The championing Evidence based advocacy project is a 3-year (November 2021-October 2024) project that aims to increase the capacity for local advocacy partners to support governments and, where necessary, hold them accountable for policy implementation and to improve health data usage for more effective advocacy and government decision-making in Kenya.
Kenya has made progress in improving RMNCAH+N outcomes. Child mortality has declined by over 20 percent since 2008 and the country achieved a total fertility rate (TFR) of less than four.
Stunting, which remained stubbornly high over the past two decades, has declined in the last decade. Six out of ten pregnant women now receive skilled care at childbirth and over half get postnatal care. However, in Kenya today, many women, neonates, children, and adolescents continue to suffer or die from conditions, which are preventable or treatable. A lot more still needs to be done by Kenya to address the supply and demand side barriers in the delivery of essential health services to realize the goals of Vision 2030
Professional health worker associations and Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) are the owners of important health facility/service delivery data and information required for planning, decision making and resource allocation at national and county levels. These data can also be leveraged to increase political commitments, transparency, and accountability across political cycles for PHC and RMNCHAH +N. Professional Medical Associations play a critical role in informing PHC and RMNCAH +N health workforce policy, securing political will and commitments for health and supporting sectors that would also yield additional economic benefits.
Strong and continuous political support and leadership at the highest level are required, as well as the collaboration of many sectors and mobilization of stakeholders including development partners, private sector among others. These stakeholders can be meaningful engaged through a common objective of ensuring healthy lives and promoting well-being for all at all ages. This can only happen with increased transparency and accountability at all levels – that can ably be championed by professional health associations, influencers, champions and CSOs.
The project is working towards fostering lasting partnerships with Governors, National and County Ministries of Health (MOHs) officials, National and Devolved Parliaments as well as international agencies (WHO, UNICEF, Save The Children etc.)
This project proposes to launch a sustainable advocacy movement focused on keeping Reproductive, Maternal, Neonatal, Child, Adolescent Health and Nutrition (RMNCAH+N) issues within the visible radar of National and County Governments of Kenya through:
Through advocacy, the project aims to ensure increased investment in and enhanced national and local government ownership of PHC/RMCAH+N policy implementation and adoption. To achieve this, the project will focus on four key aspects/outcomes with each outcome being spearheaded by a technical lead. All the four technical leads receive support from two Project Officers and an M&E Officer while all the programmatic aspects of the project are led by two Program Managers. The Principal Investigator provides overall project leadership and oversight
