The Pandemic Fund

Background

The United Republic of Tanzania was awarded US$25 million from the Pandemic Fund to bolster health security at home and abroad. The grant mobilzied US$7 million in co-investment and US$6.7 million in co-financing. The three Implementing Entities (IEs) are the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), UNICEF, and the World Health Organization (WHO). 

Tanzania, which includes Tanzania's Mainland and the islands of Zanzibar, enjoys steady economic growth, as well as abundant natural resources, wildlife, and tourism. However, these advantages come with the risk of zoonotic and cross-border disease spread, exacerbated by the large-scale movement of people across Tanzania’s borders. The Tanzanian government is committed to implementing International Health Regulations (IHR), but weaknesses in preparedness and response remain. The country lacks capacity in critical functions including disease detection and early warning, specimen referral, quality management, and biosafety and biosecurity.  

The Pandemic Fund encourages multisectoral collaboration. In keeping with that spirit, Tanzania’s project brings together a diverse group of partners. Leading the charge is the Ministry of Health, in cooperation with the President’s Office – Regional Administration and Local Government, the Prime Minister’s Office, the Ministry of Livestock and Fisheries, the project’s IEs and financers, as well as AMREF, FHI 360, Jhpiego, and Touch Health. 
 

Project objectives

With the Pandemic Fund grant, Tanzania aims to reduce the impact of future epidemics and pandemics on the country and its people. The project aligns with Tanzania's National Actional Plan for Health Security and will respond to and respect the needs of marginalized and vulnerable people, including the elderly, and those living with disabilities.  
 

Implementation arrangements and key components

The main components of Tanzania’s project align neatly with the Pandemic Fund’s priorities: surveillance, laboratory systems, and workforce development. Each component is detailed below.  

1. Enhanced surveillance. Activities in this area include scaling up event-based surveillance and management, running event-specific risk assessments and drills at the country’s entry points, applying the Population Connectivity Across Borders guidance, increasing capacity at district and veterinary inspection points and slaughter facilities, and strengthening both passive and active surveillance systems for priority diseases. Activities also include increasing inclusiveness in data gathering and analysis, integrating data collection systems, conducting data quality assessments and improvements, and building capacity for predictive surveillance and modeling.
2. Upgraded laboratories. This work includes increasing specimen referral and transportation capacity across all health sectors, reinforcing One Health biosafety and biosecurity, and scaling up the implementation of national quality standards. It also focuses on expanding testing capacity and operationalizing molecular and point-of-care testing, as well as upgrading molecular testing platforms, genomic sequencing facilities, and bioinformatics expertise and boosting the interoperability of diagnostic services across sectors.
3. An effective multisectoral workforce. Activities in this area include increasing IHR and emergency capacity across all health sectors, operationalizing a multisectoral workforce plan to implement IHR, scaling up field epidemiology trainings, developing the community health workforce and training community and civil society members, enhancing One Health human resource capacity, and mainstreaming consideration of marginalized and vulnerable groups across the project’s capacity-building efforts. They also include expanding and reinforcing multisectoral Rapid Response Teams and Emergency Medical Teams and instituting a surge deployment plan. 

All three IEs provide technical guidance. FAO also supports the planning and implementation of animal health activities. UNICEF leads on risk communication and community engagement. The WHO supports the planning and implementation of human health activities.

Expected outcomes

With the Pandemic Fund grant, Tanzania aims to produce a functional, integrated disease surveillance and response system. By 2027, it expects to: 

• Develop surveillance systems that can monitor diseases with epidemic and pandemic potential effectively, and
• Enable laboratories to characterize and confirm diseases with epidemic and pandemic potential swiftly.