The Government of Tanzania is committed to the equitable delivery of quality health services through strengthening health systems to better respond to health needs. This commitment is impeded by among other factors, the severe shortage of skilled human resources for health. The litany of health care workers confronting Tanzania includes inequalities in access to care, a clear disparity of HRH availability between rural and urban areas, inadequate health care equipment and inadequate staff development program.
The health workforce decline in absolute numbers was significant during the 1990’s when the government of Tanzania (GoT) retrenched the public service workforce and imposed an employment freeze in all sectors, resulting in a loss of one third of the health workforce (Human Resource for Health Strategic Plan 2008 – 2013, p.18), although the production and recruitment of health workers has improved over the past 15 years, there is still shortage in the health workforce.
In 2018, the MoHCDGEC estimated that health facilities require approximately 209,603 health workers while the actual available health workers stand at about 99,6841 (Health workforce requirement and recruitment plan for the Public Health Sector in Tanzania mainland 2018 – 2023, p. 1). This shortage is compromising the ability of the health systems to effectively deliver the National Essential Health Care Intervention Package – Tanzania (NEHCIP-Tz) and other health services. The human resource for health shortage is further exacerbated by an increased disease burden attributed to HIV, lifestyle – related diseases and expanded services in health facilities such as CEmOC, BEmOC and the occurrence of global epidemics and pandemics.
To address some of these challenges, on May 2019, the MoHCDGEC and Health Implementing Partners, including CSOs, convened a meeting that spearheaded a new dialogue on HRH and to the planning of a HRH Multi-Sectoral High Level Meeting on November 2019. Among the key resolutions was to establish a mechanism for health graduates to volunteer in facilities that have critical shortage of HRH. The initiative aimed to partly address the HRH challenges at the same time provide opportunity for short-term on job training on lifelong skills for a career as health professional.