Policy analysis for deciding on a malaria vaccine RTS,S in Tanzania.

Idda Romore,Ritha J A Njau,Salim Abdulla,Aziza Mwisongo,Innocent Semali,Hassan Mshinda,Antoinette Ba Nguz,Marcel Tanner

doi:10.1186/s12936-016-1197-6

Abstract

BackgroundTraditionally, it has taken decades to introduce new interventions in low-income countries. Several factors account for these delays, one of which is the absence of a framework to facilitate comprehensive understanding of policy process to inform policy makers and stimulate the decision-making process. In the case of the proposed introduction of malaria vaccines in Tanzania, a specific framework for decision-making will speed up the administrative process and shorten the time until the vaccine is made available to the target population.MethodsQualitative research was used as a basis for developing the Policy Framework. Interviews were conducted with government officials, bilateral and multilateral partners and other stakeholders in Tanzania to assess malaria treatment policy changes and to draw lessons for malaria vaccine adoption.ResultsThe decision-making process for adopting malaria interventions and new vaccines in general takes years, involving several processes: meetings and presentations of scientific data from different studies with consistent results, packaging and disseminating evidence and getting approval for use by the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare (MOHSW). It is influenced by contextual factors; Promoting factors include; epidemiological and intervention characteristics, country experiences of malaria treatment policy change, presentation and dissemination of evidence, coordination and harmonization of the process, use of international scientific evidence. Barriers factors includes; financial sustainability, competing health and other priorities, political will and bureaucratic procedures, costs related to the adoption and implementations of interventions, supply and distribution and professional compliance with anti-malarial drugs.ConclusionThe framework facilitates the synthesis of information in a coherent way, enabling a clearer understanding of the policy process, thereby speeding up the policy decision-making process and shortening the time for a malaria vaccine to become available.

Highlights

It has taken decades to introduce new interventions in low-income countries
The steps involved in the process to adopt policy decisions of malaria treatment policy change interventions in Tanzania was used
A policy framework in this study built on the literature and was based on experiences and observations of the policy process and the factors influencing policy decisions in Tanzania

Summary

Introduction

It has taken decades to introduce new interventions in low-income countries. In the case of the proposed introduction of malaria vaccines in Tanzania, a specific framework for decision-making will speed up the administrative process and shorten the time until the vaccine is made available to the target population. When a decision is made to adopt and implement a new health intervention in low and middle income countries (LMICs), it often takes years or decades before the benefits of the new interventions are realized [1,2,3,4,5]. As new interventions become available, there is a need to improve understanding of the policy making process, as it applies to technology adoption and implementation [5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13]. This study adapted a policy framework to inform policy process for introducing malaria vaccine in Tanzania, to be able to distil lessons learnt that will serve to guide malaria vaccine policy formulation and implementation

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion