Assessing BRAC's Community Health Volunteer Program in Tanzania
Abstract
Life expectancy in Tanzania is 58 years for women, and 53 for men (WHO 2011). Tanzania’s
maternal mortality ratio is among the world’s highest at 454 per 100,000 births (UNDP);
likewise, its infant mortality ratio is high at 51 per 1,000 live births (TDHS 2010).
Overall, under-five mortality (U5M) is 81 per 1,000 (TDHS 2011), 16% of which is due
to malaria, and an additional 13% to diarrheal diseases. To address these ongoing
health issues in a low-cost, scalable way, BRAC began to implement a Community Health
Volunteer Program in Tanzania in 2007. BRAC trained volunteers, all of whom were
female and most of whom were also active in BRAC’s microfinance programs, to go out
into their communities and educate community members on common diseases, identify
pregnant women and new infants and encourage them to seek prenatal and antenatal care,
sell over the counter medications, and post contact information for emergency first
aid for children. The intervention was conducted for 3 years, until 2010. BRAC collected
survey data in treatment and comparison communities assessing health behaviors such
as insecticide treated net use, sanitary latrine access, contraceptive use, and antenatal
care in 2007 and 2010 in order to evaluate the program. Though the scaling up of
the program before 2010 meant that comparison communities received the treatment,
the program was still associated with increased contraceptive use and piped water
access, and a small but statistically significant decrease in insecticide treated
net use. I recommend that BRAC focus any additional health programs in Tanzania on
contraceptive promotion, where there seems to be an effect, and postnatal care access
and antenatal care quality, where there appears to be unmet need.
Type
Master's projectDepartment
The Sanford School of Public PolicyPermalink
https://hdl.handle.net/10161/5172Citation
Lamb, Jade (2012). Assessing BRAC's Community Health Volunteer Program in Tanzania. Master's project, Duke University. Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/10161/5172.More Info
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