Decentralised health-care project in Tanzania including funding, management set-up, and mobile clinics, now part of the Ngorongoro District Development Programme (NDDP)
- Sectors: Management of public health services
- Duration: 03/1994 – 06/2002 (prolongation through NDDP)
- Volume: 4.3 Mill. Euro
- Persons/ Months: 81
- Client: Austrian Development Cooperation, Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Vienna
- Partners: Catholic Archdiocese of Arusha, Ngorongoro District Council
Wasso and Endulen Hospital, the only hospitals of the whole Northern Massai land, were founded in 1964 and 1975, respectively, by an Austrian doctor and missionary, who managed the hospitals until his sudden death in 1991.
In 1991, Austroprojekt stepped in with the bilateral co-operation taking over management of the hospitals and of a preventive health care centre in collaboration with the Archdiocese of Arusha, owner of the hospitals.
The Ngorongoro District is situated on the eastside of the Serengeti and borders on Kenya. The district has an estimated population of about 100.000, mainly pertaining to the ethnic group of the Massai (83%). As there are only two hospitals (with 140 beds in total) and six doctors available, health care had to be decentralised. A reliable primary health care programme team takes care of patients living far beyond the hospitals- catchment area. Mobile clinics (car and small aircraft) and “village health workers” trained in basic medical care are operating on village level, thus playing an important role in preventive medicine.
Austroprojekt was called upon to provide these units with an efficient management and a good infrastructure, so that in future other private donors may step in to ensure their good performance. For that purpose a comprehensive rehabilitation and equipment programme was started in 1997, which has been completed recently. It comprised the rehabilitation of the hospital buildings, the construction of new buildings, the refurbishment of the sewerage and solid waste disposal, and the installation of a new water and solar energy supply system.
These two integrated health projects are now part of the Ngorongoro District Development Programme (NDDP) that started in 2002.