The 10th Tanzania Health Summit was held from 3-5 October in Dar-Es-Salaam, Tanzania under the theme, ‘Strengthening health systems for UHC, focusing on Primary Health Care.’
The conference saw participation from various stakeholders of the health sector in Tanzania like the WHO Tanzania Office, World Bank, Tanzania’s Ministry of Health, USAID, GIZ, and more.
Stakeholders have highlighted the importance of creating a sustainable and suitable health financing system, one that allows access to services according to needs and not the ability to pay. Some participants at the Summit said the current health financing mechanism is difficult to track and creates competition among financiers.
Though health budget allocations have been increasing over the years, disbursement has been a challenge (in the 2014/15 and 207/18 financial years disbursement was 57 and 59 per cent, respectively). Fragmentation of resources adds to this challenge as the Ministry does not have control over all the aid that is made available to the country.
Kuki Tarimo, the P4H country focal person for Tanzania, was a panellist at the session Sustainably Financing Tanzania’s Health Sector on the Path to UHC that discussed the Government of Tanzania’s vision for and opportunities to build on the existing domestic financing mechanisms and initiatives including health insurance and considerations for improved access to healthcare for poor and vulnerable populations.
