Tanzania Project Briefs

TIDE-Tanzania

Tanzania is the third country* part of the global Georgetown TIDE (Translating Data and Evidence into Impact) portfolio. Georgetown has been funded by the CDC in Tanzania to support the Ariel Glaser Pediatric AIDS Healthcare Initiative (AGPAHI), a Tanzanian NGO evolving from the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation working to eliminate pediatric AIDS by providing HIV prevention, care, and treatment services for persons living with HIV in Tanzania. 

The purpose of TIDE-Tanzania is to promote data integration and data science principles that support improvement in health outcomes. Our expertise in these areas will support AGPAHI in addressing recurring data quality and data use challenges.

The goal of our technical assistance is to optimize the data-to-care continuum. This ensures that quality data is collected efficiently, analyzed, easy to access, better visualized, and support program staff to better use the data for specific program intervention actions that will improve client and systems outcomes.

  • Data utilization: routing and ongoing data utilization to drive programmatic decision-making 
  • Capacity building: strengthened the capacity of data-related skills for site-level analyses and use to drive decision-making
  • Data quality: improved data quality of routine site-level Government of Tanzania and PEPFAR reporting indicators (i.e., timely, complete, and accurate)
  • Data systems: ensured functionality of government data systems at the site level (i.e, CTC2 and supplement pharmacy and lab module)

Expected Deliverables:

The technical assistance plan will detail clear benchmarks to be achieved including demonstrable competencies by AGPAHI teams to lead specific data-related business processes based on measurable incremental improvements from month to month.

The technical assistance provided by Georgetown to AGPAHI will be expected to:

  • Provide a completed needs assessment with detailed technical assistance plans designed to address identified gaps throughout the program
  • Promote real-time data use for programmatic decision-making to improve service delivery
  • Enhance sustainability of critical skills to improve programmatic planning and service delivery
  • Increase data confidence to inform programmatic planning 
  • Strengthen client-level service delivery with greater access and use of clinical data

Our technical assistance is a multi-step approach that includes an initial assessment of AGPAHI’s needs in the following areas:

  • Data Quality
  • Data Systems
  • Data Use

Our work will support data systems institutionalization for sustainability through quality improvement routinized practice. Building upon this initial assessment, the GU team will subsequently map the results to tangible data science goals and produce a specific tailored technical assistance plan developed specifically to address the gaps identified in the initial needs assessment. This plan is designed to provide scalable solutions to improve data science – data management systems, data collection processes, data team functioning, data integration, and data use related gaps. 

Primary beneficiaries include the patients served through the AGPAHI program. Subsequent beneficiaries are the AGPAHI staff, facility staff, other partners implementing, and the Tanzanian population as a whole. Increased data quality, enhanced data systems, and improved data use will ultimately lead to improved program delivery services and health outcomes.