Towards Partnership and Multi-Sector Engagement for Health Related Responses in Tanzania: Where Does One Health Approach Stand?

Abstract

Partnership and multisector engagement involving professionals from humans, animals, and environmental health and knowledge on the associated consequences from the interactions of humans, animals and environment on health is vital towards attainment of optimal health. This is due to the fact that health-related challenges that require One Health approach (OHA) to manage, have grown in frequency, dynamics and manifestation to the extent of requiring strengthened efforts to address emerging and re-emerging zoonotic diseases. The need for multi-disciplinary approaches to effectively manage these risks requires stronger partnerships at the community level and government engagement. Having realised this, the Government of Tanzania formulated One Health Strategic Plan (2015–2020), with an intention of enhancing knowledge, awareness, attitudes, and practices (KAPs) under OHA. Little is empirically known on how effective this plan has been towards facilitating partnership and multi-sector engagement (P&MSE) for outbreak responses. Data were collected in Morogoro region using a questionnaire from 1440 respondents recruited through multistage sampling procedure, 80 Focus Group Discussion participants and 16 key informant interviewees. IBM-SPSS v.20 analyzed quantitative data while qualitative data were organized into themes on specific objectives. Results revealed that only 3.8% (CI:95%, 2.8 to 4.8) identified P&MSE in the study area, 30% (22.9 to 35.8) of the respondents indicated that the reported PMSEs to be effective in outbreak responses. The study further revealed that 32.3% (95% CI:30.3 to 35.3) had adequate OH knowledge. Only 5% (95% CI:4.0 to 6.1) were aware of OHA related practices and 2.5% (CI 95%, CI:1.7 to 3.4) correctly described OHA. Despite the efforts in the OH Strategic Plan to promote OHA, little has been observed on P&MSE for outbreak responses. Though both low awareness and insignificant PMSE have been observed, 39.2% confirmed the relevance of OHA towards PMSE. Schools, hospitals and non-governmental organizations were identified to facilitate P&MSE for outbreak responses. This indicates that efforts established through the plan have not significantly reflected at the community level. This study recommends strengthening efforts towards the execution of OH Strategic Plan focusing on creation of effective P&MSE for outbreak responses.