“Accelerating Millennium Development Goal Progress by Exchanging Health System Innovations between Tanzania and Ghana”
Grantee Institution:
Columbia University, Mailman School of Public Health
Team Leaders:
- James F. Phillips, Ph.D.
Professor of Clinical Population and Family Health, Heilbrunn Department of Population and Family Health, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia - John Koku Awoonor-Williams, M.D., M.P.H.
Regional Director of Health Services, Upper East Region, Ghana - Godfrey Michael Mbaruku, M.D., Ph.D.
Principal Investigator, EMPOWER Project, Ifakara Health Research and Development Centre
Project Summary:
Tanzania and Ghana have pioneered healthcare innovations in sub-Saharan Africa. Following an initiative that provided district managers with tools to make evidence-based decisions about allocation of healthcare resources, Tanzania experienced a significant decline in child mortality. Districts in Ghana have achieved similar success by posting nurses to rural villages and engaging communities in outreach. But access, quality, and cost of primary healthcare remain a challenge for people in both countries. The absence of a trained health workforce has hindered community-based care in Tanzania. Due to a variety of bottlenecks, particularly a lack of district-level planning capabilities, Ghana’s community-based healthcare model is not scaling up as rapidly as hoped. The Tanzania-Ghana Health Partnership will test the hypothesis that the country-to-country transfer of evidence-based programs to fill these and other gaps will help ensure that essential health interventions reach underserved populations and consequently reduce child and maternal mortality.
Constructing a community clinic in Mirigu Kassena Nankana District, Ghana