Background
The Tanzanian National Health Policy of 2003 as updated in 2007 sets out a policy vision
which aims at improving the health and well-being of all Tanzanians with a focus on those
most at risk, and to encourage the health system to be more responsive to the needs of the
people. The Health Policy also emphasizes that health services should be “available and
accessible to all the people in the country (urban and rural areas)”. In this regard, Tanzania is
committed to the principle of universal coverage of social health protection to reach the goals
of the Health Policy. It is within this framework that this paper has been commissined by the
Ministry of Health and Social Welfare (MoHSW) and the Inter-Ministerial Steering
Committee (ISC) to define a minimum benefit package of health care services that can be
guaranteed to all Tanzanians in an effort to move towards universal health care coverage.
Definition of a minimum benefit package (MBP)
This paper has adopted WHO definition which states that “An Essential (or ‘Minimum’)
Health Package in a low-income country consists of a limited list of public health and clinical
services which will be provided at primary and/or secondary care level” (WHO 2008). An
important characteristic of this definition is that a MBP is guaranteed basic health care
services to all Tanzanians that aim at reducing the main burden of diseases which cause high
mortality and morbidity in the country.
In Tanzania an essential package was introduced in 2000 under the name, the ‘National
Package of Essential Health Interventions’ (NPEHI). This package was up-dated in
approximately May 2013 under the name ‘National Essential Health Care Interventions
Package - Tanzania’ (NEHCIP-Tz). As discussed in the text, the main objective of the
essential package is to “ensure universal access to quality health care services consisting of
promotive, preventive, curative and rehabilitative services to all people in Tanzania”
(NEHCIP-Tz, 2013). This essential package provided an important input into this paper for
defining the minimum benefit package(s) that could be scaled up by the government
progressively over time towards achievement of universal health care coverage.