According to bank provided information, the first phase involved setting up a network of centers of excellence: Tanzania: Cardiovascular Sciences, Kenya: Nephrological and Urological Sciences, Uganda: Oncological Sciences, and Rwanda: Biomedical Engineering and eHealth, with a focus on regional coordination and mutual recognition to facilitate skills mobility within the region. Phase 1 was successfully completed in 2023, and lessons learned from its implementation have informed the design of Phase 2 of the project. This project will contribute directly to the achievement of Sustainable Development Goal 3 (good health and well-being), in particular the indicator relating to the reduction by one-third of premature mortality due to cardiovascular and other non-communicable diseases by 2030. It will also contribute to MDGs 4 (quality education), 5 (gender equality) and 10 (reducing inequalities between and within countries). The project is aligned with the EAC Common Market Protocol as regards the free movement of workers, the right of residence and the free movement of services.

Globally, cardiovascular diseases account for 17 million deaths annually. According to the WHO 2022 report, approximately 37% of premature deaths in East Africa are caused by cardiovascular diseases. Most of these deaths could have been averted by primary prevention or instituting lifesaving procedures that are not necessarily expensive provided skilled human resource and the required facilities are in place. However, Africa has the lowest cardiac centres at 1 to 33 million population compared to Asia: 1 to16 million, Europe: 1 to1 million and USA: 1 to 12 hundred thousand people. East Africa has 12 cardiac units/centres in a population of approximately 200 million. Tanzania, the partner state hosting the East African Centre of Excellence for Cardiovascular Sciences, has only 2 cardiac centres in a population of 60 million. In terms of human resource, Africa has a severe shortage of cardiac specialists, for example a cardiac surgeon (for adults): population ratio is 1:25 million population in Sub Saharan Africa, while the global ratio for the same is 1.6 (range 0-181) per 1 million population.

The direct beneficiaries are: i) MUHAS staff and students from Tanzania and the EAC region who will benefit from training, and ii) cardiovascular disease patients from Tanzania, the EAC region and elsewhere, who will benefit from treatment and rehabilitation services at the facility. As a national project, the immediate target beneficiaries are Tanzanian citizens, but as a highly specialized teaching hospital, students and patients from other EAC countries and beyond are expected to benefit from the treatment services. A total of 100 students (45% female) and 120 MUHAS faculty members (45% female) will be trained to help develop a pool of highly qualified and competitive cardiovascular scientists in the country, the EAC region and Africa in general. This training will complement the 38 MUHAS teachers trained in the first phase. It is estimated that 20% of the students will benefit from a full scholarship. These include qualified young people from disadvantaged or poor socio-economic backgrounds, particularly women and people with disabilities.

Hamisi Seif SIMBA
Social Development Officer, AHHD1
African Development Bank
h.simba@afdb.org 
www.afdb.org 

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ACCOUNTABILITY MECHANISM OF AfDB

The Independent Review Mechanism (IRM), which is administered by the Compliance Review and Mediation Unit (CRMU), is the independent complaint mechanism and fact-finding body for people who have been or are likely to be adversely affected by an African Development Bank (AfDB)-financed project. If you submit a complaint to the IRM, it may assist you by either seeking to address your problems by facilitating a dispute resolution dialogue between you and those implementing the project and/or investigating whether the AfDB complied with its policies to prevent environmental and social harms. You can submit a complaint electronically by emailing crmuinfo@afdb.org, b.kargougou@afdb.org, b.fall@afdb.org, and/or s.toure@afdb.org. You can learn more about the IRM and how to file a complaint at: https://www.afdb.org/en/independent-review-mechanism/