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Tracking university graduates in the workforce: Information to improve education and health systems in Tanzania

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Abstract

With a severe shortage of highly trained health professionals, Tanzania must make the best possible use of available human resources and support training institutions to educate more graduates. We highlight the overlooked but significant role of universities in collecting, managing, and using human resources data in Tanzania and in other countries struggling to build their health workforces. Although universities, professional councils, ministries of health, education, and finance, and non-governmental organizations in Tanzania all maintain databases that include details of health professionals’ education, registration, and employment, they do not make the information easily accessible to one another. Using as an example Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences – the leading public institution for health professions education in Tanzania – we explore how training institutions can gather and use data to target and improve the quality of education for increasing numbers of graduates. We specifically examine the substantial challenge universities face in locating more members of each graduating class and conclude with recommendations about how the situation can be improved.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Tanzanian Training Centre for International Health, Mlabani Passage, P.O. Box 39, Ifakara, Tanzania

    Senga Pemba

  2. School of Medicine, and Global Health Sciences, University of California San Francisco (UCSF), San Francisco, USA

    Sarah B Macfarlane

  3. School of Public Health, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

    Rose Mpembeni

  4. Phillip R. Lee Institute of Health Policy Studies, UCSF,

    Alex J Goodell

  5. School of Medicine, MUHAS,

    Ephata E Kaaya

Authors
  1. Senga Pemba
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  2. Sarah B Macfarlane
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  3. Rose Mpembeni
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  4. Alex J Goodell
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  5. Ephata E Kaaya
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Senga Pemba.

Additional information

The authors discuss the overlooked but significant role of universities in collecting, managing, and using human resources data in Tanzania and in other countries struggling to build their health workforce. They present options for Tanzania which are of relevance to other countries developing information systems for human resources for health.

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Pemba, S., Macfarlane, S., Mpembeni, R. et al. Tracking university graduates in the workforce: Information to improve education and health systems in Tanzania. J Public Health Pol 33 (Suppl 1), S202–S215 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1057/jphp.2012.48

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