Joint external evaluation of the International Health Regulations (2005) core capacities of the United Republic of  Tanzania

Overview

The United Republic of Tanzania is to be commended for persistently volunteering to be among the first countries to undertake the JEE assessment – its first assessment took place in February 2016. This demonstrates strong commitment, dedication, leadership, confidence and foresight of both the United Republic of Tanzania Government and the national experts involved. The latest evaluation was a joint exercise between a multisectoral team of experts from the country and an external team of experts, who participated in a weeklong evaluation from 14 to 18 August 2023 in Dar es Salaam, the United Republic of Tanzania.

The Joint external evaluation tool: International Health Regulations (2005), third edition was specifically utilized to determinethe country’s current capacity, including gaps and needs; to measure progress on work implemented across the International Health Regulations (2005), third edition (IHR) core capacities; and to highlight the strengths, challenges, gaps and needs for current and prospective support, as well as to inform country-level planning and priority setting. All of the technical areas have specific indicators that were examined and rated according to a spectrum of capacity, from level 1, indicating ‘no capacity’, to level 5, indicating ‘sustainable capacity’.

There has been demonstrable progress across all 19 technical areas with sustained capacities in two of the indicator areas. The process was conducted in an open and very transparent atmosphere. A few technical area scores were adjusted through constructive deliberations and consensus was reached to either take each score as it was, or to adjust it accordingly (upwards or to a lower level). This was followed by the development of the well-defined priority actions which were agreed upon following an in-depth discussion. In 73% of the indicators, the United Republic of Tanzania has demonstrated developed capacities between the score levels of 3 to 5.