Government Of Tanzania Research Articles

Role of health facility governing committees in strengthening social accountability to improve the health system in Tanzania: protocol for a participatory action research study

IntroductionSocial accountability is important for improving the delivery of health services and empowering citizens. The government of Tanzania has transferred authority to plan, budget and manage financial resources to the...

Leadership and Governance Effect in Implementing the IMPACT Approach: A Retrospective Observational Study in Simiyu Region

The Government of Tanzania in collaboration with USAID Global Health Supply Chain-Technical Assistance-Tanzania (USAID GHSC-TA -TZ), JSI-InSupply Health and United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) rolled out the IMPACT approach in Simiyu Region in 2019. For the purpose of improve data management and visibility of vertical health commodities supply chain system. The objective of this study was to highlight leadership engagement in implementation of IMPACT Approach to improve reporting rates for vertical health commodities. Since introduction of this approach indicators monitored were not improving; the region facilitated the response performance monitoring processes, through IMPACT approach integrating with performance Scorecard as a visual performance tool for some of the indicators, including the process indicators, and used feedback meetings attended by senior leaders in the region to discuss indicator results and identify areas for improvement for councils. The results of this study revealed that, engagement of leaders in decision making influenced positively the IMPACT meetings conducted by teams whereby supply chain challenges including reporting rates discussed. At a Councils level the meetings conducted as per calendar increased from 6.1% April-June 2021 to 84.9% October- December 2022. Moreover, reporting rate of four (4) vertical health commodities which include (Malaria, HIV/AIDS, TB/L and RMNCAH) demonstrated positive increase from 60.5% January 2021 to 84.7 December 2022, and availability of all four vertical health commodities increased from 85% January 2022 to 93% December 2022. The availability of these commodities resulted into improved service delivery at health facility level. The study was a retrospective observation of the implementation of the IMPACT team approach in Simiyu region. It assessed the availability of vertical health commodities as a function of the number of items reported, data used for computation of reporting rate, availability of health commodities and improved service delivery were retrieved from eLMIS and DHIS2. Action and performance improvement plans were developed and tracked using scorecards to ensure that each planned activity is implemented accordingly and the desired supply chain outcomes are achieved. This was followed by convening leadership engagement forums where underperforming councils had to explain and articulate the reasons for their unsatisfactory performance and eventually commit to improving the required indicators. The study concluded that, good governance and leadership engagement played a major role in implementation of IMPACT Approach and achieve the raised outcomes of availability of vertical health commodities, reporting rates for vertical health commodities and improved service delivery.

Understanding the implication of direct health facility financing on health commodities availability in Tanzania.

The Government of Tanzania (GoT) has in the last decade made progress in strengthening the health system financing with progress towards Universal Health Coverage (UHC). The major reforms includes development of the health financing strategy, reforming the Community Health Fund (CHF) and introduction of the Direct Health Facility Financing (DHFF). DHFF was introduced in all district councils in the 2017/18 financial year. One of the anticipated goals of DHFF is to improve availability of health commodities. The objective of this study is to assess the effect of DHFF in improving the availability of health commodities in primary health care facilities. This study employed cross sectional study design, using quantitative techniques to analyze data related to expenditures and availability of health commodities at the primary health care facilities in Tanzania mainland. Secondary data was extracted from Electronic Logistics Management Information System (eLMIS) and Facility Financial Accounting and Reporting System (FFARS). Descriptive analysis was used to summarize the data using Microsoft Excel (2021) and inferential analysis was done using Stata SE 16.1. There has been an increase in allocation of funds for health commodities over the past three years. The Health Basket Funds (HBFs) accounted for an average of 50% of all health commodities expenditures. The complimentary funds (user fees and insurance) contributed about 20%, which is less than the 50% required by the cost sharing guideline. There is potentiality in DHFF improving visibility and tracking of health commodities funding. Implementation of DHFF has increased the amount of funding for health commodities at health facilities. The visibility and tracking of health commodity funding has improved. There is a scope of increasing health commodity funds at health facilities since the expenditures on health commodities is lower than what is indicated in the cost sharing collection and use guideline.

Between Rhetoric and Reality: Recurrent Resource Nationalism and the Practice of Resource Governance in Tanzania

Tanzania has gone through two waves of resource nationalism since independence, with both having significant implications for the country’s evolving approach to governing its resources. This article focuses on the second wave, which began during President Kikwete’s administration (from 2005 to 2015) and was further strengthened under that of President Magufuli (from 2015 to 2021). This article draws on the case of negotiations between the government and Barrick Gold Corporation following mining sector reforms in 2017, which had a negative impact on Acacia Mining Plc, a Tanzania-based subsidiary of Barrick. In drawing on this case, this article analyses the political and economic dynamics associated with resource nationalism and argues that they produce outcomes which contradict the government’s stated intentions as provided for in the 2017 legislation. Whereas the 2017 reforms introduced several progressive provisions relating to the fiscal framework, local content, state participation, resource sovereignty and contract transparency, the agreed framework between Barrick and the Tanzanian government effectively diluted and undermined many of these provisions. In effect, the Barrick case shows greater continuity between resource nationalist reforms under Presidents Kikwete and Magufuli, particularly in the challenges they faced in practice, even though the most recent legislative interventions were seemingly more aggressive, strategic and far-reaching.

The Influence of Traditional Exports on Economic Growth in Tanzania: The VECM Analysis

Background: Tanzania, like other developing countries, sees commerce as one of the most important tools for the country's growth and progress. Given that export is one of Tanzania's primary economic sectors, several empirical studies on the relationship between international commerce and the country's economic growth have been conducted. Objectives: The study looked primarily at the influence of traditional exports as the primary independent variable. Furthermore, the Natural Logarithm of Terms of Trade (TOT), the currency rate, and Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) are control variables, whereas GDP is the dependent variable. Methods: The research employed time-series data from the World Bank, the Bank of Tanzania (BOT), and the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) that spans 31 years from 1991 to 2021 based on the Vector Error Correlation Model (VECM). Results: The findings revealed a link between Tanzania's economic growth and traditional exports, trade terms and currency rate. Furthermore, studies have found a negative and substantial association between exchange rates and economic growth in both the short and long run. Conclusion: The findings indicated that trade terms and traditional exports had a favorable and considerable influence on economic growth in the short run. In the long run, traditional exports and FDI had a negative and positive influence on economic growth, but trade terms had a considerable and positive effect. As a result, the study argues that Tanzania's government should prioritize export promotion measures above traditional exports to accelerate Tanzania's economic growth. The government should prioritize the establishment of factories that will add value to traditional export items

Assessment of Free Basic Compulsory Education on Schooling and the Reduction of Child Labor in Tanzania

This study aimed to assess free basic compulsory education on schooling and the reduction of child labor in Tanzania. In late 2015 the government of Tanzania, under late president John Pombe Joseph Magufuli, announced the cancellation of school fees from pre-primary to lower secondary schools. The main goal was to ensure all children of school age attended the school. In January 2016, the implementation of free basic compulsory education commenced despite those efforts initiated by the government to tackle the problem of child labor hampering them from attending school. Unfortunately, child labor is still becoming out of control within society. This study employed qualitative methodology whereby secondary data (documentary review) from the Tanzania national bureau of statistics and the international labor organization were used to collect data. Data were analyzed through thematic content.
 The findings revealed that, across areas in the country, the most significant proportion of children who attend school only is found in Dar es Salaam, with 86.7 percent (88.8 percent of boys and 84.8 percent of girls), followed by other urban areas with 68.2 percent and 39 percent for children in Rural areas. However, ignorance and lack of awareness from the parents and guardians in the society led to the increase of child labor among Tanzanians, especially in rural areas, where most people are not educated enough. The people in rural areas do not regard education as the most important for the future development of children. As a result, they do not send their children to schools, especially girls who always face early marriages due to cultural beliefs. In Tanzania, some tribes encourage only boys to go to school, while girls are supposed to remain home to take care of their siblings and wash dishes. Another reason that led to the increase of child labor in the country is that parents and guardians do not understand the importance of education to their children. Therefore, the government must educate the mass, especially in rural areas so, to make them aware of eradicating the problem. Thus, a researcher suggested that the government rethink the funding mechanism for students from poor and wealthy families. It means that children from low-income families must be considered by exercise, books, uniforms, and pens to reduce the burden on their parents and guardians. To sum up, the government should increase the education budget to reduce parents' burdens.

Effect of IMPACT team approach implementation processes on health supply chain management data use in Singida region: A quantitative study

The Government of Tanzania (GoT), in collaboration with development partners, has made significant improvements in the health supply chain since 2013 through developing of an electronic Logistics Management Information System (e-LMIS) and strengthening of the Logistics Management Services (LMS) component. Nevertheless, the use of reported data in the e-LMIS remained very low. In efforts to respond to low data use at all supply chain levels, the GoT introduced the Information Mobilized for Performance Analysis and Continuous Transformation (IMPACT) approach to reinforce data use culture for decision-making to improve the supply chain. Therefore, this study aimed to determine the effect of IMPACT team approach implementation processes on health supply chain data use in Singida region. This was a pre- and post-cross-section study whereby the quantitative data were obtained from e-LMIS stock imbalance reports. This data was processed using Microsoft Excel power query and analysed using Microsoft Excel 2019 pivot tables to get indicator results on availability, not-in-demand and overstocked health commodities. The overall pre (2018) and post (2020) intervention results for both Iramba district council (DC) and Singida municipal council (MC) were 66% and 81% for the availability of essential health commodities, 17.2% and 21% for not-in-demand health commodities and 17% and 20.7% for overstocked health commodities respectively. Iramba DC demonstrated a significant statistical increase in both indicators compared to Singida MC, as the P-value was less than 0.05 at a 95% confidence level (df=35). Conclusively, the IMPACT team approach positively influenced data use and availability of health commodities. However, it was not the case for overstocked and not-in-demand indicator results. Apart from the possible low quality of logistics data, further studies should explore other contributing factors behind the increasing trends of overstocks and not-in-demand health commodities in the region.

Harnessing large-scale agro-based investments in the Sagcot area for inclusive agricultural transformation in Tanzania

The colonial and post-colonial large-scale agriculture has brought the far-ranging implications on the local population in Tanzania. These include dispossession of land, dislocation of migrant labourers who are also subjected to poor work conditions and induced imbalances in terms of gender and ethnic relations. The government and other actors in Tanzania have strived to reduce the effects by fostering inclusive large-scale agriculture that benefit the small-scale farmers. This includes the move to initiate a 20-year public-private partnership on large-scale agribusiness namely Southern Agricultural Growth Corridor of Tanzania (SACGOT) in 2010. Serious concerns were raised against SAGCOT especially on the extent to which it entails uprooting and taking away lands from poor rural dwellers and turning them into poorly paid casual labourers thus increasing poverty and food insecurity. Consequently, the coordinating unit of SAGCOT vowed to improve food security to hundreds of thousands of poor farmers. The primary research was designed to examine the inclusivity aspects of the six selected large-scale investment schemes under the SAGCOT partnership. The Responsible Agriculture Investment (RAI) Framework was employed to assess sustainable labour practices, community engagements and fairness in out-grower arrangements. While the investment schemes demonstrated a fairly positive outlook pertaining to social sustainability under the RAI framework, a notable variation was observed across the six schemes in relation to specific RAI indicators. For instance, a company that demonstrated the outstanding performance in corporate social responsibility also performed poorly in the domain of wages and employee relations. A set of sustainability benchmarks developed jointly by the SAGCOT Center and civil society organizations and implemented on voluntary basis by a few member investors need to be harmonized and monitored across all investment schemes. This is especially important for the small-scale sub-contracted firms which lacked the requisite skills and capacity to engage in a more sustainable manner. Key words: Inclusion, agriculture, Tanzania, growth corridor, investments, sustainability, out-grower schemes, decent work

Relationship between Public Expenditure and Economic Development in Sub- Saharan Africa Countries: The VECM

This study examined the relationship between public expenditure and economic development in Sub-Saharan African nations using time series data from 1970 to 2021. The study employed the Vector Error Correction Model (VECM) and Granger Causality approaches, leveraging variables such as real GDP per capita and aggregate public expenditure. The short and long run outcomes show that government expenditure has a negative impact on economic development. In addition, the study's causality test reveals a bidirectional link between economic success and government spending. The call for a study pushes Tanzania's government to enhance its priorities while reinforcing programs such as cost-cutting and fiscal consolidation. It also underlines the need of government expenditure on development projects that are initiated and completed on time to minimize cost escalation

Community Participation in National Addresses and Postcode System Establishment in Tanzania

Abstract This study seeks to understand whether the Tanzanian community participated in the establishment of national addresses and postcode systems following the need of the government of Tanzania to establish residential addresses and postcodes through the guidance of the electronic and postal communications act of 2003 for the purpose of identifying streets by indicating specific names and business centers as well as naming the number of houses. Through the participatory theory approach and communication theory, this article analyses the contents which describe the involvement of Tanzanians in establishing the national address and postcode systems. Through in-depth interviews, the study findings indicate that community participation in selecting and establishing names for the streets and post code systems was relatively low. This was characterized by low awareness of the community concerning; less communication within the community through which the project was taking place; within the society; and poor involvement of people within the society. This finding concludes that community participation in any project has the potential for both social and economic development activities within and outside of society.

Development and Evaluation of a Deep Learning Based System to Predict District-Level Maize Yields in Tanzania

Prediction of crop yields is very helpful in ensuring food security, planning harvest management (storage, transport, and labor), and performing market planning. However, in Tanzania, where a majority of the population depends on crop farming as a primary economic activity, the digital tools for predicting crop yields are not yet available, especially at the grass-roots level. In this study, we developed and evaluated Maize Yield Prediction System (MYPS) that uses a short message service (SMS) and the Web to allow rural farmers (via SMS on mobile phones) and government officials (via Web browsers) to predict district-level end-of-season maize yields in Tanzania. The system uses LSTM (Long Short-Term Memory) deep learning models to forecast district-level season-end maize yields from remote sensing data (NDVI on the Terra MODIS satellite) and climate data [maximum temperature, minimum temperature, soil moisture, and precipitation (rainfall)]. The key findings reveal that our unimodal and bimodal deep learning models are very effective in predicting crop yields, achieving mean absolute percentage error (MAPE) scores of 3.656% and 6.648%, respectively, on test (unseen) data. This system will help rural farmers and the government in Tanzania make critical decisions to prevent hunger and plan better harvesting and marketing of crops.

Africa at the Crossroads: An Overview of the Covid-19 Pandemic and its Drama in Tanzania

The outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic in Wuhan, China, in early 2019 has massively changed global lives. Diverse strategies led by WHO were put in place promptly for dealing with the situation at different global and individual levels. Africa as an integral part of the world, was not side-lined, despite the impact of the pandemic was not seriously felt compared to other continents. Since the Covid-19 declaration as one of the world’s most deadly diseases, the Tanzania government has taken paradoxical and exclusively apparent tactics to curb the disease, deviating from the scientific approach. The country relied on and insisted on traditional herbs as the best approach to tackle the situation where the political class led by example. This move was championed by late Tanzania’s president John Pombe Magufuli and his entire government officials before his departure despite some standing opposition. This piece of writing was produced to respond to the prompt change in trajectory, perceptions, and approaches towards the disease by the political class of the same government after Magufuli’s absence. Data deduced from speeches of government officials, published and unpublished records on the pandemic justify massive confusion to Tanzanians of different calibres. Both medical and nonmedical practitioners were at a crossroads with only the political class running the changing show. The findings concluded that the change of position of the government officials of the same incumbent political party had affected the current scientific approach insisted on by the government machines in Tanzania, which in turn created a divided community.

Effect of External Audit Opinions and Audit Committees on Financial Resource Management in Public Sector Entities

External audit opinions (EAO) and Audit committees (AC) have been studied in different contexts, yet the link between them and the management of financial resources, especially in government entities in Tanzania, has empirically not been captured. This paper examined the influence of EAO and AC on managing financial resources taking Tanzania government entities as a reference. It uses resources dependency theory to explain the main topic. Data were collected on 230 government entities from Controller and Auditor General (CAG) reports and audited financial statements for 2014/15 to 2019/20. Descriptive statistics and the Fixed effect technique were used to analyze data. The results show that unqualified audit opinion occurred most among public entities. Specifically, the qualified audit opinion occurred most in LGAs. Also, a significant frequency of AC weaknesses appeared in LGAs and Public BICA.Moreover, the estimation results show that audit report positively and significantly influences financial resource management (FRM), whereas AC weakness has a negative relationship with FRM. Therefore, the President’s office and the Parliament should emphasize the management of resources strategies in public entities, especially LGAs. This paper will add knowledge on EAO and AC as tools for financial resources management in government entities.

Cultural Factors Influencing Child Sexual Abuse in the Society: A Case of Arusha City

To combat child sexual abuse, the Tanzanian government has implemented systems, regulations, and guidelines to eradicate the problem. Nonetheless, despite the government of Tanzania's extensive protocols, regulations, and standards, the problem of child sexual abuse persists. This therefore prompted the researcher to cultural factors influencing child sexual abuse in the society using Arusha city as case study. This study will be based on a case study design. This study targeted citizens of Arusha city. This study used non-probability specifically convenience sampling technique to select respondents. This research used of both primary and secondary data. In-depth personal interviews and questionnaire were used to obtain primary data. Secondary data were obtained through documentary review. Data from interviews was analysed using thematic analysis. The questionnaire data was statistically analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics. given by Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 26. Findings showed that, majority of the respondents to the large extent agreed that the myths and beliefs as well as tendency of silence and nondisclosure influence the child sexual abuse in the society. Findings unveiled stated that the rituals beliefs influence the child sexual abuse in the society. Also, findings designated that cultural perception and mentality influence the child sexual abuse in the society. The researcher recommends that further studies can conducted in other regions, cities and towns in Tanzania using the same sample or could include a large population, in order to explore critical factors influencing child sexual abuse in the society and to allow generalization of the findings to a wider population.

The Comparison Analysis of the Impacts of Lockdown and Quarantine Facets in the Transmission of COVID‐19: Mathematical Approach

COVID‐19 is the short name of the coronavirus disease discovered in Wuhan, China, in 2019. In the context of Tanzania, we develop a mathematical model in this work that compares lockdown and quarantine. Again, we provide evidence in favor of local and global stability, with the basic reproduction number, R0, determined to be 0.31 at the diagnostic test rates k1 = k2 = 0.05. In comparison to the lockdown, it has been discovered that isolating (or quarantining) affected individuals is the most effective way to stop the spread of COVID‐19. Additionally, it is advised that governments in Tanzania and other African countries permit their citizens to go about their daily lives as long as they take the necessary precautions, such as donning face masks, washing their hands, and avoiding crowded gatherings in case of a recurrence of any form of COVID‐19.

Internal Quality Assurers’ Conception on Internal Quality Assurance (IQA) process: Examining Lived Experience of Secondary School Academic Member of staffwithin Njombe Region, Tanzania

The study on the conception of the Internal Quality Assurance (IQA) process was examined among secondary school academic members of staff within the Njombe Region in Tanzania. The aim of the study was to examine internal quality assurers’ conception of the IQA process. The study employed a qualitative research approach because internal quality assurance is a neweducational reform that was introduced officially in schools by the government of Tanzania in 2021. Always new reform brought fear to teachers in terms of the conception of the new idea itself and the way it can be conducted. Therefore, to come up with the clear and deep understanding of the newobligation, a qualitative study was needed with a descriptive case study design to check participants’ lived experiences, beliefs, attitudes, behavior, perception and interaction which allowed inner feelings and opinions concerning the phenomenon in theirreal life situation. Nevertheless, the study was guided by two theories which are Constructivism and Humanism theory. Constructivism theory provided social interaction with respondents which helped to provide a conception of IQA in each school during datacollection.Humanism theory provided a sense of unity among interviewer and interviewee by inviting human being spirit which increased the possibility of data collection. The study used20 respondents including 10 internal quality assurers, 8 frontline teachers, and 2 District Education Officers. Purposive sampling was used to select internal quality assurers and District Education Officers while simple random sampling was used to select frontline teachers. Data were generated through interviews, observation, and documentary review. The study revealed that in all 5 secondary schools passed teachers did not attend seminars and they were running the new reform using their working experience. The study advised all educational stakeholders to check how to provide continuous awareness to teachers for effective implementation of IQA in schools.

Promoting Investments in Tanzania: Assessment of the Law and Practice of Export Processing Zones and Special Economic Zones

This study is a result of the various reports of the Controller and Auditor General (CAG) of Tanzania addressing poor performance of the Export Processing Zones Authority and hence poor returns of the Export Processing Zones (EPZs) and Special Economic Zones (SEZs) in Tanzania. By use of library research technique, the author reviewed different literatures to assess the practice under which EPZs and SEZs are established and run in Tanzania. Again, the author analyzed the laws with the view of assessing whether they promote and protect investment in the EPZs and SEZs and thus whether they meet the basic international standards. It is concluded that the laws governing EPZs and SEZs in Tanzania are investor friendly; this is because they provide for basic requirements that promote and protect investments under international law. These requirements are incentives and foreign dispute resolution within the scope of Bilateral Investment Treaties, Multilateral Treaties, ICSID Convention and the rules of procedure for arbitration of international Chamber of Commerce. Again, when it comes to practice in the implementation of the EPZs and SEZs in Tanzania, literature and current affairs news shows that Tanzania is very much affected by different problems. These problems are like insufficient capital for providing infrastructures in and out of these EPZs and SEZs, bureaucracy and corruption among government officials implementing these projects. Other problems includes lack of focus by the Tanzania government in implementing these projects; also politics and inconsistency in government implementation of the country’s important projects; and short focused policies, guidelines and regulations of the EPZA in running the EPZs and SEZS. The study recommends the following:- The government should encourage private sector to run these schemes than itself and it should implement strategic investment in other sectors that support implementation of EPZs and SEZs. Not only that but also the government established EPZs and SEZs should be done in phases; there must also be strict Laws on officers of the EPZs and SEZs who misuse their powers; again, the government should require investors to improve employment packages and trainings and lastly the government should review fiscal incentives to make them benefit both parties.

Examining Transparency and Accountability in the Management of Constituency Development Catalyst Fund in Tanzania: The Case of Mwanga Constituency in Kilimanjaro Region

The Government of Tanzania is spending approximately TZS 12.5 billion annually for accelerating development projects at a constituency level, following the enactment of the Constituency Development Catalyst Fund (CDCF) Act of 2009. The Fund’s unique feature rests in its management by elected members of pparliament supposed to oversee executives. This has raised eyebrows among academics and practitioners on the accountability of its management. This study, therefore, examines accountability and transparency in the management of CDCF in Tanzania using the Mwanga Constituency as a case study. The study employed a crosssectional research design utilizing a qualitative approach. Semistructured interview guides were used for data collection, and the data were subjected to content analysis. The key findings of the study manifest secretive management practices of the Fund that limit access to information to citizens. These practices overlook sound governance principles, and are unhealthy for efficient and effective management of public resources. Furthermore, the means for holding entrusted officials accountable were primarily limited to the ballot box and judicial mechanism. The study appeals to relevant authorities to devise means that would give the legal community free access to information. Thus the study recommends meritocratic employment than political value-laden management of the fund so that the community gets value for their money.

Colonial Origins of Postcolonial Authoritarianism in Tanzania: The Reflection on Democracy

The authoritarian style of rule and democratization in Tanzania after independence cannot be understood without analyzing the colonial state and the nature of its administration. The colonial state was alien, illegitimate, and established to facilitate the exploitation of Tanzanians and their resources. It was also compounded with highly centralized power, suppression and coercion, and imprisonment of anyone threatening the authority of the state. These features were against democratic principles thus, facilitated resistance to colonial rule. Political opposition was forbidden. Civil liberties were not respected. Coercion was the order of the day, and the colonial state did not hesitate to deport or imprison anyone threatening its authority. Independence was cheered by the masses as a new chapter in the road towards democracy and development. But to their disappointment, the postcolonial state was of similar caliber to the colonial state. As such, colonial legacies of authoritarianism continued to dominate. This has not changed to date, posing a threat to building a developmental and democratic state. This paper discusses the colonial heritage of authoritarianism and its reflection to “democratic” Tanzania. It argues that the administrative structure of post-colonial government in Tanzania, imitated the colonial administrative styles of rule, which works against contemporary democratic ideals.

Linking the Community Health Fund with Accredited Drug Dispensing Outlets in Tanzania: exploring potentials, pitfalls, and modalities

BackgroundIn low- and middle-income countries, too, public–private partnerships in health insurance schemes are crucial for improving access to health services. Problems in the public supply chain of medicines often lead to medicine stock-outs which then negatively influence enrolment in and satisfaction with health insurance schemes. To address this challenge, the government of Tanzania embarked on a redesign of the Community Health Fund (CHF) and established a Prime Vendor System (Jazia PVS). Informal and rural population groups, however, rely heavily on another public–private partnership, the Accredited Drug Dispensing Outlets (ADDOs). This study takes up this public demand and explores the potentials, pitfalls, and modalities for linking the improved CHF (iCHF) with ADDOs.MethodsThis was a qualitative exploratory study employing different methods of data collection: in-depth interviews, focus group discussions, and document reviews.ResultsStudy participants saw a great potential for linking ADDOs with iCHF, following continuous community complaints about medicine stock-out challenges at public health facilities, a situation that also affects the healthcare staff’s working environment. The Jazia PVS was said to have improved the situation of medicine availability at public health facilities, although not fully measuring up to the challenge. Study participants thought linking ADDOs with the iCHF would not only improve access to medicine but also increase member enrolment in the scheme. The main pitfalls that may threaten this linkage include the high price of medicines at ADDOs that cannot be accommodated within the iCHF payment model and inadequate digital skills relevant for communication between iCHF and ADDOs. Participants recommended linking ADDOs with the iCHF by piloting the connection with a few ADDOs meeting the selected criteria, while applying similar modalities for linking private retail outlets with the National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF).ConclusionsAs the government of Tanzania is moving toward the Single National Health Insurance Fund, there is a great opportunity to link the iCHF with ADDOs, building on established connections between the NHIF and ADDOs and the lessons learnt from the Jazia PVS. This study provides insights into the relevance of expanding public–private partnership in health insurance schemes in low- and middle-income countries.