The purpose of the partnership is to provide additional flexible funding to district health services to support the implementation of interventions guided by the National Road Map Strategic Plan to Accelerate Reduction of Maternal, Newborn and Child Deaths in Tanzania (the One Plan), and to contribute to innovation and strengthened result focus through performance based financing approaches for achieving MDG 4 and 5 in Tanzania.
NTPI consists of four components; 1) Contribution to the Health Basket (80% of the NTPI-funds); 2) Facilitate the introduction of performance based funding approaches in order to stimulate improved service delivery and utilization of maternal, newborn and child Health services; 3) Strengthening of Tanzania’s Health Management Information System; 4) Support to selected non-state actors, which are particularly strong in working with innovative models and community approaches.
NTPI is an integrated part of Norway’s global commitment to reduce maternal and child mortality, and Tanzania is among four pilot countries where the aim is to gain experiences and develop models for best practices on introducing innovative approaches which also could be applied in other countries.
A sharp reduction in under-five mortality has taken place in Tanzania over the last decade, but there has been little progress in reducing the mortality rate of newborns, which is persistently high and today accounting for 30% of all under-five deaths, amounting to 51.000 newborn deaths each year in Tanzania. There has been no reduction in maternal mortality in Tanzania over the past 15 years, and each year between 8 and 13,000 Tanzanian women die of pregnancy related causes. Tanzania is one of the 10 countries contributing to 61% of global maternal deaths and 66% of the newborn deaths. Effective routine delivery in health facilities under the supervision of skilled health workers is internationally recognized as the main strategy for reducing maternal mortality. Today only 50% of all births in Tanzania occur at health facilities. A reduction in maternal mortality can also be achieved through provision of post-abortion care services, which can significantly reduce maternal mortality due to unsafe abortions.
In response to this situation, Tanzania has made specific attempts to address maternal, newborn and child health challenges. The following operational targets have been defined to be achieved by 2015:
o Reduce maternal mortality from 578 to 193 per 100.000 live births
o Reduce newborn mortality from 32 (in 2004) to 19 per 1000 live births
o Reduce under-five mortality from 112 (in 2004) to 54 per 1000 live births
o Increase coverage of births attended by skilled attendants from 46% (in 2004) to 80%
UN Millennium Development Goals (MDG) 4 and 5:
MDG 4: Reduce by two thirds the mortality rate among children under five by 2015 compared to 1990.
MDG 5: Reduce by three quarters the maternal mortality ratio by 2015 compared to 1990.
Useful links:
Norad: Global Campaign for the Health MDGs http://www.norad.no/en/Thematic+areas/Health+and+aids/Maternal%2C+child+and+women%27s+health/Global+campaign+for+the+health+MDGs GSDRC /
Decentralisation and Gender: Coordination and Cooperation on Maternal Health Issues in Selected District Councils in Tanzania: http://www.gsdrc.org/go/display&type=Document&id=3556 UNICEF Tanzania - http://unicef.org/infobycountry/tanzania_1254.html UNDP Reports on Tanzania - http://www.tz.undp.org Country profile http://www.dfid.gov.uk/countries/africa/tanzania.asp
UN’s webpage on MDGs: http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/ UNDP’s webpage on MDGs: http://www.undp.org/mdg/#marshalling%20awareness WHO’s webpage on MDGs: http://www.who.int/mdg/en/ UNFPA’s webpage on MDGs: http://www.unfpa.org/icpd/goals/index.htm World bank’s webpage on MDGs: http://ddp-ext.worldbank.org/ext/GMIS/home.do?siteId=2