Note: World Lung Foundation united with The Union North America. From January 2016, the combined organization is known as “Vital Strategies.”
(May 25 2015, Dar es Salaam and New York) – The Ministry of Health and Social Welfare of Tanzania and World Lung Foundation (WLF) today launched a multi-channel communication campaign in Kigoma – under the Thamini Uhai (Value Life) brand – to encourage more people to use family planning. The campaign will use radio spots, radio drama, social media, posters, comics and community outreach to reach people in their homes and in the community, emphasizing the benefits of family planning to both men and women of reproductive age. Campaign messages will highlight the benefits of spacing or limiting pregnancies, such as increased education and employment opportunities for women, better health for mothers and children, more effective use of family resources, and stronger communities.
The need for family planning in Kigoma
Dr. Nguke Mwakatundu, Country Director – Tanzania, World Lung Foundation, said: “Health advocates, Tanzania’s government and the country’s main religious institutions all agree that family planning is good for families and the nation. A lack of family planning, including birth spacing, contributes to high levels of maternal and neonatal mortality in Tanzania. This also limits the ability of women and families to make choices that can protect their health, their economic wellbeing and their life chances. The situation is particularly acute in Kigoma, where women tend to give birth to more children than is the average for Tanzania.” The total fertility rate in 2010 for the Western Region, including Kigoma, was 7 children compared with a Tanzania national average of 5 children and a global average of 2.5 children.
According to the Tanzania Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) 2010, 25% of married women in Tanzania and as many as 41% of married women in Kigoma have an unmet need for contraception – that is, they do not want to become pregnant (for childbirth spacing or limiting reasons) but are not using family planning methods. A further 34% of married women in Tanzania, but only 25% of married women in Kigoma do not want to become pregnant and are using family planning methods to avoid unplanned pregnancy. These data show that there is scope to increase the use of family planning in Kigoma.
Barriers include: a lack of adequate resources to meet the requirements for contraceptive commodities, equipment and supplies; social, religious and cultural attitudes and beliefs; a lack of knowledge about the benefits of contraception; misperceptions of side effects of contraceptive methods; and unmet needs of modern contraceptives for adolescents, which contributes to high fertility, unintended pregnancies and complications at birth.
“Information can make a real difference,” Mwakatundu added, noting that a rigorous review published in The Lancet in 2010 confirmed that mass media campaigns can change behavior related to a wide range of health issues, including family planning(1). “We believe this strategic communication campaign will increase the number of women and men, including youth, who seek information about family planning, use health facilities for family planning services and advice, decide to use contraception, make informed choices about their fertility, and plan their family size. The resulting social, health and economic benefits could radically improve the life opportunities of current and future generations.”
A comprehensive communication campaign
This campaign builds on the success of Thamini Uhai, the maternal health campaign which debuted in 2014 with a focus on the critical importance of facility delivery. This new campaign extends Thamini Uhai to encompass family planning, delivering an emotional narrative through hard-hitting radio spots and a radio drama series. Three radio spots will begin airing on Radio Kwizera, Tanzania Broadcasting Corporation (TBC), and Clouds FM, for 15 weeks starting today (May 25). The serial radio drama, Jitofautishe, will begin airing on TBC and Radio Kwizera this week. The radio drama in particular emphasizes the important role partners and families can play in supporting family planning for the benefit of women and families.
In addition, the campaign will include a comic book to be distributed through health facilities and youth groups, a poster to be distributed by community health workers, and social media using the hashtag #ThaminiUhai. Trained community health workers will provide community-level outreach. The campaign will also engage with health care providers and include facility- and community-level meetings focused on quality of care and community needs.
Family planning is a key strategy to promote social and economic development and to improve the health of women and children in Tanzania. The National Road Map Strategic Plan to Accelerate Reduction of Maternal, Newborn and Child Deaths in Tanzania, 2008–2015 (Sharpened One Plan) had set a goal to increase the contraceptive prevalence rate (CPR) from 27%(2) to 60% by 2015. Increased use of family planning was recognized as having great potential to contribute to the Sharpened One Plan target of reducing the maternal mortality ratio (MMR) from 578 to 193 per 100,000 live births by 2015. This new phase of the Thamini Uhai campaign aims to support these objectives.
About WLF’s Maternal Health Program
Recently published data from WHO, UNICEF, UNFPA, and The World Bank(3) estimate that Tanzania, which accounted for 3% of global maternal deaths in 2013, reduced its maternal mortality ratio (MMR) by 55% between 1990 and 2013. Since 2008, WLF has been working to help reduce maternal and neonatal mortality in Tanzania by implementing a state-of-the-art maternal health program.
The program, which has received financial support from Bloomberg Philanthropies, Fondation H&B Agerup, Merck for Mothers and Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida), aims to improve women’s access to good-quality, comprehensive emergency obstetric care, particularly in rural and isolated areas. World Lung Foundation can point to a number of accomplishments across geographically strategic health centers and hospitals in eight districts in the Kigoma, Morogoro and Pwani regions. Since 2008:
- WLF has actively upgraded, renovated or rebuilt 10 rural health centers and four district hospitals to ensure the provision of life-saving comprehensive emergency obstetric care. Prior to the program, patients had to travel three to four hours to the nearest hospital. Now, emergency obstetric care is available in the community.
- More than 100 assistant medical officers, nurse-midwives, and clinical officers have been trained in comprehensive emergency obstetric care or anesthesia.
- Health center utilization for delivery care has increased substantially, from about 3,500 deliveries per year in nine health centers prior to the program to about 12,300 in 2014 after WLF’s intervention.
- More than 2,500 C-sections have been performed in supported health centers that could not have provided this service prior to WLF’s maternal health program.
More information about WLF’s Tanzania program can be found at http://var/www/html.worldlungfoundation.org/maternalhealth and http://worldlungfoundation.org/ht/d/sp/i/35469/pid/35469.
1. Wakefield, Melanie; Loken, Barbara; Hornik, Robert C. “Use of mass media campaigns to change health behavior.” The Lancet, 376.9748 (Oct 9-Oct 15, 2010): 1261-71.
2. The CPR, which is the percentage of couples using contraception, was measured at 27% in 2010 (TDHS 2010).
3. http://var/www/html.who.int/reproductivehealth/publications/monitoring/maternal-mortality-2013/en/