which managed to bring in important stakeholders in health to discuss matters of interest.
Thereafter, very objective discussions followed which assessed the Service Agreement which was just signed in Rungwe. It was learnt that the hindrance for smooth Service agreement was delay of fund disbursement which was above the District Council to deal with at the point of time. That means, it is a problem at the Central level.
As a way forward, the forum members concluded that: first, the Church leaders should have regular meetings with the Government leaders to address staff exodus from Church health facilities to government health facilities and establish modalities to manage that, so that church facilities remain with qualified health staff. Secondly, the government should fulfill her obligation, which in the context of Public Private Partnership (PPP) is to financially support Church Health facilities that Sign Service Agreement. See the Photo of Rungwe PBF District Forum Proceedings.
2 comments:
Good dialogue between church services and government is essential to safeguard continued delivery of quality health care. Very good that CSSC with support of the Cordaid multi-country network is facilitating this process. Given the complexity of the issue around Service Agreements, it is adviseable to have more regular encounters between stakeholders than just twice a year.
Dear Ernest,
Thank you for the advice. We will try our best to have more meetings with the stakeholders than it is now in order to make the whole issue of Service Agreement more practical and users- friendly.
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