Tanzania

In Tanzania, the many types of violence that occur have a negative impact on individuals and the society, especially women and children. Too many women experience domestic or intimate partner violence, and too many girls and boys are exposed to violence in their homes, schools, and communities. In response to the high levels of violence, the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare (MOHSW) has launched an initiative against gender-based violence (GBV) and violence against children (VAC). Guidelines were issued in 2011 to outline the services to be integrated into Tanzania's health care system.

RESPOND, through EngenderHealth's ACQUIRE Tanzania Project (ATP), supported the initiative, along with other U.S. Agency for International Development-funded implementing partners. RESPOND worked to the integrate GBV and VAC services into supported health facilities in the Iringa and Njombe regions. In September 2011, RESPOND and ATP received $1.2 million in funds from the U.S. President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) for this work. ATP supported facility-based GBV services in Iringa and Njombe regions in 2011 and 2012 in collaboration with Jhpiego, which is also a GBV clinical services partner, and with Marie Stopes Tanzania, which supports GBV clinical services at police facilities. Jhpiego and EngenderHealth each covered five districts distributed across both regions. EngenderHealth supported 15 faculties.

RESPOND's and ATP's work is geared toward building the capacity of service providers and supporting GBV and VAC clinical services, in accordance with the 2011 guidelines. To date, the following activities were achieved: 

• Completed the development of and have rolled out an orientation package about the guidelines for regional and district management teams, other local government officials, health facility supervisors, and other partners
• Designed and conducted a facility audit for the 15 selected sites to assess facilities' capacity to provide GBV services (The facility audit, which built on tools and lessons learned from other RESPOND GBV programs, was adopted by the MOHSW for use throughout Tanzania as a diagnostic and monitoring and evaluation tool.
• Conducted training sessions for providers throughout Iringa and Njombe. The training curriculum was printed and disseminated. Clinical staff in the training included service providers working from a broad range of health care units, encompassing such services as antenatal care and reproductive and child health care, prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV, HIV care and treatment, laboratory services, and outpatient care, as appropriate to the level of any given facility. In addition, for all sites that will implement GBV services, hospital staff was oriented and sensitized on management of GBV/VAC survivors, including gender and GBV issues and respectful and appropriate behavior toward survivors. RESPOND also supported minor renovations, provision of equipment, and institutionalization of quality assurance mechanisms for GBV and VAC.

Building on the successes and lessons learned from ATP and RESPOND, the RESPOND Tanzania project supports GBV and VAC clinical services in Iringa and Njombe regions.  

Between 2011 and 2012, the global RESPOND Project, in collaboration with ATP, the USAID|DELIVER Project, and the MOHSW, implemented an activity to use the COPE® for Contraceptive Security tool to enable 26 facilities in two districts in Tanzania to meet CS needs at the “last mile” of service delivery.

Documents

• Family Planning Logistics Management: A Job Aid for COPE® Exercises (PDF, 140KB) January 2014