Background: The use of data in decision making and planning in primary health care settings is critical for improving efficiency and health outcomes for patients and communities. Implementation research can be used to fully understand the effects, context, challenges, and facilitators of data use, as well as how to scale up data use interventions. However, in the context of low resource settings, little is known about how implementation research can be employed to assess the implementation and impact of data use interventions.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Decentralization is implemented at the local level to increase community participation in improving service delivery. Majority of developing countries are implementing Fiscal decentralization in primary healthcare through various approaches such as Direct Health Facility Financing, among other things, to empower Community governance structures to govern Primary Health Facility operations to improve the responsiveness of health service delivery and achieve Universal Health Coverage. One of the primary functions of these governance committees is to oversee health workers in their health facilities.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground And Aims: Lower- and middle-income countries have decentralized decision-making at the community level, as well as community governance structures, to encourage community participation in governance processes, particularly in primary healthcare (PHC). In Tanzania, decentralization resulted in the establishment of Health Facility Governing Committees (HFGCs) to encourage community participation in the governance of primary health facilities to improve the quality and responsiveness of health service delivery. Nonetheless, despite the presence of HFGCs, PHC delivery remains ineffective and of poor quality.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe governance of epidemics is very critical for curbing and responding to several infectious epidemics. This study was conducted to explore the experience of the Health Facility Governing Committees (HFGCs) on the governance strategies they adopted to levarage the COVID 19 epidemic in their primary health facilities in Tanzania. An exploratory qualitative design was employed to study the governance strategies adopted by HFGCs during the COVID19.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDecentralization reforms through Direct Health Facilities Financing (DHFF) have empowered Health Facility Governing Committees (HFGCs) to participate in different governance aspects to improve service delivery at the facility level. However, there is little research on how empowered HFGCs perform in the context of the DHFF. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the functionality of HFGCs under DHFF in Tanzanian primary health care facilities that had variation of performance in 2018.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHealth Facility Governing Committees (HFGCs) play a vital role in overseeing health services delivery in the primary health care system. However, despite their existence in Tanzania hiccups remain reported on the quality of health services delivered in primary health care facilities. The latter poses a question on the performance of HFGCs in overseeing the services delivery at the primary health facilities.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Health facility governing committees (HFGCs) were established by lower and middle-income countries (LMICs) to facilitate community participation at the primary facility level to improve health system performance. However, empirical evidence on their effects under decentralization reform on the functionality of HFGCs is scant and inconclusive.
Objective: This article reviews the effects of decentralization on the functionality of HFGCs in LMICs.
Background: In Lower and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs), decentralization has dominated the agenda for reforming the organization of service delivery (LMICs). The fiscal decentralization challenge is a hard one for decentralization. As they strive to make decisions and use health facility funding, primary healthcare facilities encounter the obstacles of fiscal decentralization.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFUser committees, such as Health Facility Governing Committees, are popular platforms for representing communities and civil society in holding service providers accountable. Fiscal decentralization via various arrangements such as Direct Health Facility Financing is thought to strengthen Health Facility Governing Committees in improving accountability in carrying out the devolved tasks and mandates. The purpose of this study was to analyze the status of accountability of Health Facility Governing Committees in Tanzania under the Direct Health Facility Financing setting as perceived by the supply side.
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