HIGHLIGHTS
- Public facilities delivering services to Tanzanians lack resources and autonomy
- The USAID PS3+ Project is strengthening local and national government systems
- The systems improved resource generation and management and service delivery
PROJECT
USAID Public Sector Systems Strengthening Plus (PS3+) Project
The Challenge
Despite tremendous economic growth, many Tanzanians remain underserved by public services such as health, education, and agriculture. Two issues reduce access to quality services: the service delivery level lacks sufficient human and financial resources, and facilities do not have management autonomy for everything from plans and finances to information and staff. Tanzania’s health sector has multiple siloed health information systems built on different technologies and standards, which limits data consolidation to enable data-based decisions for better delivery of health services.
The Approach
USAID PS3+ works with the Tanzanian government bodies to strengthen planning, budgeting, and financial management systems—like the Planning and Reporting (PlanRep) system and the Facility Financial Accounting and Reporting System (FFARS). USAID Ps3+ helps extend these systems to the village level and strengthen staff capacity at the regional, local, and facility levels to use the systems to manage resources. It also works to increase citizen engagement by ensuring citizens understand how they can participate in local planning and budgeting.
The Results
USAID PS3+ and the Government of Tanzania (GOT) extended PlanRep and FFARS to 20,500 lower-level governments, 21,788 schools, and 7,445 health facilities in all 184 local government authorities (LGAs) on the Mainland. These systems help improve planning, budgeting, and financial management.
USAID PS3+ teams work with the GOT to incorporate training materials onto the Open Distance e-Learning platform, providing a cost-effective, sustainable training approach. To increase citizen engagement, USAID PS3+ encouraged updating of local government websites and bulletin boards. PS3+ also partnered with radio stations to air programs that reached an estimated 13 million people to inform them of their right to participate in local planning process.
Learn more about PS3+: