FHM Engage Snapshot Tanzania

The initiative aimed to support public and private stakeholders in applying the Market Development Approach (MDA) to improve the uptake of health products, information, and services. Key objectives included strengthening stewardship capacities, mobilizing domestic resources, and leveraging private sector resources. The geographic focus of the initiative was national, with a specific emphasis on family planning, HIV/AIDS, and maternal and child health. Technical areas of focus included financing, rules, regulations, and norms, stewardship, and supply and demand. The initiative supported the development of financial products targeting private sector health market actors and provided financing to eight private sector health market actors. FHM Engage partnered with the Tanzania Health Summit Organization to provide financial literacy training to young health professionals and re-introduce the Healthcare Financial Club in partnership with NMB Bank PLC. The initiative also facilitated the signing of a tripartite agreement Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between Amana Bank LTD, Maisha Meds, and the Pwani Medication Awareness Organization (PWAMAO) to enable the bank to provide loans to ADDOs for inventory management system. The initiative supported the Condom Sub-Committee, co-led by the National AIDS Control Program (NACP) and the Tanzania Commission for AIDS (TACAIDS), to address condom supply data challenges. FHM Engage developed a condom dashboard and presented the condom system map validation to Sub-Committee members, leading to further refinements of the condom dashboard as a solution to enhance data use and decision-making. FHM Engage also completed a rapid assessment on the use of emergency contraceptive pills (ECPs) and family planning (FP) services among girls in tertiary levels of education. Key findings from the assessment included the high use of ECPs among study participants, the preference for traditional contraceptive methods, and the need for education on available contraceptive methods to prevent both HIV and pregnancy. The initiative strengthened stewardship capacities by supporting the Pharmaceutical Society of Tanzania's (PST) Annual General Meeting and Scientific Conference, presenting on the role of community pharmacies in improving access to health products and services in Tanzania. FHM Engage also provided feedback towards the PST Strategic Plan and worked with PST to establish the ADDO forum to improve the management of ADDOs and their provision of product and service delivery. FHM Engage facilitated the signing of an MoU between Amana Bank, Maisha Meds, and PWAMAO to increase lending to private providers. Through this MoU, the members of PWAMAO will be able to access finance from Amana Bank to procure an inventory management system from Maisha Meds to improve their stock and business management practices. Frontier Health Markets (FHM) Engage is a five-year cooperative agreement funded by the United States Agency for International Development. The initiative aims to improve the market environment for greater private sector participation in the delivery of health products and services and to improve equal access to and uptake of high-quality consumer-driven health products, services, and information.