The Africa Centre for Disease Control (Africa CDC) has outlined a five-year plan for Tanzania, seeking $360 million to implement a community health workers initiative.
At a recent international workshop held in Dar es Salaam, Dr. James Guwani, the head of the Community Health Division at Africa CDC, emphasized that this initiative is crucial for achieving universal health coverage.
The first phase of the plan, estimated at $40 million, is designed as a community health acceleration strategy, aiming to establish an Integrated and Coordinated Community Health Workers (iCCHW) program to enhance community health worker efforts nationwide.
This program is essential for delivering critical health interventions and aims to eliminate preventable maternal and child fatalities by 2030, according to Dr. Guwani, who discussed the proposal that spans from 2024 to 2028.
The plan has received endorsement from the respective health ministries of both the Union and Zanzibar, as well as support from the President’s Office (Regional Administration and Local Governments).
Dr. Ntuli Kapologwe, director of preventive services, stated that the iCCHW initiative is a primary focus within the current transformation agenda, contributing to the country’s vision of promoting improved maternal, newborn, and child health, enhanced nutrition and sanitation, and reduced non-communicable diseases (NCDs).
This focus, he noted, will significantly benefit both individual and national development, stressing the need for broad health financing, particularly concerning universal health coverage, which currently falls below the average of 66 percent.
To address these challenges, he urged effective integration and coordination of community health workers (CHWs) and called for the development of advocacy strategies to attract donors and secure additional funding.
“Learning from successful models and the progress made in Zanzibar can enhance resource mobilization efforts,” he added, suggesting that a system-focused strategy would help avoid fragmentation in health initiatives.
Dr. Barnabas Yeboah, a community health expert at Africa CDC, highlighted the necessity of institutionalizing, integrating, and sustaining community health programs. He underlined the importance of political commitment and leadership at global, continental, and national levels.
“Structured support and sustainable financing are vital to maintaining effective community health initiatives,” he stated, offering key recommendations to sustain and build upon the gains achieved through the proposed plan.
Dr. Yeboah advocated for high-level advocacy meetings with government officials and funding agencies to secure resources for the community health acceleration initiative.
He emphasized the need to create an investment case for donor agencies and the private sector to guide resource mobilization and advocacy efforts, including conducting resource mapping to support the Integrated and Coordinated CHW Program.
It is crucial to expedite the training rollout for the first three clusters of 28,000 CHWs across ten priority regions, he stressed, noting the need to revise their work packages and training curriculum to align with national priorities.
Dr. Salim Slim, director of preventive services and health education for the Zanzibar Health Ministry, mentioned that Zanzibar has a training program for 3,000 community health workers, which requires high-level advocacy engagements to mobilize resources for essential CHW kits before the first cohort graduates.
Upon completing their training, the 3,000 newly trained CHWs will be deployed throughout Zanzibar, Dr. Slim pointed out, highlighting the critical role of community health workers in addressing healthcare worker shortages.
“CHWs have significantly advanced antenatal care, and Zanzibar is now measles-free, thanks to their dedicated efforts. The first measles case in Zanzibar was detected by a CHW, demonstrating their essential role in disease detection, prevention, and response. Each CHW is equipped to reach out to 100 community members,” he added.