Training Tanzania's Health Workforce

This case follows the decision-making process of the retiring director of the Tanzanian Training Centre for International Health (TTCIH) as he develops a plan for success in a changing health education landscape. Founded in the early 2000s, TTCIH was created to improve trained health care worker resources in rural Tanzania. The case provides an overview of TTCIH’s unique health care collaboration between private industry, a public health institute, local stakeholders and educators, and the Tanzanian Ministry of Health and Social Welfare. It describes the health care worker shortage in Tanzania and available health care training programs, and discusses how TTCIH’s leaders have worked to make it self-sustaining and responsive to Tanzania’s human resource needs. The case is an instructive narrative about health care systems, the integration of corporate management practices and values into a global health program, and the importance of strategic leadership.

Learning Objectives: A productive class discussion will allow students to appreciate the challenges of designing sustainable, high-quality health training institutions in low-resource settings; the training and resources needed to support task shifting and to address health workforce shortages in health care delivery; and, the importance of maintaining a sound strategy for medical education programs in the midst of changing national health needs and the evolving medical education landscape.

The Global Health Delivery (GHD) Project, an interdisciplinary collaboration between Harvard Business School, Harvard Medical School, and Brigham and Women’s Hospital, investigates the management decisions behind disease treatment and prevention globally. The Global Health Delivery (GHD) Case Collection is a set of teaching case studies that are available for all at no cost online through Harvard Business Publishing, GHDonline, and The Case Centre.