The Christian
Social Services Commission (CSSC) with Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Centre
Culminated PBF Pilot Project in Tanzania- Rungwe Pilot by organizing National
forum held at Stela Maris- Conference Centre in Bagamoyo Coastal Region. It was officially opened by KCMC Executive
Director- Prof. Ntabayi urged the participants to learn various models of
performance payments in the country and come up with the model which might fit Tanzanian
Context and moderated by CSSC Executive Director Mr. Peter Maduki.
The forum
over-all objective was to enable participants to understand the concept of PBF
and its benefits on the health services in terms of utilization, quality of
health services, human resources for health, good governance, client
satisfaction and some potential risks. On the other hand, the specific objectives of the
PBF National forum was to share/ discuss with the key stakeholders and policy
makers on PBF experiences from the members of PBF Multi-Country Network, to
Share PBF Pilot Project implementation experiences in Tanzania and lesson
learnt. Others being to share the result of study Paper on Spill-over effects of
PBF Training in Rungwe and finally recommend for the way forward for PBF pilots
in Tanzania.
Moreover, the participants were from within the
country and outside the country. Within the country, the following development
partners participated actively in the forum. WHO, USAID, GIZ, CDC, DANIDA,
KFW.CHAI- P4P, Irish AID Embassy of Ireland.
On top of that, the Regional Multi-country PBF Director participated and
presented Rwanda PBF Experience as a success story.
From the Government Institutions, the
participants were from Ministry of Health and Social Welfare (MoHSW), Prime-
Ministers Office Regional Administration and Local Government (PMO-RALG),
National Institute for Medical Research (NIMR), Regional Medical Officer from
Mbeya and DMO Rungwe.
Other stakeholders were from Church whereby a
Representative of the Church from the project area participated, and one local
NGO invited and participated namely SIKIKA.
Various papers were presented in the forum:
Paper on Experience from Pwani P4P project by Mr. Nyombi from CHAI, PBF Rwanda
Experience by Christian Habineza, Rungwe PBF Pilot by Sule, Progress with
Health Financing Strategy Development- Focus P4P by Mariam Ally, PBF
Training Experience in Rungwe by Dr. Njau, the perceived trickle-down effects of
Rungwe PBF training by Dr. Manongi and Performance Based financing Training
Experiences by Dr. Njau from WHO.
After the
presentations, the participants discussed the presentations and came up with
these as key messages:
-
The
verification is an important component in PBF/ P4P model so this area need to be strengthened and further studied
-
With little
amount of money used on output based manner, it is possible to bring the
difference in the health care sector
-
Policies need
some amendment in order to accommodate PBF as it require big change/ reform in
the health sector
-
There is need
to have PBF professional who will back PBF implementation with the field experiences
which can be used evidence
-
Political will is an important ingredient in
moving PBF agenda to the next desired level
-
There is need to have sustainability plan in
the form of integrating the project in the Government set-up
As a result
of these discussions, the members came up with the following as a way forward:
- Performance Based Financing is an appropriate strategy for improving the quality of
services in Tanzania
- To adapt PBF as Health Financing model, the
following are prerequisite
verification system which is really independent
Political support to push PBF agenda
forward Keep reforming the health sector particularly
decentralization by devolution Amend policies which can back PBF
implementation Have professional PBF advocates to spearhead
PBF initiatives based on field experiences
- Tanzania need
to adapt some of the good elements
of health financing initiatives
which suit the Tanzanian Context
- Promote PBF
training and advocate for
Performance Based Payment models
Generally, the forum was successful as it
attained its objective and above that it evoked the members on seeing ways of
doing things differently for the sake of the majority of the people who greatly
need quality health care services.
See the photo of the participants during forum
proceeding.
