1Department of Sociology and Anthropology, University of Dar es Salaam, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
2Korea Foundation for International Healthcare (KOFIH) Tanzania Office, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
3Department of Human Resources, Ministry of Health, Dodoma, Tanzania
4National Blood Transfusion Services, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
5Korea Foundation for International Healthcare (KOFIH), Seoul, Korea
© 2025 Korea Health Personnel Licensing Examination Institute
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“…our country is focusing on improving health services, and when you empower healthcare professionals to teach students effectively, it directly contributes to national goals.” (Clinical expert-007, Dar es Salaam)
“In 2018, there was only one surgeon who had received proper training in neck surgery. So, I was the second person in Tanzania to undergo training in neck and throat surgery, and affiliation (the affiliation was anonymized) is the country’s referral hospital. Therefore, it was also an opportunity for my affiliation to have someone who had specialized in neck and throat surgery.” (Clinical expert-008, Dar es Salaam)
“I am grateful for what I learned and experienced...while I didn’t achieve all the goals I set for myself, I did learn about conditions like eclampsia, saw how they perform surgery, and gained valuable insights. I was particularly pleased with the ultrasound training, seeing cases that I hadn’t encountered here.” (Clinical expert-005, Pwani)
“Management of medical equipment, ensuring proper planning, record-keeping, and being involved in preparing specifications. That, for me, is still vivid, and I have always pushed myself to keep improving in that area.” (Biomedical engineer-003, Dodoma)
“The distinctiveness of this project is that there were presentations where each country shared its practices. You learn from Ethiopia, Singapore, Congo, and other nations. This sharing of experiences is more extensive compared to projects with local seminars where the learning is more one-sided - receiving information without much sharing of experiences.” (Health Policy and Administration-001, Pwani)
“There was also a suggestion for those we were with; one was a pediatrician, and the other was in surgery. Find a way for them to get hands-on experience because, in medicine, for example, in surgery, it’s hands-on. You can’t learn surgery by watching videos or seeing someone else do it. I suggested they either see how those people practice it or take programs that don’t require physical contact with people.” (Clinical expert-012, Dar es Salaam)
“…dealing with maternal health, I wanted to learn about breast imaging, which is beneficial for breastfeeding mothers who may develop abscesses. So, they found a hospital for me where I could learn both.” (Clinical expert-001, Pwani)
“When we went, we were 8 in total, and we had a balanced gender distribution - 4 women and 4 men.” (Clinical expert-010, Dar es Salaam)
“I don’t think there is gender bias…. I haven’t seen any gender bias.” (Health Policy and Administration-001, Dodoma)
“Personally, I believe it targeted the right individuals. They assessed who should go, why they should go, and based on what criteria…there was no bias; they looked at qualifications and also considered those who hadn’t received previous training.” (Biomedical engineer-005, Dar es Salaam)
“The availability of materials was good because we were sent them in advance through our emails. They also printed hard copies, so we had both soft and hard copies.” (Health Policy and Administration-005, Dodoma)
“The knowledge and skills we have got are useful in the course of executing our duties. Some have learned laboratory procedures and surgeries, and now they are capable of utilizing such knowledge and skills.” (Clinical expert-001, Dar es Salaam)
“I was a regular nurse, but upon my return, I continued working in the emergency department, eventually advancing to a leadership role.” (Clinical expert-015, Dar es Salaam)
“I even had the opportunity to publish my research paper….yes, I did, during my master’s course. I published it in an international journal with the support of those professors, back in their country.” (Clinical expert-004, Dodoma)
“This has reduced referrals for patients but also assisted the citizens of Tanzania in treating them and providing proper medical care, reducing the burden on the country in terms of diseases and medical costs.” (Clinical expert-008, Dar es Salaam)
“We have annual meetings, ongoing activities, and projects for beneficiaries. Alumni groups were formed, and we extend our support to various regions by offering training and assistance.” (Clinical expert-015, Dar es Salaam)
“When I returned, I conducted training and taught all my colleagues. I believe that if they decide to stop supporting, the impact of the program should continue.” (Biomedical engineer-003, Dodoma)
“Most program beneficiaries disproportionately concentrated on Dar es Salaam, Dodoma, and Pwani. Expanding to other regions is essential.” (Clinical expert-013, Dar es Salaam)
“Those who returned to the mother organizations were frequently transferred to new positions or transitioned to new areas.” (Health Policy and Administration-005, Dodoma)
“Trainees returned passionately, but no sustainable funding source or platform system was available.” (Biomedical engineer-005, Dar es Salaam)
“Instead of sending one person to Korea for 6 months, bring experts to teach here and train more people simultaneously.” (Clinical expert-001, Pwani)
“The translator wasn’t from the medical field, so it was difficult sometimes. But visually, it was easy to follow.” (Clinical expert-010, Dar es Salaam)
Authors’ contributions
Conceptualization: KKO, MD. Data curation: KKO, MD, SAY, HY. Methodology/formal analysis/validation: KKO, MD, HY. Project administration: KKO, MD, SAY. Funding acquisition: MD. Writing–original draft: KKO, MD, SAY, HY, IM, PM, HP, GS. Writing–review & editing: KKO, MD.
Conflict of interest
SA Yusuph, HS Park, GB Seo, and KK Oh are employees of KOFIH Tanzania Office. I Mmbaga and P Mwambingu are beneficiaries of the Dr LEE Jong-wook Fellowship Program. Except for that, no potential conflict of interest relevant to this article was reported.
Funding
This study was directly funded by KOFIH Global Alumni in Tanzania through financial support from KOFIH. However, the whole research work, including data collection and analysis, was independently conducted by the research team. The funder has no role in the study design, analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.
Data availability
Data files are available from Harvard Dataverse: https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/MBK4CC
Dataset 1. Qualitative research dataset comprising transcripts of in-depth interviews and the focus group discussion.
Dataset 2. Cleaned quantitative research dataset.
Acknowledgments
None.
a) The question and definition were adopted from the OECD-DAC [5].
Evaluation criteria | Items | Cronbach’s α value |
---|---|---|
Relevance | 5 | 0.675 |
Effectiveness | 7 | 0.895 |
Efficiency | 7 | 0.687 |
Impact | 10 | 0.897 |
Sustainability | 3 | 0.779 |
Characteristic | Quantitative data (%) | Qualitative data (%) |
---|---|---|
No. of respondents | 97 | 35 |
Region | ||
Dar es Salaam | 61 (62.9) | 17 (48.6) |
Dodoma | 12 (12.4) | 8 (22.9) |
Pwani | 10 (10.3) | 10 (28.5) |
Kilimanjaro | 5 (5.2) | |
Mbeya | 4 (4.1) | |
Songwe | 1 (1.0) | |
Iringa | 1 (1.0) | |
Manyara | 1 (1.0) | |
Singida | 1 (1.0) | |
Kisumu (Kenya) | 1 (1.0) | |
Gender | ||
Male | 55 (56.7) | 21 (60.0) |
Female | 42 (43.3) | 14 (40.0) |
Age (yr) | ||
25–34 | 21 (21.6) | |
35–44 | 42 (43.3) | |
45–54 | 30 (30.9) | |
55–64 | 2 (2.1) | |
≥65 | 2 (2.1) | |
Institution | ||
Ministry of Health | 12 (12.4) | 3 (8.6) |
National hospitals | 35 (36.1) | 15 (42.9) |
National lab | 11 (11.3) | |
Specialized hospital | 4 (4.1) | |
Zonal referral hospital | 6 (6.2) | 4 (11.4) |
Regional referral hospital | 10 (10.3) | 9 (25.7) |
District hospital | 2 (2.1) | 1 (2.9) |
Higher learning institute | 9 (9.2) | 3 (8.6) |
NGO or private sector | 8 (8.3) | |
Training courses | ||
Clinical courses | 49 (50.5) | 24 (68.6) |
Biomedical engineering | 21 (21.6) | 3 (8.6) |
Health policy and administration | 13 (13.4) | 3 (8.6) |
Infectious disease control | 12 (12.4) | |
High level official course | 2 (2.1) | |
Not applicablea) | 5 (14.3) | |
Year of training | ||
2009 | 3 (3.0) | 2 (5.7) |
2010 | 5 (5.2) | 4 (11.4) |
2011 | 2 (2.0) | 3 (8.6) |
2012 | 6 (6.2) | 2 (5.7) |
2013 | 6 (6.2) | 3 (8.6) |
2014 | 8 (8.2) | 3 (8.6) |
2015 | 5 (5.2) | 1 (2.9) |
2016 | 10 (10.3) | 2 (5.7) |
2017 | 6 (6.2) | 1 (2.9) |
2018 | 5 (5.2) | 2 (5.7) |
2019 | 6 (6.2) | 2 (5.7) |
2020 | 5 (5.2) | 1 (2.9) |
2021 | 10 (10.3) | 2 (5.7) |
2022 | 20 (20.6) | 2 (5.7) |
Not applicablea) | 5 (14.3) |
Evaluation criteria | Mean±SD | Min | Max |
---|---|---|---|
Relevance | 91.6±8.6 | 65 | 100 |
Effectiveness | 86.1±11.2 | 57 | 100 |
Efficiency | 82.7±10.2 | 20 | 100 |
Impact | 87.7±9.9 | 54 | 100 |
Sustainability | 58.0±11.1 | 20 | 73 |
Relevance statements |
Age of beneficiary |
Type of training course |
Type of institution |
|||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Kruskall-Wallis | P-value | Kruskall-Wallis | P-value | Kruskall-Wallis | P-value | |
Training content beneficial to work | 11.606 | 0.020* | 5.759 | 0.217 | 0.194 | 0.978 |
Overall training beneficial to work | 3.969 | 0.410 | 1.227 | 0.873 | 0.077 | 0.994 |
Facilitator helpful during training | 2.855 | 0.582 | 4.501 | 0.342 | 4.163 | 0.244 |
Training relevant to country needs | 5.576 | 0.233 | 2.693 | 0.610 | 1.096 | 0.777 |
Training relevant to work priorities | 2.881 | 0.577 | 1.564 | 0.815 | 3.646 | 0.302 |
Criteria | Question | Definition |
---|---|---|
Relevance | Is the intervention doing the right thing? | Whether the intervention objectives and design correspond to the beneficiaries’, country’s, and partners’ needs, policies, and priorities. |
Effectiveness | Is the intervention achieving its objectives? | Whether the intervention achieved, or is expected to achieve, its objectives, and its results, including any differential results across groups. |
Efficiency | How well are resources being used? | Whether the intervention delivers, or is likely to deliver, results in an economic and timely way. |
Impact | What difference does the intervention make? | Whether the intervention has generated or is expected to generate significant positive or negative, intended or unintended, higher-level effects. |
Sustainability | Will the benefits last? | Whether the net benefits of the intervention continue, or are likely to continue. |
Evaluation criteria | Items | Cronbach’s α value |
---|---|---|
Relevance | 5 | 0.675 |
Effectiveness | 7 | 0.895 |
Efficiency | 7 | 0.687 |
Impact | 10 | 0.897 |
Sustainability | 3 | 0.779 |
Characteristic | Quantitative data (%) | Qualitative data (%) |
---|---|---|
No. of respondents | 97 | 35 |
Region | ||
Dar es Salaam | 61 (62.9) | 17 (48.6) |
Dodoma | 12 (12.4) | 8 (22.9) |
Pwani | 10 (10.3) | 10 (28.5) |
Kilimanjaro | 5 (5.2) | |
Mbeya | 4 (4.1) | |
Songwe | 1 (1.0) | |
Iringa | 1 (1.0) | |
Manyara | 1 (1.0) | |
Singida | 1 (1.0) | |
Kisumu (Kenya) | 1 (1.0) | |
Gender | ||
Male | 55 (56.7) | 21 (60.0) |
Female | 42 (43.3) | 14 (40.0) |
Age (yr) | ||
25–34 | 21 (21.6) | |
35–44 | 42 (43.3) | |
45–54 | 30 (30.9) | |
55–64 | 2 (2.1) | |
≥65 | 2 (2.1) | |
Institution | ||
Ministry of Health | 12 (12.4) | 3 (8.6) |
National hospitals | 35 (36.1) | 15 (42.9) |
National lab | 11 (11.3) | |
Specialized hospital | 4 (4.1) | |
Zonal referral hospital | 6 (6.2) | 4 (11.4) |
Regional referral hospital | 10 (10.3) | 9 (25.7) |
District hospital | 2 (2.1) | 1 (2.9) |
Higher learning institute | 9 (9.2) | 3 (8.6) |
NGO or private sector | 8 (8.3) | |
Training courses | ||
Clinical courses | 49 (50.5) | 24 (68.6) |
Biomedical engineering | 21 (21.6) | 3 (8.6) |
Health policy and administration | 13 (13.4) | 3 (8.6) |
Infectious disease control | 12 (12.4) | |
High level official course | 2 (2.1) | |
Not applicable |
5 (14.3) | |
Year of training | ||
2009 | 3 (3.0) | 2 (5.7) |
2010 | 5 (5.2) | 4 (11.4) |
2011 | 2 (2.0) | 3 (8.6) |
2012 | 6 (6.2) | 2 (5.7) |
2013 | 6 (6.2) | 3 (8.6) |
2014 | 8 (8.2) | 3 (8.6) |
2015 | 5 (5.2) | 1 (2.9) |
2016 | 10 (10.3) | 2 (5.7) |
2017 | 6 (6.2) | 1 (2.9) |
2018 | 5 (5.2) | 2 (5.7) |
2019 | 6 (6.2) | 2 (5.7) |
2020 | 5 (5.2) | 1 (2.9) |
2021 | 10 (10.3) | 2 (5.7) |
2022 | 20 (20.6) | 2 (5.7) |
Not applicable |
5 (14.3) |
Evaluation criteria | Mean±SD | Min | Max |
---|---|---|---|
Relevance | 91.6±8.6 | 65 | 100 |
Effectiveness | 86.1±11.2 | 57 | 100 |
Efficiency | 82.7±10.2 | 20 | 100 |
Impact | 87.7±9.9 | 54 | 100 |
Sustainability | 58.0±11.1 | 20 | 73 |
Variable | Relevance |
Effectiveness |
Efficiency |
Impact |
Sustainability |
|||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
rho | P-value | rho | P-value | rho | P-value | rho | P-value | rho | P-value | |
Relevance | 1 | |||||||||
Effectiveness | 0.688 | 0.000 | 1 | |||||||
Efficiency | 0.294 | 0.004 | 0.400 | 0.000 | 1 | |||||
Impact | 0.602 | 0.000 | 0.746 | 0.000 | 0.505 | 0.000 | 1 | |||
Sustainability | 0.417 | 0.000 | 0.538 | 0.000 | 0.411 | 0.000 | 0.587 | 0.000 | 1 |
Relevance statements | Age of beneficiary |
Type of training course |
Type of institution |
|||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Kruskall-Wallis | P-value | Kruskall-Wallis | P-value | Kruskall-Wallis | P-value | |
Training content beneficial to work | 11.606 | 0.020 |
5.759 | 0.217 | 0.194 | 0.978 |
Overall training beneficial to work | 3.969 | 0.410 | 1.227 | 0.873 | 0.077 | 0.994 |
Facilitator helpful during training | 2.855 | 0.582 | 4.501 | 0.342 | 4.163 | 0.244 |
Training relevant to country needs | 5.576 | 0.233 | 2.693 | 0.610 | 1.096 | 0.777 |
Training relevant to work priorities | 2.881 | 0.577 | 1.564 | 0.815 | 3.646 | 0.302 |
The question and definition were adopted from the OECD-DAC [
NGO, non-governmental organization. Five individuals were non-participants of the Fellowship Program (i.e., health sector leaders).
SD, standard deviation.
P<0.05.