Crosscutting Issues
Health sector developments and processes should be focused at improving the health and wellbeing of all people. National health policies, strategies and decision making have to consider the respect, the promotion of rights as well as equal health conditions and services.
Tanzanian women, men and children should be able to benefit from the available health system. However, in daily life they often gain little of the existing health services and facilities. As a consequence this poses their vulnerability to their health and wellbeing. Limited access to basic health care and health information, lack of safe drinking water, and poor nutrition are still major challenges in Tanzania. Further, the admitted roles to women and men in the society pose additional risks to people’s and especially women’s health. This is because decisions, strategies and actions as well as behavior in daily life often happens without gender sensitivity and equality leading to disadvantages for certain groups.
The improvement of health and wellbeing of all Tanzanians depends very much on the consideration of these crosscutting aspects. Taking into account human rights including gender aspects in health programming and health development provides an opportunity to identify and address root causes of health inequality. The realization of the Millennium Development Goals and other health development targets will remarkably be achieved when issues relating to gender, vulnerable groups and rights as well as gaps in legislations, policies and plans are addressed.
Tanzania has signed and ratified some international agreements including the Covenant on Economic Social and Cultural Rights that includes the right to health. By ratifying these agreements, Tanzania expressed willingness and commitment to progressively improve the wellbeing of its people. The progressive realization implies that Tanzania is able to consider human rights and gender equality into its national health developments. The German government, inter alia through its Development Policy Action Plan on Human Rights (2008 – 2010) and its commitment to gender equality, supports this intention by making the human rights based approach and gender equality a binding guideline in the development cooperation.
The Tanzanian German Programme to Support Health (TGPSH) regards cross-cutting gender and human rights sensitive activities to be the preconditions for strengthening and even the realization of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health, the right to health and gender equality.
A list of key relevant documents is available for download below: