Purpose
Pneumonia remains one of the main causes of death of children under five in Tanzania, despite the relatively low cost of its treatment. With its goal of reducing child mortality by 80% by 2030, the Tanzanian government is prioritising efforts to address childhood pneumonia. As part of these efforts, since 2015, Results for Development (R4D) has been supporting the Government of Tanzania to increase access to amoxicillin dispersible tablets (Amox-DT) in the public and private sectors, by utilising holistic market-shaping approaches, as well as evaluation and adaptive learning modalities, to address the identified barriers to access to Amox-DT. This work was supported by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and Good Ventures.
Action
EDI Global has worked with R4D from 2016 to 2023, conducting two phases of data collection as part of an operational research study focused on provider behaviour change around implementing integrated management of childhood illness.
The first phase took place in all 26 regions of mainland Tanzania and the second in 10 regions. The second phase of data collection was initially suspended due to the COVID-19 outbreak. EDI Global and R4D quickly mobilised to transition towards a remote data collection setting, making it possible to successfully complete the eight subsequent rounds. EDI Global also conducted a side-stream study on childhood pneumonia misdiagnosis measurement and a pilot study focusing on mechanisms to improve nurse triage process.
Impact
EDI Global conducted a vast number of interviews with a multitude of respondents across the five rounds of the study, including:
stock audits
phone surveys with health facility staff
direct observations of nurses and clinicians attending children under five
EDI Global’s team has also published blogs in collaboration with R4D relating to the implementation of the remote survey, including the following:
