In 2021, the Tanzania Ministry of Health, with support from PATH Tanzania, conducted a survey of health management information system (HMIS) focal people throughout Tanzania, and key informant interviews in targeted regions. The assessment was intended to document the data use practices supported by the District Health Profiles (DHP), and determine whether DHPs have facilitated data use at the council level, including how DHPs are being used to make decisions related to annual planning, and develop the annual comprehensive council health plans.

Thee Tanzanian Ministry of Health, Community Development, Gender, Elderly and Children (MOHCDGEC) adopted a cross-sectional, mixed-methods approach for this assessment, applying qualitative and quantitative data-collection methods. MOHCDGEC used purposive and convenience sampling methods to recruit participants for the assessment. For the qualitative component of the assessment, MOHCDGEC mainly used key informant interviews (KIIs) with select national level staff and council level staff from six selected councils, as well as observation and document reviews, to gather findings. For the quantitative component, MOHCDGEC used online questionnaires disseminated to health management information systems focal people in all 184 councils in Tanzania.

The assessment showed that majority of participants in both study groups (council level and national level respondents for KIIs and health management information system focal people for the surveys) acknowledged that there was demand for DHPs in decision-making meetings. The main users of DHPs were found to be members of council health management team (CHMT), and other users included development partners, councilors and research institutions. The assessment found that the primary uses for DHPs were to identify health problems and gaps, aid planning and budgeting, support district showcasing, identify disease trends, and aid in decision making. Despite the reported demand and the various uses for DHPs that respondents named, the findings also pointed to the perception that most of the councils were not allocating budgets for DHP preparation, production, and dissemination. The study also showed that the majority of CHMT members had never received any DHP training. The most common methods used to sensitize stakeholders to DHPs and make them aware of the existence of and potential uses for DHPs, were meetings, workshops, and seminars. The assessment findings also showed that the majority of councils were not producing the DHPs on time. Finally, the assessment respondents reported that the main challenges to using data from DHPs were lack of budget allocated for DHPs, difficulty in finding data due to changes in administration area, low commitment of stakeholders, low DHP priority, low data quality from data sources, and inadequate resources for the development and dissemination of DHPs.