Dear Friends and well wishers, The period January to December 2014 was another inspiring year of growth for the Mkapa Foundation, and we anticipate year 2015 will be filled with further sustainable developments. We enjoyed the extended cooperation from all our stakeholders that range from the Government of Tanzania, financial supporters to the beneficiaries of our services- thus we say “ Asanteni sana”. In the spirit of good governance, seven (7) new Board of Trustees were appointed by the Settlor of BMAF in August, 2014 to provide governance oversight in the next five years, under the Chair- Ambassador Charles Asili Sanga. We are delighted to have a devoted Board and committed Management and Staff that have jointly contributed in 2014 to the development and strengthening of BMAF major structures, systems and strategic documents that are core pillars of the organizational long term sustainability. These include the amended Trust Deed; Revised Organizational structure; BMAF Investment Policy; BMAF Business Plan (July 2013 – June 2018) and BMAF Business Development Strategy ( July 2013 – June 2018). Yet we were saddened by the death of the Former Board Chairperson, Major General Retired Herman Lupogo who led the Board from 2009 to August 2014 May his Soul Rest in Eternal Peace. Dear Friends, in 2014 we continued clinical and management skills development through training, coaching and mentoring of more than 258 health workers including the Mkapa Fellows, with the aim of improving provision of quality HIV care and treatment and PMTCT. We further improved maternal health services, by training 16 health care workers on Comprehensive Emergency Obstetric Care (CEmOC), and also continued constructing and equipping 9 theatres at the health centres levels, whereby 5 of them were handed over to the Local authorities of Rukwa region and the remaining 4 will be handed over to Shinyanga and Kagera region in 2015. The Irish Aid and multiple Tanzanian located Business Companies, through their Corporate Social Responsibility initiatives, made all these milestones possible through the Mkapa Fellows Programme II. As a strategy to minimize the national shortage of skilled health workers, BMAF under the Global Fund supported project, registered graduation of 62 certificate course students undertaking two years health training. Moreover, in collaboration with the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare and the National Council for Technical Education (NECTA), 888 students were granted scholarship by BMAF to study in 93-health training institutions countrywide during the academic year 2014/2015 to 2015/2016. The scholarships are for the certificate level trainings in Clinical Assistant, Laboratory, Nursing and Pharmaceutical. We are committed to continue the coordination and monitoring of the initiative until June 2016. Dear Friends, BMAF continued with creativities of attracting and retaining health workers in hard to reach areas by recruiting and deploying 220 health care workers to 35 districts. We further completed construction of 40 and 30 houses in Ruvuma and Singida regions, and are currently fully occupied by the health workers. The support has enabled 6 health facilities within the 2 regions that were not functioning prior to the house project, to become fully operational and are currently providing 24 hours health services to the community. In all our works, we take into account advocacy as a cross cutting approach to inform and/or influence development and reviews of health policies that impact health care delivery. We have been actively involved in the Government-led Technical and Policy forums, such as the Annual RMO and DMO meeting and Health Sector Wide Approach meetings. In addition, we are proud to observe that BMAF’s innovations and best practices carried in the past years, added value and informed significantly the Government-led “Big Result Now” (BRN) Laboratory for the Health Sector, whereby 4 major components are nationally prioritised as from 2015 - 2018, namely Human Resource for Health; Maternal New-born Health, Health Commodities and Quality Performance Management. Dear Partners, in the process of cultivating local ownership of our programmes and building organizational sustainability, in 2014 we successfully raised Tanzanian Shillings 1.4 billion ( equivalent to US $ 828,000) from the Business Community, the Regional and Local Government Authorities, whereas majority were from the Lake zone area. We extend our sincere appreciation to all the contributors; the Founder and Settlor of the Foundation- H.E. Benjamin W. Mkapa and the Prime Minister of Tanzania -Hon. Mizengo Pinda, for gracing the fundraising occasion. As we begin the year 2015, the Foundation’s main focus will continue in providing quality health services to rural communities, and in the same vein influencing policies that accelerate equitable health services within the country. We will start rolling out the Mkapa Fellows initiative into 9 Districts located in Shinyanga, Simiyu and Zanzibar. Meanwhile community involvement and awareness raising on reproductive health and HIV will continue through our collaboration with local Community Based Organisations. We will also reinforce the diagnostic services of the National Hospital of Muhimbili as part of our extended partnership with the Abbott Fund and the Hospital Management, by placing 16 Assistant Laboratory Technologists. As means of improving staff retention in rural settings, we will gradually hand over to the Government 170 newly constructed staffs houses of Lindi, Arusha, Manyara, Morogoro and Coastal regions; and at the same time take off construction of other 170 new staff houses in rural heath facilities. BMAF will also embark into an initiative co-funded by USAID and Irish aid on Advocacy for Human Resources for health that aims to raise the profile, availability and funding for the HRH. The Project intends to accelerate the implementation of the National health sector milestones and Global Health Workforce Alliance commitments made by Tanzania. Dear Partners, to adhere to principles of “aid” effectiveness, BMAF will move towards establishment of an organisational basket fund that will largely support the 5 years costed Business Plan, thus enable reach its objectives by 2018. The Management and Board will also continue monitoring organisational risks through conducting risk based internal audits and strengthening accountability and related operational systems. We remain committed in obtaining a clean externally audited financial statement on annual basis, as demonstrated consecutively in the past 8 years of our existence. During year 2015, we will intensify our business development strategies by initiating collaboration with new donors, corporates, national and international organizations. We plan to hold our fourth biennial Stakeholders meeting in Arusha, which will climax to a fundraising event to support BMAF initiatives. As we strive to become more sustainable, BMAF will establish its Endowment Fund as well as finalise registration of a subsidiary business company, which will oversee and take off the BMAF multi-purpose building/centre. Lastly but not least, we recognize BMAF cannot achieve its vision of complementing the Government efforts in health sector development single-handed. However it is feasible only through our stakeholders’ involvement and innovative and strategic partnerships. We look forward to another year of cooperation from your end in bringing HOPE to rural Tanzanians. Dr. Ellen Mkondya-Senkoro January 2015
Posted on: Thu, 22 Jan 2015 06:23:58 +0000
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