Against the backdrop of the two-year countdown to the Millennium Development Goals, a Tanzanian activist and advocate of reproductive health education in the country for thirty years so far believes she knows the reason behind Tanzania’s sluggish performance in promoting safe motherhood.
‘’Government authorities are not politically committed and the people we target are not actively involved in reproductive health programmes,” says Ms Josephine Mwaikusye, who is the executive director of Umati, a reproductive health education advocacy non-governmental organisation.
Ms Mwaikusye, who represented Tanzania at a recent global conference on safe motherhood dubbed ‘Women Deliver 2013’, which was held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, has realised that there is every reason for her motherland to emulate the Asian country.
“Malaysia has made remarkable progress in curbing the deaths of women who lose lives due to pregnancy-related complications,” she explains.
Currently, the maternal mortality rate in Malaysia stands at 28 deaths per 100,000 live births but in Tanzania, women are losing lives due to pregnancy-related complications at a rate which is 16 times greater, with latest statistics pointing to 454 deaths per 100,000 live births within the past two years.
“We were at the same bad level just a few years back but the country has embarked on deliberate moves to curb maternal deaths, leaving us behind,’’ she said on Suturday.
According to the 50 year-old sociologist—a product of the University of Dar es Salaam — the alarming statistics could be reduced significantly if government leaders made the political will to curb the menacing deaths, citing the exemplary situation with the Malaysian government again.
“In Malaysia, the government and the private sector have meaningfully joined hands in curbing maternal deaths under the Public-private-Partnership Programmes (PPP),” she says.
“In our country, there is still regressive belief among citizens that provision of healthcare is the sole responsibility of the government,’’ she adds, pointing to the irony that the same government that grapples with laxity in tax collection is meant to shoulder the health care burden—meaning it also needs a helping hand from its citizens.
“If the citizens took the cost-sharing idea seriously, I am sure a lot could be achieved from it. I would encourage even more people to enrol with the National Health Insurance Fund,’’ she remarked.
Ms Josephine also believes, albeit partly, that Tanzania could get to where Malaysia is, if the communities they serve accept and fully support the projects on reproductive health—by sharing the costs, being eager to benefit from them, as well as shunning the belief that there is always someone out there to take care of their health.
“For most health projects to be sustainable, it depends on the involvement and acceptability in the communities we serve and in Tanzania this is still very low,’’ she said on Saturday at a recent reproductive health workshop organised by Umati in Kibaha District, Coast Region.
The Citizen
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