Health care in Tanzania is recognised as a basic social service and remains one of the government’s
priorities (URT 2005). In recent years, Tanzania has been struggling to improve the health care
system and improve health indicators towards achieving the targets set in the National Strategy for
Growth and Reduction of Poverty (NSGRP) and those set for the Millennium Development Goals
(MDGs). The global economic crisis has come at the time when Tanzania was showing signs of
improvements in financing health care that was made possible by, among others improvements in
economic growth averaging over 6 percent per year over the last six years (ESRF, 2009). Indeed,
adequate financial resources are pivotal for effective delivery of health services. Nonetheless the level
of public spending on health remains inadequate and the health sector is still heavily reliant on out of
pocket payments in financing health care (Kida 2009, HBS 2007, Mackintosh and Tibandebage 2004,
USAID 2010). Moreover, the development budget for the health sector in Tanzania remains highly
dependent on external funding.

Shocks in the economy have in the past adversely affected on the supply side, the capacity of the
Government to provide adequate health services and on the demand side, the ability of the
population to access health care. A case in point is the economic crisis of the late 1970s and early 1980s
that among others led to fiscal pressure associated with cuts in social spending including the health
sector. Although before these crisis Tanzania was making steady progress in meeting the basic needs
of the population, the economic crisis severely strained the capacity of the government to provide
basic services and even eroded some of the earlier gains. The global economic crisis poses similar
threats to the health sector. It is therefore essential to explore the potential impact of the current
global economic downturn, with a view to determining in advance essential steps to mitigate its
adverse effects on provision of, and access to health services.