PBF High Level Conference opened in Dar-Es- salaam- Tanzania

The long awaited Performance Based Financing (PBF) high level conference was colorfully opened today by His Excellence Dr. Gharibu Bilali- Vice President of the United Republic of Tanzania at Bank of Tanzania (BOT) Conference.

 The official opening was preceded with key notes from various speakers.  The Executive Director of the Christian Social Services Commission (CSSC) -Mr. Peter Maduki was the first speaker who gave a word of welcome to the conference participants. He gave a brief note of the Christian Social Services Commission (CSSC) as an institution in delivering social services specifically health and education. He further indicated that the Christian Social Services Commission (CSSC) works with the Government in the two sectors in the spirit Public Private Partnership. Furthermore, he officially acknowledged the EU and Cordaid financial support for the Performance Based Financing Project.  Moreover, he thanked members of the multi-country network for choosing Tanzania for this conference.

Then, Director of Cordaid – Mr. Renè Grontenhuis followed by giving a brief note, saying that this Conference is for sharing experience on Performance Based Financing, and for gaining more knowledge on this new health financing model. He argued conference participants to have commitment in improving health services. On top of that he stressed that performance Based Financing (PBF) can contribute to:  strengthening national health System (taking example of Rwanda back in early 2000, later the 7 multi-country network states, Zimbabwe and Afghanistan), empower communities, and clarify roles of different actors in the health sector. Finally, he noted that this Conference is a signal for Performance Based Financing on health care. Eventually, he invited members to share their good experiences and those which are not even so good so that they are used for improvement of ten (10) years of PBF implementation by Cordaid in Africa.

The Minister of Health and Social Welfare (MOHSW) Dr.Hadji Mponda- thanked the participant of the conference who included: Ministers from PBF multi-country network, members from the donor community,the partners from the multi-country network and others for attending this important meeting. He informed the participants that Performance Based Financing (PBF) is becoming popular in health and the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare (MOHSW)is learning it as one of the health financing model. He welcomed the Guest of Honour.

The Guest of Honour- His Excellence Dr. Gharibu Bilali welcomed all the distinguished participants to this conference. He appreciated the initiatives done by Cordaid in funding the Pilot Project on Performance Based Financing in the African Countries- Rwanda, Burundi,DRC and later to the Multi- Country PBF Network comprising seven African Countries.  He pointed that, the Performance Based Financing (PBF) is the health financing Model which shits focus from traditional input based to output based financing. It involves incentivizing the staff and have more accountability at the health facilities.

He spelled out the Conference objectives being:

·        To enable participants to understand the concept of PBF and its impact on the health services utilization, quality of health services, human resources for health, good governance, client satisfaction and  some potential risks.

·        To create awareness to policy decisions as required at different levels, thus improve in the implementation and thus expand the PBF

·        To  create the capacity, on how to assess the (political, economic social) implications of the decentralization and transfer of autonomy

·        To understand and value the role of different stakeholders notably the CSOs.

·        To expand the network to include more stakeholders, as part of an international network with access to experts in the government, donors and CSOs.

He shared with the participants the challenges which might crop as a result of introducing Performance   Based Financing (PBF), which include: the sustainability, staff to temper with the data as they have implication on their rewards, the system is donor dependent at the moment.

Finally, he reminded the conference participants that Performance Based Financing (PBF) is not the magic bullet to boost the health workers performance. He ended his speech by saying that he believed we can move to the next step successfully.

The Arch Bishop Thaddeaus Ruwa’ichi, the Christian Social Services Commission (CSSC) President gave a vote of thanks to the Guest of Honour.  He thanked His Excellency Vice President of United Republic of Tanzania- Dr. Gharibu Bilali, and noted that Tanzania is being honoured by being given the opportunity to organize this conference.  He assured him that, the Christian Social Services Commission (CSSC) will continue to improve quality of health services without any segregation for the betterment of all the people. 

Below is the Group photo - Guest of Hour (in front- at the middle)to the right: Minister for Health-Tanzania,Cordaid Director, Minister for Health Central Africa Republic.To the right : Minister for Health Burundi,CSSC President and CSSC Executive Director and other key officials after official opening.