SPEECH BY DR. JAKAYA MRISHO KIKWETE, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED REPUBLIC OF TANZANIA AT THE OPENING OF THE FIRST NATIONAL HUMAN RESOURCE FOR HEALTH CONFERENCE, ON 3RD SEPTEMBER 2013 AT THE JULIUS NYERERE INTERNATIONAL CONVENTION CENTRE,
DAR ES SALAAM
Your Excellency, Benjamin William Mkapa, Former President
of the United Republic of Tanzania,
Hon. Dr. Hussein Mwinyi, Minister for Health and Social
Welfare;
Hon. Celina Kombani, Minister of State, Presidents Office
Public Service Management;
Hon. Kassim Majaliwa, Deputy Minister of State Prime Minister’s Office;
Regional Administration and Local Government;
Sharon Cromer, Mission Director – USAID;
Dr. Rufaro Chatora, Country Representative of the World
Health Organisation;
Excellencies, Ambassadors and Representatives of the
Development Partners;
Mr. Gaye, President and Chief Executive Officer of IntraHealth International;
Dr. Ellen Mkondya Senkoro – Chief Executive Officer, BMAF;
Representatives of the Civil Society, Private Sector and Government Official;
Health Workers and Invited Guests;
Ladies and Gentlemen;
I would like to thank Honorable Dr. Hussein Mwinyi, Minister for Health and Social Welfare for inviting me to officiate at the opening of the first National Human Resource for Health Conference. I congratulate you and your team for being creative and forward looking. I am pleased to note that the organisation of the conference has involved not only the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, but also other stakeholders including President’s Office, Public Service Management and Prime Minister’s Office – Regional Administration and Local Government in collaboration with the Benjamin Mkapa HIV/AIDS Foundation and Intra-Health International.
In a very special way I sincerely thank our development partners, particularly the government of the United States of America and WHO, CIDA, GIZ, Touch Foundation, NSSF and Bank M, for their financial and technical support. We are truly thankful for making this conference a reality.
Ladies and Gentlemen;
You will agree with me that the theme of this conference “Health Workforce: crucial to Meeting Development Goals” is indeed timely as we take the final lap towards 2015, the target date for the Millennium Development Goals. Attaining the targets related to health has been a challenging task for many developing countries, Tanzania included. Of course some countries have made impressive gains in achieving health – related targets, but others especially Sub-Saharan countries are far behind.
In this case, therefore, the world is unlikely to achieve MDG number 4 of reducing child mortality by two-thirds. We are equally not on track to reduce by three quarters maternal mortality rate and achieve universal access to reproductive health.
Achieving these targets require, among other things, adequate health professionals at different levels to develop efficient health systems and monitor its implementation. Unfortunately, there is a global shortfall of 4.2 million health workers, with 1.5 million of them in Africa alone. The critical shortages and inadequate skill mix of the health workforce pose major barriers to achieving the health related MDGs. The situation in villages and remote areas is even worse.
I am happy to note that during the last decade, we have seen an increased recognition of the central role of human resource for delivery of global health targets. Indeed various global and national fora have highlighted the critical role of health workforce.
Distinguished participants;
We in Tanzania, have been facing similar challenges regarding health workforce. At independence we did not have a health workforce worth talking about. Simply there was acute shortage of them. Can you imagine there were only 12 native doctors and less than 2,000 nurses when the British granted independence to Tanganyika. That is why the successive governments in our country took seriously the matter of addressing the shortage of doctors, nurses and other health professionals. Many schools and training institutions were build for this purpose. These efforts have paid dividends, todate we have 2,421 doctors and 33,000 registered nurses
When I came into office, my government advanced further the previous efforts. The National Human Resource for Health Strategic Plan (2008 – 2013), that we designed and we have been implementing speaks volumes about what we have been doing. Besides this the Health Sector Strategic Plan III (2009-2015) and the Primary Health Services Development Programme (2007 – 2017) gave the matter of health workforce development, very high priority. As a result of these initiatives, we have witnessed a number of health workers increased, rapid expansion in training facilities and opportunities for health professionals of different disciplines and trade. For example, student enrolment has increased from 4,000 in 2005 to almost 8000 in 2013. We intend to increase the number to reach 10,000 by year 2017. I am confident we will get there.
Honorable Dr. Mwinyi;
At this juncture, I would like to take this opportunity to commend you, your counterpart in the Ministry of Education and Vocational Training, the entire staff of your respective Ministries and other stakeholders for a job well done. You have been doing a wonderful job, for which you deserve our acknowledgement, compliments and congratulations. It is because of you that currently we have been able to enrol almost 8,000 health students every year in our various training institutions. It is your effort that has enabled 23,312 health workers to be recruited or posted between the year 2006/7 and 2011/2012.
However, we still have a lot of work ahead of us. Our health facilities, for example, are being operated with less than 50 percent of the health workforce. Comparatively, the situation is far less in remote and rural districts. The fast increase in population and the emergence of new health challenges compound the situation. Indeed, the shortage of health workforce in our country limits our ability to prevent, control and treat communicable and non-communicable diseases.
In this regard, we must continue to expend more efforts and resources so as to expand the training of our health personnel. At the same time, we should continue to improve on the policies and systems of planning, recruitment and deployment. Moreover, there is a crucial need to devise ways that will take care of the special needs of our health personnel in order to motivate them and ensure retention, good performance and dedicated service.
I therefore, call upon the Ministries responsible for development of human resource for health to enhance cooperation, coordination and effective ways to address the daunting challenges facing the health sector. I have in mind the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, President’s Office Public Service Management (Utumishi), Prime Minister’s office – Regional Administration and Local Government, Ministry of Education and Vocational Training and Ministry of Finance. They should adopt a comprehensive approach to cover issues related to training of recruitment, retention, management, performance and productivity of the health workforce.
In the same vein, I implore “Utumishi” to conclude the Operational Guidelines for the Public Pay and Incentive Policy they have been working on since 2010. This will go a long way towards enabling more districts to attract and retain newly recruited health personnel. I don’t see why it has taken so long to complete.
I want to reiterate and reaffirm our Government’s commitment to implement the objectives of the Primary Health Services Development Programme famously known as Mpango wa Maendeleo ya Afya ya Msingi (MMAM). This means continued increase in budgetary allocations to the health sector , something which we have always been doing.
Ladies and Gentlemen;
We all know what works and what doesn’t, locally, nationally and globally. We also know that there is growing momentum on the part of political and corporate leadership to do more on the technical and financial investment side. It is within this similar context that I wish to commend the innovative modalities applied by the Government in collaboration with the Benjamin Mkapa Foundation. Recruitment and deployment of health workers is being fast tracked. At the same time innovative ways have being deployed to facilitate retention of health workers in rural and remote areas of our country.
I believe lessons learnt from similar initiatives elsewhere, are well documented and will be shared during this conference. I humbly appeal to each one of you to use this platform as a learning ground and exchange ideas on implementing and scaling up sustainable solutions.
Hon. Ministries;
Ladies and Gentlemen;
It would be remiss of me, if I ended my speech without paying tribute to all the health workers who have dedicated their time and energy to save the lives of their fellow human beings in our dear country. We have achieved what has been achieved so far due to their dedication and commitment. We are indebted to you that we will respond accordingly. I want to reiterate that the government and I will continue to strengthen the partnership for the benefit of our people.
In a very special way I salute our development partners, and persons of goodwill for their invaluable moral, technical and financial support in health sector. We look forward to working with you more closely in future.
After these many words I now declare that the first National Conference on Human Resource for Health is officially open. I wish you fruitful deliberations.
Thank you very much.