Partnering with districts councils to increase the number and improve retention of nurse-midwives in Tanzania: lessons learned by Amref Health Africa

Ngilangwa David P1, Dhalla Magdalena1, Msegu Elia1, Sambili Benatus1, Chaya Pius1, Noronha Rita1

1 Amref Health Africa, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

1st Amref Health Africa International Conference

Safari Park Hotel, Nairobi, Kenya

24-26th November, 2014

Outline

• Issue

• Descriptions

• Lessons learnt

• Conclusion and recommendations

• Acknowledgments

Issueo Tanzania among the ten countries with high

maternal deaths

o Critical shortage of skilled nurse-midwives attributed by attrition

o Only 51% of all births are attended by skilled health personnel

o Amref Health Africa believes that no woman should die while giving life

o Stand Up for African Mothers(SU4AM) aim to train 1,000 nurses-midwives to certificate and diploma levels by 2015.

Descriptiono Amref Health Africa is supporting the GoT to train

pre-service midwives in 8 district councils

o Provides scholarships to qualified permanent residents of the targeted districts to pursue midwifery training.

o The district councils are obliged to advertise, select and approve qualified potential students for training

o Employ students for 3 years upon successful

completion of their studies

Description…o Amref Health Africa, students and district councils

sign a legal contract to bind them fulfill their roles

o 80 students are pursuing their midwifery training in different schools in Tanzania

Description…Distribution of supported students by district

District Number of Student

Kilindi 30

Busega 4

Itilimia 4

Maswa 4

Meatu 2

Bariadi 4

Mtwara rural 30

Mtwara Municipal 2

Lessons learnt o SU4AM campaign has been well-accepted by the

district authorities and community

o Training midwives from their own communities ensure retention

o There is great demand of the training (applicants are as many as compared with slots available)

o Among students male and female ratio was slightly equal against the previous notion that midwifery is for females.

Lessons learnt… o Most students are from low income families thus,

can not afford the training expenses

o Regular supervision visits in schools helps in identifying challenges and ways of solving them

Challenges o Criteria set by MoHSW are still very high

especially for applicants in rural area

o Lack of enough funds to meet all beneficiaries' needs

Next steps o Project should be scaled up to other regions with

great shortage of Human Resources for Health(HRH)and continue to monitor performance of graduates.

o Awareness raising and fundraising for SU4AM campaign from International up to the grass root level

Acknowledgement

o All donors (Bank M, Barclays Banks, Amref

Health Africa-Netherlands and others)

oDistrict Council Authorities

oMinistry of Health and Social Welfare