Public Private Partnership taking roots in Rungwe:

On 14^th June 2012, Rungwe PBF Pilot Project organized a one day meeting for local Government Leaders in the District.  This meeting had two objectives: Introduction of general Concept- Performance Based Financing as health financing model, and secondly to give feedback on project implementation in the District.  It was held at DMO Conference in Tukuyu.

It was attended by the key  Local Government officials from Rungwe District Council: The Chairman of the District Council, the District Executive Director, the Chairman of the Social Services – Rungwe District Council and heads of Departments.

It was officially opening by District Executive Director- Rungwe District Council who noted that: the Council as stakeholder in this project has potential roles: regulate policies, guidelines as set by the Government. He added that EU and Cordaid financing this project in Rungwe has enabled the Public Private Partnership in the District which is quite important. Then he thanked them for their financial support.

He argued the participants to take actively participation in this meeting so as to clearly understand this concept on health financing and apply some of the elements in the District, and get the feedback on the project implementation so as to know what is being done and be in a position to advice the Project for improvement.

After the official opening, Zonal PBF Coordinator made a presentation which was basically divided into two parts: Part one was on the Basic Concept on Performance Based Financing as one of the model in Health care Financing, and the second part was on the feedback for project implementation( showing success, challenges and some recommendations)

As a general impression, the participants were stirred up by the benefits which so far the model will have on the health Care as opposed to traditional health financing model I.e. input based financing which is commonly applied in Tanzania.

The participants objectively discussed ways of improving the Voluntary agency Health facilities especially those at Lower Level- Dispensaries and Health Centres.

Below are some of the proposal for such improvement.

-     - Service agreement with the Local Government, in this case Rungwe District Council.  It was apparent from the discussion that there is no such modality, as these facilities have no trained staff to handle funds from basket fund. However, this proposal was taken as part of the solution for addressing the prevailing shortage of: Drugs, medical supplies and human resource for health. Additionally,, the other side of the agreement was also probed- delay in funds disbursement from the Government was noted as another impediment for making the lower health facilities provide health services to the population. Nevertheless, it was taken as a lesser evil option, and members advised the project team to find out modalities from other Councils in the region which has such experience.

-    The issue of improving relationship for Local Government and Church Leaders was another hot issue. It is worth expressing that, through the District Medical Officer (DMO) of Rungwe District Council, the trained staff have been seconded to the Voluntary Agency Health facilities, but it was learnt that for some reasons, these staff normally take short period before going back to their employer- Rungwe District Council. From October 2011 to date, the District Council has seconded 12 health staff to church Health facilities. We can see that this is the beginning of the collaboration and it is hoped that more support will be availed to the church health facilities which have entered service Agreement with the Local Government.

The participants viewed situation facing church health facilities located mostly in rural areas from objective viewpoint. They raised some solution which will be further worked on for improving health care for the  people in the rural areas.

As a conclusion, we can see that the Collaboration between the  Public and Private Partnership in health care through Rungwe PBF Pilot  is getting more roots and definitely would need support from all parts.