From 2014 through 2015, CHMI’s East Africa Partner—the Africa Capacity Alliance (ACA)— convened a series of round table discussions (RTDs) that brought together policy makers, county health officials, development partners, investors and health innovators in one room to discuss best approaches to strengthen the health market ecosystem in MNCH in Kenya.
The RTDs provided an opportunity for technical exchanges and policy dialogues, showcase of innovative work in MNCH, networking and establishing linkages among the various stakeholders and ultimately identifying policy-level directions for strengthening the health market ecosystem for MNCH in Kenya
The first RTD, held in November 2014, set the pace for the subsequent RTDs by engaging the stakeholders in identifying and prioritize key challenges that counties face with regards to MNCH, and identify existing innovations with the capacity to address those challenges.
The second RTD, which was held in February 2015 at the Sankalp Africa Summit, provided an opportunity for the stakeholders to develop concerted work plans and establish modalities for partnering. The discussion helped in improving each stakeholders understanding on their contributions in bridging the gaps identified.
Under the theme of “Formulating PPPs for health”, the third RTD, which took place in April 2015, addressed the importance of PPPs in enhancing and improving the state of MNCH services in Kenya. A keynote address shared by the Head of PPP unit at the Kenya Ministry of Health, Dr. Samuel Were, emphasized on the need to not only ensure sustained dialogue amongst stakeholders in health but under strict PPP arrangements, explore new and existing opportunities in proprietary areas so as to increase access in specialized MNCH services.
The fourth RTD, which marked the end of the four part series of discussions on strengthening the MNCH ecosystem in Kenya, took place in July 2015 themed “Dissecting the regulatory environment while understanding its effect on the formulation, and delivery of PPPs in MNCH in Kenya”. Keynote speech, given by Policy and Planning unit at the Kenyan Ministry of Health Dr. Elkanah Onguti, provided an overview of the various laws and national policies that regulate the health industry in Kenya.
Key outputs and outcomes of the Roundtables
- A comprehensive situational analysis of the MNCH ecosystems in Kenya. Policy makers, programme implementers, innovators and funders were able to describe an ideal set of circumstances to achieve impact and describe the role PPPs could play to achieve this.
- Linkages between counties, innovations and funders were established. Meru County linked with Mobile ODT of Israel. Kakamega and Bungoma counties made a specific request for the Toto Health Innovation to be implemented in their counties.
This post originally appeared on the Africa Capacity Alliance blog.
