Country Offices Contact

Government of Zanzibar signs a partnership with PharmAccess to implement a new health financing strategy

PharmAccess Tanzania has announced a 5 years’ partnership agreement with the Ministry of Health of the Government of Zanzibar. The agreement signifies the start of a cooperation between the two parties, in which PharmAccess supports the rollout of universal healthcare (UHC) in Zanzibar, with a specific focus on low-income and vulnerable groups.

  • Jan 22, 2020

PharmAccess Tanzania has announced a 5 years’ partnership agreement with the Ministry of Health of the Government of Zanzibar. The agreement signifies the start of a cooperation between the two parties, in which PharmAccess supports the rollout of universal healthcare (UHC) in Zanzibar, with a specific focus on low-income and vulnerable groups.

To make UHC in Zanzibar viable and sustainable, the government have decided to reform its current financing model. PharmAccess will support the government to investigate the best possible design and structure for the health scheme. During the first phase of the collaboration, PharmAccess will review and analyze the current state of healthcare in Zanzibar, including the quality and performance of various providers. It will carry out a cost analysis of the current financial model, review essential drug lists and find the appropriate IT system for administration and management. Based on a thorough investigation, it will support the government to design and implement a new health financing strategy.

In line with the PharmAccess approach, digitalization will pay a large role in the process that facilities will start collecting more data on healthcare performance. Data analytics will also enable the providers as well as the Ministry to identify the best and most urgent interventions to improve health outcomes, and to validate the ones being implemented. Finally, with SafeCare, ministry will be supported not only to monitor and benchmark the performance but also help the facilities to improve the quality of their services, using a step-wise approach.

The total process — from analysis to implementation and validation — will take approximately five years. PharmAccess Tanzania looks forward to the collaboration, and to drawing on years of experience with improving health systems to help give the people of Zanzibar access to quality healthcare.