Tanzania: What We Do

Monitoring & Evaluation

Data Quality Improvement Plan

In response to global targets for fast-tracking the end of the AIDS epidemic by 2030 and preventing new HIV infections and AIDS-related deaths, the Tanzania Ministry of Health, through the Tanzanian National AIDS, STIs, and Hepatitis Control Programme (NASHCoP), collaborated with GP-Tanzania and other stakeholders to develop a National Data Quality Improvement Plan (DQIP).

The DQIP is used as a tool to identify major data quality issues in Tanzania’s Mainland HIV program and propose strategies aimed at improving the quality of HIV program data, therefore making it more reliable for decision-making. Additionally, the plan prioritizes prevention data quality, which is needed to improve health service provision to the most marginalized and key populations.

The DQIP seeks to leverage existing health systems and partnerships to ensure efficient resource utilization and sustained impact in data quality and use for reducing new HIV infections, achieving viral suppression, and improving the health outcomes of PLHIV. The DQIP focuses on breaking down barriers and addressing the root causes of suboptimal HIV-related data quality using a Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI) approach from source documents to data repositories.

Furthermore, data use by health care, program personnel, and different stakeholders is a central part of the implementation to provide people-centered HIV prevention and treatment services, reducing new HIV infections and promoting the health and well-being of all Tanzanians.

Prevention-of-Mother-to-Child Transmission (PMTCT) Cascade Evaluation

Although PMTCT activities are in place in Tanzania, there has not been a robust evaluation of the cascade starting from the upstream services provided during antenatal care (ANC) down to early infant diagnosis (EID) outcomes at 2 and 18 months. Therefore, to have an empirical understanding of the gaps in the PMTCT cascade, UCSF conducted a mixed-methods evaluation of PMTCT implementation and quality of documentation at the health facility and how identified challenges may affect key data related to mother-to-child transmission of HIV.

The objectives of the assessment were:

Assess the ANC and PMTCT cascades to better understand the uptake of HIV-related services among pregnant, delivering, and postpartum women, factors contributing to attrition along the cascade, and HIV outcomes among HEI.
Provide insight into how data quality challenges affect the interpretation of PMTCT and EID program performance.
Improve future HIV modeling and estimation activities by generating empirical data around PMTCT service uptake throughout the perinatal period.

UCSF worked with the PMTCT unit of the Ministry of Health to develop a policy brief using the findings from this assessment to ensure that the findings will be used to address identified gaps in the PMTCT cascade.