Tanzania is rich in natural and extractive resources such as gold, diamonds and tanzanite. Yet, nearly 20 million of its 50 million population live in poverty without basic health care that could prevent thousands of infectious disease-related deaths each year.
PSI/Tanzania is dedicated to improving the health of Tanzanians by providing life-saving information, products and services to tackle the most pressing health problems. As a result, they are empowered to lead healthier, happier more productive lives. We make it easier for Tanzanians to plan the families they desire, have safe pregnancies and deliveries, and protect themselves and their families from malaria, diarrhea, HIV and AIDS, and waterborne diseases.
Using proven business practices like marketing and franchising, and in close partnership with the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare and a range of local and international organizations, PSI/Tanzania creates health solutions that are built to last.
Established in 1993, today PSI/Tanzania employs over 250 staff across 15 regional offices. PSI/Tanzania is one of the leading PSI platforms significantly contributing to PSI’s overall health impact.
PSI/Tanzania estimates that in 2015, its products and services helped avert 1,835,018 DALYs, including, by health area:
- 1,233,838 HIV DALYs
- 598,144 FP DALYs
- 1,912 WASH DALYs
- 866 Safe Abortion DALYs
- 258 NCD DALYs
PSI/Tanzania’s family planning programs also provided 1,729,780 couple-years of protection.
HIV
Tanzania is hard hit by the HIV/AIDS epidemic, with recent reports estimating that there are over 1.4 million people living with the HIV/AIDS virus in Tanzania.
PSI/Tanzania’s HIV prevention programs use commercial marketing techniques and evidence-based behavior change communication to distribute and promote male and female condom brands with an emphasis on reaching high-risk groups, such as truck drivers, commercial sex workers and other migrant populations. The program reinforces healthy preventative behaviors and builds trust in these products through integrated and innovative marketing campaigns activated above and below-the-line. PSI/Tanzania’s flagship condom brand Salama – which means ‘safe’ – is now the generic word for condom.
PSI/Tanzania also proactively reaches out to young adults aged 15 to 24. Less than 50% of this age group can name the five most important elements of transmission; and only 17% of women and 26% of men said they used condoms the first time they had sexual intercourse.
Malaria
There are an estimated 7.7 million confirmed and clinical malaria cases per year in Tanzania.
PSI/Tanzania uses a community-initiated approach to behavior change communication by creating a platform for dialogue regarding malaria prevention and treatment. The behavior change communication project provides a harmonized message through overlapping channels to reinforce behavior change messages. It also creates better impact behaviors such as correct and consistent use of insecticide treated mosquito nets.
PSI/Tanzania reaches rural areas through a network of more than 1,200 community change agents. Additionally, there are large-scale, direct community activities such as mobile video units and road shows, and facilitating the development of public-private partnerships for malaria prevention and control.
Over recent years PSI/Tanzania has also been supporting the Ministry of Health as part of the Mass Net Replacement campaign driving to mobilize the population to register for, and later collect, their free long-lasting insecticide-treated nets. PSI/Tanzania has also been working with the President’s Malaria Initiative to conduct a full landscape analysis of the commercial nets market, identifying key barriers and recommending potential interventions.
Reproductive Health
Recent surveys suggest that the average Tanzanian woman has 5.2 children during her lifetime, and that over a third of all women deliver at home, without any access to skilled birth care. This creates a high reproductive health burden on women in Tanzania, with around 7,900 maternal deaths recorded each year. Many women in Tanzania today would like to space or limit the number of children they have. Only 32% of women currently use a modern contraceptive method, even though over 60% of married women report that they would like to begin using one.
PSI/Tanzania supports the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare’s objective to raise contraceptive prevalence and to reduce maternal mortality. PSI/Tanzania supports national efforts to improve perceptions and change behaviors towards contraceptive methods by working with members of parliament, professional associations, teaching institutions, media forums and by training pharmacies and accredited drug distribution outlets on all family planning methods.
Over the past decade, PSI/Tanzania has expanded its range of high quality and affordable contraceptive products from male condoms and oral contraceptives to include female condoms, injectable contraceptives, intrauterine contraceptive devices (IUD), contraceptive implants and emergency contraception pills. PSI/Tanzania has also begun to address maternal mortality through the prevention of post-partum hemorrhage and sepsis, and the prevention of unsafe abortion.
PSI/Tanzania also provides reproductive health services through a trained network of more than 200 private providers. The Familia network is a clinical social franchising initiative that applies social marketing principles and efficiencies to the delivery of health services in the private sector. The network adheres to PSI/Tanzania’s client care standards and procedures for delivering high-quality family planning and maternal care services. Providers are incentivized to join the network: they receive extensive training and support, access to equipment and subsidized reproductive health commodities, as well as increased positive visibility from the Familia network branding and promotions. In exchange, providers offer reproductive health services that fulfill the four primary goals of social franchising: access, cost effectiveness, quality and equity, with an emphasis on reaching those Tanzanians most in need.
For remote rural areas, PSI/Tanzania operates mobile outreach teams offering free reproductive health services to communities that would otherwise lack any realistic level of access.
Recently PSI/Tanzania has started using human-centered design to develop Adolescents 360, a program for strengthening adolescent reproductive health. Through in-depth interviewing and immersion into communities, PSI/Tanzania has been able to identify opportunities to make contraception relevant and accessible for adolescents. PSI/Tanzania is currently testing prototypes around incorporating contraception into a larger conversation about menarche and body changes. Parents are involved as advocates and influencers, having girls identify which providers they consider to be truly youth-friendly.
Sanitation
Access to safe water and sanitation can help decrease the high prevalence of water-borne diseases, such as diarrhea and cholera, in both urban and rural Tanzania.
For almost a decade PSI/Tanzania has been socially marketing a water purification tablet under the WaterGuard brand. During cholera outbreaks WaterGuard has become part of the first line of response and PSI support governments and aid partners to deliver integrated communications regarding the outbreak and the use of WaterGuard for preventative measures.
Donors
- The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria
- U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)
- The Federal Republic of Germany through KfW Entwicklungsbank (the German Development Bank)
- Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF)
- Children’s Investment Fund Foundation CIFF)
- Maverick Collective
- UK Department for International Development (DfID)
- U.S. President’s Malaria Initiative (PMI)
Partners
- Ministry for Health and Social Welfare
- Ministry for Water
- Tanzanian Commission for AIDS
- National Malaria Control Program
- Other local agencies
- Technical Brief for the Integration of Menstrual Health in SRHR
With this technical brief, which summarises existing literature as well as insights from PSI's network members, the authors hope to support the SRHR work in-country, providing a technical brief for integrating menstrual health in existing SRHR programs. - Integrating Cervical Cancer Prevention Services with Voluntary Family Planning Programs
Over 311,000 women die from cervical cancer each year due to limited access to routine screening and early treatment. Many of the same countries struggling with high cervical cancer rates also have high unmet need for family planning (FP). As the global health community has prioritized both the reduction of unmet need for FP and, more recently, the global elimination of cervical cancer, there is an opportunity to review the evidence base and share practical considerations for integration of these services, with a view towards expanded access to products and services that improve women’s sexual and reproductive health. - Engaging Girls with Kuwa Mjanja
- The Case of Kuwa Mjanja in Tanzania
- Repositioning Contraception
- From Barriers to Allies
- Irrelevant, Dangerous, and at Odds with My Identity and Dreams
Qualitative research findings using human-centered methodology in Ethiopia, Nigeria, and Tanzania reveal emotional dynamics complicating contraceptive use among adolescent girls - What does it take to get girl-centered?
- From silos to synchronicity
Recent systematic reviews of adolescent and youth sexual and reproductive health (AYSRH) programming in low and middle -income countries have helped to assess the spectrum of AYSRH interventions and effectiveness. The most promising AYSRH interventions combine training and facility modifications to enable youth-friendly service provision with community engagement and demand generation. However, even the most promising interventions most efficaciously change attitudes, beliefs and intentions rather than behavior. As such, further research is needed to understand the “mechanisms of action” that lead to effective behavior change. As the global reproductive health community strives to improve health outcomes of the most vulnerable youth, putting the beneficiaries at the center of the intervention design process will facilitate a better understanding of the pathways to behavior change. A transdisciplinary approach integrating the fields of public health, adolescent developmental science, cultural anthropology, youth engagement, social marketing, and human-centered design offers meaningful insights into the mechanisms informing effective AYSRH interventions. Launched in 2016, Adolescents360 (A360)– a project aiming to increase contraceptive uptake among young women ages 15-19 in Ethiopia, Nigeria, and Tanzania – offers an exemplar of how an integrated, user-centered approach provides insights that enhance the precision – in both developmental timing and message targeting – of effective AYSRH interventions. - Fever Case Management Mystery Client Study Questionnaire
This mystery client study questionnaire is used to assess provider adherence to fever treatment algorithms for malaria test-negative clients. It has been refined through studies in multiple malaria-endemic countries and is available in English and French.