TEHIP "Interventions": An Overview

TEHIP (Tanzania Essential Human Interventions Project) was designed to test how and to what extent evidence can guide decentralized planning of the health sector at District level. From the outset, the evidence set included burden of disease, cost effectiveness, health system capacity, and community voice. The Burden of Disease Tool and the Community Voice Tool have been developed as planned. The Cost-Effectiveness Tool has been designed but left on the shelf due to the need to introduce some new precursor tools that had not been foreseen. These include the District Cost Information Tool, the District Health Expenditure Mapping Tool (both of which have been developed and applied) and a District Intervention Coverage Tool that is under development. Also, for the health system capacity, a number of innovations and new tools have evolved including the District Integrated Management Tool, the District Health Mapping Tool, The Community Ownership Strategy, and Strengthening Health Management and Administration. All together, these tools and strategies can be seen as major “interventions” into the capacities of the TEHIP supported districts and must be understood in that sense when comparing the performance of such districts with those with conventional approaches to planning and resource allocation.

This document provides a short profile of each of these “interventions,” giving a one to two page summary of the background, purpose, content, timeline and current status of each. This overview organizes and presents these interventions under two categories: those that are technical planning tools, and those that are supportive interventions or strategies. [From introduction]