Project profile — Improving Maternal and Reproductive Health in Six Districts of Rural Tanzania

• Tanzania (100.00%)

• Basic Health: Basic health care (12220) (20.00%)
• Population policy and administrative management:
Population policy and administrative management (13010) (10.00%)
Reproductive health care (13020) (25.00%)
Family planning (13030) (10.00%)
Personnel development for population and reproductive health (13081) (35.00%)

• Urban issues (not targeted)
• Climate change mitigation (not targeted)
• Participatory development and good governance (not targeted)
• Climate Change Adaptation (not targeted)
• Trade development (not targeted)
• ICT as a tool for development (not targeted)
• Youth Issues (significant objective)
• Biodiversity (not targeted)
• Environmental sustainability (cross-cutting) (significant objective)
• Disability (not targeted)
• Indigenous Issues (not targeted)
• Gender equality (significant objective)
• Desertification (not targeted)
• Children's issues (principal objective)

The goal of this project is to improve the health of women and girls, especially mothers, in six districts of the Tabora region. It aims to reduce the barriers that prevent women in rural areas from getting access to the health services they require, to provide better-quality health services for mothers and children in rural areas, and to improve the ability of community health management teams to deliver quality health services. The project enhances women’s ability to pay for health services; improves the knowledge and skills of health workers; and improves the ability of district-level health management teams to plan, budget, manage, monitor, and evaluate the health services provided in their districts. The project also builds on the government’s community-based health worker program by training volunteer health workers to provide health education and information to women and their households. The project is expected to provide quality health services to over 400,000 women and adolescent girls and to 5,800 newborns. CARE Canada implements the project in collaboration with CARE Tanzania. CARE Tanzania works with the Tanzanian Ministry of Health and Social Welfare and international and local non-governmental organizations to address gaps in health services at the community and district levels. This project is part of Canada’s maternal, newborn and child health commitment.

The expected intermediate outcomes for this project include: increased utilization of maternal and reproductive health services by women and adolescent girls in the target communities; improved quality of maternal and reproductive health services at government health facilities in the target districts; and strengthened management and accountability for maternal and reproductive health services in Tabora region.

Results achieved as of the end of the project in March 2015 include: (1) 80% of deliveries are now taking place in health facilities, up from 46% in 2010; (2) 57% of women aged 15 – 49 with a live birth received antenatal care by a skilled health provider at least 4 times during pregnancy, up from 17% in 2010; (3) Client satisfaction with health facility services such as family planning, antenatal care, post-natal care and deliveries was 90%, up from 52% in 2012. (4) All six district governments in Tabora region are now setting targets to improve maternal, newborn and child health based on health facility data compared to only one district in 2012. Results achieved as of March 2014 include: (1) 983 community health workers were trained to provide health education and encourage households to seek MNCH services through home visits in their communities; (2) these newly trained community health workers conducted 25,363 home visits collectively; (3) 268 health workers from 154 facilities were trained on basic emergency obstetric and newborn care ; and (4) 290 health care workers were trained on family planning and sexual and reproductive health services, of which 117 health workers were trained on short-term family planning methods and another 155 on long-term methods. These results have contributed to increasing women and adolescent girls’ use of maternal and reproductive health services and improving the quality of maternal and reproductive health services at government health facilities in the target districts.

• Proactive disclosure