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
Issue
o 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.
Description
o 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
Kilindi
Busega
Itilimia
Maswa
Meatu
Bariadi
Mtwara rural
Mtwara Municipal
Number of Student
30
4
4
4
2
4
30
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)
o District Council Authorities
o Ministry of Health and Social Welfare