Tanzania had a large portfolio of PROGRESS work in four of the project’s seven technical areas: community-based family planning, family planning within drug shops, mobile technologies for health, and capacity building and crosscutting research utilization. PROGRESS conducted this work in close collaboration with the Reproductive and Child Health Section of the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare (MOHSW) and with the national Family Planning Technical Working Group. However, the project also collaborated with Tanzania’s National Institute for Medical Research (NIMR) and many other local and international partners. PROGRESS accomplishments in Tanzania include the following:

• National Family Planning Costed Implementation Program: The MOHSW developed and launched a National Family Planning Costed Implementation Program in 2010. PROGRESS provided technical leadership and coordinated the process in collaboration with a variety of major stakeholders.
• Mobile Job Aid for Community Health Workers: In partnership with D-tree International and Pathfinder International, PROGRESS developed a new mobile phone-based job aid to help community health workers counsel, screen, provide and refer clients for family planning, HIV and sexually transmitted infection services.
• At the request of the Africa Bureau of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and USAID/Tanzania, PROGRESS provided technical and logistical leadership for a 2012 meeting on mobile technology and family planning/reproductive health. The meeting report is available here [PDF, 1.1 MB].
• A pilot study in Tanzania and Kenya, summarized here [PDF, 1.4 MB], demonstrated the acceptability, feasibility and potential behavioral impact of providing family planning information via text message on mobile phones. The work in Tanzania has been scaled up nationally through a mass media communications program, described here [PDF, 3.3 MB].
• Research showed that women coming to regulated drug shops, known in Tanzania as accredited drug dispensing outlets, can self-screen for contraindications to combined oral contraceptive pills about as well as nurses can. The findings and their implications are presented in this brief [PDF, 437 KB].
• As described in this brief [PDF, 138 KB], PROGRESS worked to build the capacity of the NIMR to conduct family planning research. As a result, NIMR has received a research grant from the MEASURE Evaluation Population and Reproductive Health Project. PROGRESS also worked with NIMR and the MOHSW to develop a National Family Planning Research Agenda.
• The PROGRESS project worked with the MOHSW and with the national Family Planning Technical Working Group to update Tanzania’s national family planning procedures manual and training curriculum to reflect evidence-based practices and recommendations from the World Health Organization.
• PROGRESS supported the development of a website for the Reproductive and Child Health Section of the MOHSW. The website includes several web-based management tools to improve partner coordination and accountability, including a database for tracking the training of family planning providers.

PROGRESS (Program Research for Strengthening Services) was a five-year project awarded to FHI 360 by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) in June 2008. The project sought to improve access to family planning among underserved populations by providing global technical leadership and working in selected countries.