Public-Private Partnership In The Provision Of Healthcare Services In Tanzaniaa Case Study Of Kigoma Municipal

ABSTRACT

Tanzania’s private sector is one of the most developed and dynamic in Sub-Saharan Africa. In the health sector where the leading causes of death are HIV/AIDS, acute respiratory infection (ARI), diarrheal diseases, and malaria (World Health Organization [WHO] 2004) the private commercial (for profit) sector and the not for-profit sector play critical roles in preventing and treating disease. Even among the poor, the private sector is an important source of care. For example, 47 percent of the poorest quintile of Tanzanian uses a private facility when a child is sick (Marek et al. 2005). In recognition of this important role, the Government of Tanzania has developed strategies to develop the private health sector in its Vision 2025 plan of the Ministry of health under partnership. Some of the key features of those plans include social health insurance to increase access to health care, a reduced role for the Ministry of Health in service delivery, more delegation of authority to provincial and district level, and promoting more public private partnerships (PPPs). The study was set out to assess the impact of public-private collaboration in the provision of Healthcare services in Tanzania. Despite that there has been a smooth relation between public and private generally like those involved in development, in the area of social services promotion there exists a lot of antagonistic relations. The study intended to assess the extent which public-private partnership has managed to provide healthcare service in Kigoma Tanzania. Primary data were obtained from the respondents as a result of administering questionnaires to the partnership officials, government officials, youth groups, religious leaders and normal citizens. Interview was conducted to obtain supplementary primary data that was not covered by administered questionnaires while reports were used to obtain secondary data. The findings showed that, there existed negative and positive impacts of partnership in healthcare provision. The study provides insights into how the partnerships originated, how they work, how the poor have been targeted, constraints and bottlenecks in the design, implementation and management of partnerships, and performance of these partnerships in reaching the targeted population. The paper argues that, if well designed and implemented in stages, PPP is an innovative mechanism that benefits the poor. It would be unfair to categories PPP as privatization or marketisation because most of the partnerships that are designed to deliver health services (not the ancillary services) are either civil society organizations or from the non-profit private sector.