TANZANIA is on the right track in efforts to improve maternal, mother and child health, Minister of Health, Ummy Mwalimu has said.
Minister Mwalimu said this on Saturday in Dar es Salaam when she launched the 'Research on Productive Health Rights for Urban and Rural Women through the Media organised by Tanzania Media Women's Association (TAMWA).
In fact, Ms Mwalimu said Tanzania has signed various international and regional agreements that aim to improve maternal, mother and child health.
The minister said that it should be noted that Tanzania implements those international agreements by including maternal and child health issues in all its plans, starting from the Third Five-Year Development Plan (2021/2022 - 2024/2025) and the Fifth Strategic Plan for the Health Sector (2021/2022 - 2024/2025).
"All these plans are implemented by the ministry through National Plan for Maternal, Mother, Child and Nutrition Health (One Plan III)," she said.
She said that the ministry has continued to ensure that reproductive health rights are available throughout the country, including purchasing and distributing contraceptive products.
"For example, in the period from July 2022 to March 2023, the government bought and distributed 2,538,247 contraceptive pills, equal to 89 per cent of the target, 2,564,691 doses of Depo-provera contraceptive injections, equal to 94 per cent of the target and 552,494 implants, which is equal to 81 per cent of the target," added the minister.
In addition to providing family planning services, the minister said that her ministry has continued to prepare various guidelines, regulations, policies and laws that facilitate the provision of reproductive health rights to women and young people in the country.
In addition, she said medical services for women who have experienced complications after losing their pregnancies, there are comprehensive postabortion care available from the lowest level of health care provision, and training for service providers as well as equipment are provided for this service.
"Despite the success we have recorded in the health sector, including in reproductive, maternal and child health services, we still have the challenge of lack of sufficient professionals in providing peer education," she said.
The minister said in order to combat this; the ministry has a plan to bring back the cadre of health workers at the community level (Community Health Workers) from this fiscal year, saying this will help to reach more citizens.
She said TAMWA has conducted studies that show how the media reports news on rural and urban women and girls in reproductive health rights in Tanzania.
"The study had the purpose of enriching and empowering the skills of media practitioners in promoting the results of reproductive health and gender rights in this country," she said.
The minister said that 125 journalists confirmed lack of knowledge on the issues of Sexual and Reproductive Health Rights (SRHR), including the lack of relevant knowledge to report or deal with controversial content in the search for data from researchers.
She said 17 media outlets (85 per cent) deal with Maternal Health programs that include issues of Menstrual Hygiene (UWAKI), so they do not have space or special programs for Maternal Health issues unless there is funding that does not last for a long time.
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On her part, the Director of TAMWA, Ms Rose Ruben said that in this study, TAMWA collected, analyzed and conducted interviews with 160 journalists, 7 researchers and 20 media houses in Dar es Salaam.
"Among the 20 media houses used in this study, it was found that half reports political stories more and social and economic news, while the issues of Reproductive Health are not reported," she said.
Likewise, she said the study revealed that many journalists have not received training on Reproductive Health Rights, whereas 76 percent of those interviewed said that they have not received training while only 22 percent have received training.
"We request the ministry to manage the availability of statistics of various people, including women and girls with disabilities who attend health centers, to know their number and their needs and use those statistics to provide reproductive health services according to their needs," she said.
