Human Resources for Health (HRH) Kenya Program

Proactive Partnership: Nurse Leaders and Community Health Volunteers Work Together to Increase Family Planning Use in Kenya

kseaton — Tue, 07 Jun 2022 18:03:50 +0000

Proactive Partnership: Nurse Leaders and Community Health Volunteers Work Together to Increase Family Planning Use in Kenya kseaton June 07, 2022

June 07, 2022

IntraHealth sought to find out what happens to women’s access to family planning when you partner nurse leaders with community health workers.

What happens to women’s access to family planning when you partner nurse leaders with community health workers (CHWs)?

That’s what IntraHealth International’s USAID-funded Human Resources for Health (HRH) Kenya Mechanism sought to find out. One year into the COVID-19 pandemic, the United Nations Population Fund estimated that the disruption in contraceptive services led to 1.4 million unintended pregnancies worldwide. And in Kenya, even before COVID-19, about 1 in 10 women wanted to delay or stop having children but were not using contraception. Differences in contraceptive use among Kenyan women living in cities compared to rural areas made the need to tailor services even more pressing. Only 40% of urban women reported use of a modern method, such as an oral contraceptive pill, implant, or injectable, compared to the Kenyan national average of 58%. Fewer urban facilities in Kenya offer family planning services (73%) compared to rural (91%). These disparities are likely due to a large proportion of urban residents living in slum conditions, with limited infrastructure and where women have trouble accessing high-quality health care and other services.

In Kenya, 76% of nurses, 63% of community health assistants (CHAs) and 73% of community health volunteers (CHVs) are female. This type of “woman-to-woman” platform is considered a high-impact practice for increasing access to and use of family planning. As an FP2030 Commitment Maker, the Kenyan government is committed to expanding access to modern family planning methods in both rural and urban facilities. Long-acting reversible contraception (LARC) such as intrauterine devices (IUDs) and implants reduce how often women must visit a health facility or pharmacy for a refill and they are more effective at preventing pregnancy than oral contraceptive pills, injections, or condoms. Increasing the number of LARC users could relieve some of the pressure on Kenya’s overtaxed health system because these patients would not need recurring appointments or prescriptions. Additionally, women using LARC can maintain control of their reproductive health despite disruptions caused by extenuating circumstances such as the current pandemic.

Urban and rural reach

To reach women in both urban and rural areas, trained nurse leaders partnered with Kenya’s growing community health assistant and volunteer cadres. Since 2016, the HRH Kenya Mechanism has worked with the government of Kenya to build stronger human resource systems, data-use methods, and training programs. It has helped institutionalize in-service training in counties to align with national universal health coverage requirements and service delivery guidelines for reproductive health and family planning, among other priority health services. The HRH Kenya Mechanism also facilitated in-service training on LARCs to over 850 health workers from 17 counties, expanding access to these birth control methods through facilities in some of Kenya’s most populous counties, like Nakuru’s Rhonda Dispensary and Maternity health facility. To ensure sustainability, the mechanism helped 13 counties develop and implement health workforce training policies and guidelines.

Together, nurses and CHVs are making the facility a favored destination for women seeking family planning.

Health workers participating in the LARC in-service training, like Alice Boit, the nurse-in-charge of the Rhonda Dispensary and Maternity health facility, brought what they learned back to their posts and spearheaded a continuous training and mentorship program. In Alice’s facility, where she supervises 40 staff members, she taught other nurses what she had learned during her training, including insertion and removal of IUDs. In turn, she and her team worked with CHAs and CHVs linked to the facility to do household outreach visits, provide relevant information about LARC methods, dispel myths and misconceptions, and assist with referrals and links to services. Together, these trained nurses and CHVs are reaching a population of more than 27,000 people in Nakuru county, making the facility a favored destination for women seeking family planning while increasing the number of clients choosing LARCs.

A partnership that works

The power of this partnership between nurses and CHWs is real. A two-year post-training follow-up of 274 health workers (32% of the total 850 trained) showed that the quality and quantity of LARC and other family planning services improved in the counties where trainings had occurred. From 2017 to 2019, insertions of IUDs (1,188 to 1,914) and implants (6,234 to 7,077) increased, the number of IUD removals (402 to 292) decreased, and implant removals by a local skilled provider (1,116 to 3,019) increased. Furthermore, 84% of supervisors observed positive changes in the quality of services delivered by health workers trained in LARC.

Training nurses alone isn’t enough. Integrating trained, equipped, and supported CHWs into the health system, as done in this model, is a high-impact practice which increases access to and use of family planning, especially among women constrained by social or geographic barriers. With this partnership model in place, the number of people reached with an expanded set of contraceptive options through nurses and CHVs should only continue to grow. Nationwide, there are already over 89,000 CHVs and 3,250 CHAs in action. By 2030, these cadres are expected to expand to 100,000 and 10,000 respectively to help the government of Kenya reach its goal of 1 CHA and 10 CHVs per 5,000 Kenyans, per the country’s Community Health Policy 2020-2030 and Community Health Strategy 2020-2025. In a crucial step toward this goal, the Ministry of Health in Kenya launched Community Health Volunteers Training and Certification Guidelines in February 2022, which include a module dedicated to family planning that prepares CHVs to counsel women on all family planning methods and make appropriate referrals. In some counties, CHWs like Margaret Odera are being recognized for their important role in the health system.

“I have seen changes taking place, in our community and even in the facility," says Margaret Odera. "A CHW right now has been recognized by the government. And this is a [county-level] law that was passed in October that a CHW has to be recognized and get a monthly stipend. And this is a plus for me and for CHWs.”

To improve family planning services, #CountCHWs

CHWs are key to reducing inequities in family planning access and increasing contraceptive use among women with an unmet need or barriers to use. Yet in most countries, including in Kenya, governments do not have robust data on CHW numbers, location, skills, or performance. This reality limits CHW integration into the health system where they are needed most to meet family planning and other health care goals. How can governments (and other partners) get the data on CHW they need to efficiently train, equip, and support these workers if date collection tools are inadequate?

CHWs are key to reducing inequities in family planning access and increasing contraceptive use.

CHW master lists and registries are integral to maximizing the engagement of CHWs in delivering family planning and other essential health services. Acting as a single source of data on CHWs, such lists and registries can confirm whether workers meet minimum job criteria, that fair pay and supervision are in place, and that CHWs are recruited and deployed to facilities and communities most in need. Open-source information systems such as iHRIS can support the creation of CHW master lists and registries, as iHRIS meets all of the criteria outlined in the recently released Implementation Support Guide from CHAI, CHIC, Health GeoLab, Living Goods, the Global Fund, and UNICEF. iHRIS has been used successfully to support creation of health workforce master lists and registries, including for CHWs, with data collection and use shared among government and partners. As a digital global good, its use can enable future integration with other HRIS and health information systems for a broader view of the human resources for health and for tracking progress toward service delivery goals.

The HRH Kenya Mechanism partnered with the Kenya Ministry of Health to #CountCHWs by developing a community health workforce module in its iHRIS version 4.2. It subsequently trained national and county government focal persons to use the system and map 33,935 CHVs and 779 CHAs in 15 counties. Data collected were used to establish a CHW registry that could provide information on the:

Deployment and distribution of CHVs and CHAs per the MOH recommendation
Composition of CHVs and their skill mix at the community level for family planning and other essential health service provision
Number of available CHVs and CHAs for planning and budgeting trainings, stipends and salaries, and other support CHWs need to perform well.

The data showed 95% of CHWs were employed by the government and 5% by non-profits, NGOs, and other partners. Nearly two-thirds of CHVs had at least a primary-level education. Data also revealed that community health services were poorly supervised, with one CHA supervising 10-27 CHVs. Of the six counties that did not meet the recommended 1 to 10 ratio of CHA to CHV, three—Nairobi, Bungoma, and Meru—are among the most populous counties in Kenya according to the 2019 census. This finding underscored the need for more CHAs for more effective supervision of family planning and other health services. The mapping also highlighted that a minority of CHVs are under 30 years old (9%), which may limit efforts to reach adolescents and young adults with family planning services.

There are three key steps to expand high-impact practices for family planning like this partnership model in Kenya:

Train health workers, including CHWs, in LARC and other methods
Use master lists and registries to #CountCHWs for better planning and management
Advocate for CHWs to be recognized for their important role in service provision, with fair pay, equipment and supplies, and supervision to do their jobs well

Together, taking these steps will help us to make even greater progress in LARC and other family planning use in Kenya, with facility- and community-based health workers at the forefront of those efforts.

This blog post was originally published on CHW Central's website on June 1, 2022. Read it here.

By Alex Collins

Former health workforce technical advisor, IntraHealth International

By Janet Muriuki

Senior director of health workforce development (interim)

Human Resources for Health (HRH) Kenya Program Health Workers Community Health Workers Kenya

Community health worker Margaret Odera counsels a client in February 2020. Photo by Patrick Meinhardt for IntraHealth International.

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Health Workers in Kenya Use New Negotiation Skills to Improve Their Working Conditions

kseaton — Wed, 27 Oct 2021 16:37:31 +0000

Health Workers in Kenya Use New Negotiation Skills to Improve Their Working Conditions kseaton October 27, 2021

October 27, 2021

The partnership between health worker unions, government leaders, and others prevents strikes and keeps health services available.

It was a common situation for both Mary and Alice—they tried to visit the hospital, but couldn’t receive the care they needed. The health workers were on strike again.

Mary had traveled 4 kilometers and was pondering what to do with her sick child because no health workers were available at the hospital. Alice did not have the money to visit a private hospital and she wondered why she and Mary’s child were suffering—after all, they had nothing to do with the disagreement between health workers and the government.

Over the years, the health sector in Kenya has been characterized by persistent health worker unrest, which negatively affects health services. Between 2010 and 2020 there were eight nationwide strikes and many more county strikes. And in 2017 alone, there were over 250 days in which the health system was dysfunctional, with far-reaching impacts on access to and quality of essential services.

Between 2010 and 2020 there were eight nationwide strikes in Kenya.

The reason for all these strikes? The government failed to implement collective bargaining agreements and return-to-work formulas. Health workers worked in poor conditions and experienced medical supply, equipment, and staff shortages. Promotions, salaries, and career progressions were delayed. There was a lack of training opportunities and comprehensive medical coverage.

During a pandemic, the impacts of health worker strikes are even greater and frontline health workers fear for their safety .

And while the health workers were fighting for their own rights, clients weren’t able to access the care they needed. The strikes caused decreases in women attending their fourth antenatal care visits, pregnant women starting antiretroviral treatment, viral load testing, short- and long-acting family planning method uptake, facility deliveries.

So, in 2018, IntraHealth International’s USAID-funded Human Resources for Health program supported the Council of Governors to convene a stakeholders’ meeting, bringing together key county leaders, national institutions, faith-based organizations, health worker trade union representatives, private-sector partners, and other relevant stakeholders.

The meeting focused on the causes of the health worker strikes and identified strategies to improve employee/employer relations to avoid service disruptions. One of the main causes of the strikes was a lack of effective communication between employers and health worker trade unions. So, the group established national and county work councils for county leaders and health trade union leaders to proactively discuss and amicably seek solutions to health worker grievances.

Read: Averting Public Health Sector Industrial Unrest in Kenya: Establishing Stakeholder Work Councils to Foster Harmonious Labor Relations

To train the health management teams and trade union leaders on negotiation skills, labor dispute resolutions, and other relevant skills, IntraHealth brought together 96 health worker union leaders from four registered worker unions, 60 county health management teams, and 57 county human resources officers and trained them on leadership management and governance with a focus on human resources for health. The training provided experiential learning and focused on how to manage trade unions within International Labour Organization (ILO) conventions, and local labor laws as provided by the Labour Relations Act.

Many counties involve union leaders when they develop new policies, guidelines, and strategies.

Now, many counties involve union leaders when they develop new policies, guidelines, and strategies and union leaders use their training to participate. In Muranga County, union representatives were involved in developing health worker cadres. In Meru, Busia, Makueni, and Nyandarua counties, union representatives were involved in developing plans for human resources for health and the Ministry of Health’s Human Resources for Health Strategic Plan for 2019 to 2023.

Twenty-five counties have work councils who meet every quarter and as needed to discuss key issues affecting health workers, share progress made in implementing their action plans to improve employer/employee relations for effective management of the health workforce, and engage with health worker unions to address looming health worker grievances.

For instance, Turkana County health worker trade unions issued a joint strike notice to the county leadership on October 23, 2020, over delayed promotions and redesignation of health workers, notifying them that a strike would go into effect on November 12, 2020. The county convened a work council meeting on November 11, 2020, in which the County Public Service Board committed to promoting all health workers who were due for promotion by November 30, 2020. As a result, the union resolved to call off the strike as the county worked on redesignating 841 health workers.

“The engagement diffused a lot of suspicion between the county and the union and cultivated some trust,” says Dr. Gilchrist Lokoel, a county director of health in Turkana County. “We all realized that we care about health workers and needed to harness our energies for the general good rather than tear each other apart in supremacy battles.”

Migori, Samburu, Kirinyaga, Nyeri, Laikipia, Bomet, and Marsabit counties also negotiated with union leaders and agreed on an action plan, which prevented medical officers, nurses, and clinical officers from striking. Health workers in other counties eventually called off their strikes as a result of negotiations with the unions through the work councils.

On top of that, 3,303 health workers were recruited in six counties to address the health worker shortage and the work councils helped resolve issues around health worker promotions, provision of protective equipment, prompt salary payments, and designated COVID-19 isolation centers for affected health workers.

The work councils have helped limit the occurrence and length of the health workers strikes and are proving to be effective in not only averting health workers strikes but contributing to improved workplace environments and speedy resolution of labor disputes, which improves the availability and quality of health services for people like Mary and Alice, who need it the most.

The Human Resources for Health (HRH) Kenya Program is a five-year project funded by the US Agency for International Development (USAID) to strengthen health professional training programs and health workforce management systems throughout Kenya to help the country improve the health of its citizens.

By Anne Malubi

Human resources for health coordinator

By Janet Muriuki

Senior director of health workforce development (interim)

By Mathew Thuku

Assistant director, national HRH strengthening, IntraHealth International

By Wycliffe Omanya

Former knowledge management and communications manager, IntraHealth International

Human Resources for Health (HRH) Kenya Program Community Health Leadership and Governance 2021 Year of the Health and Care Worker Health Workforce & Systems Health Workers Kenya

Is In The Media

A public health officer counsels clients at Tudor Subcounty Hospital in Kenya. Photo by Edwin Joe for IntraHealth International.

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Technical & Policy Briefs: Human Resources for Health (HRH) Kenya Program

kmelton — Tue, 26 Oct 2021 20:40:31 +0000

Technical & Policy Briefs: Human Resources for Health (HRH) Kenya Program 2021 kmelton October 26, 2021

Our USAID-funded Human Resources for Health (HRH) Kenya Program has partnered with the government of Kenya to build an even more resilient health workforce, with stronger human resource systems, processes, data use, and community health systems. Learn more about our results in the briefs below:

Technical Briefs

Policy Briefs

Countries Kenya

Projects Human Resources for Health (HRH) Kenya Program

By Janet Muriuki, Peter Milo, Tervil Okoko, Esther Wanjiru Kariuki, Wycliffe Omanya, Mathew Thuku

Averting Public Health Sector Industrial Unrest in Kenya: Establishing Stakeholder Work Councils to Foster Harmonious Labor Relations

kmelton — Wed, 15 Sep 2021 20:14:14 +0000

Averting Public Health Sector Industrial Unrest in Kenya: Establishing Stakeholder Work Councils to Foster Harmonious Labor Relations 2021 kmelton September 15, 2021

Health worker-related industrial unrest has serious negative effects on health service delivery especially on rural poor. Kenya’s health worker strike lasted over 300 days, with the doctors’ strike lasting 100 days—the longest ever experienced in Kenya. IntraHealth innovated the Work Council as a formal consultative and dialogue platforms between the county departments of health and health sector union leaders to find space where issues affecting health workers can be discussed and actioned to avert strikes. This brief provides policy recommendations on structure and institutionalization of work council to permanently avert health worker strikes.

Download

Technical & Policy Briefs: Human Resources for Health (HRH) Kenya Program

Improving the Quality and Accessibility of Medical Training to Increase Health Workforce Numbers to Meet Universal Health Coverage Needs

Improving Leadership, Management, and Governance of the Health Workforce in Kenya’s Devolved System

Optimizing Data Use for Effective Decision-Making in Managing Kenya’s Health Workforce

Building a Sustainable Financial Resource Base to Support Health Workforce Training Toward Universal Health Coverage

Establishing Human Resources for Health Units to Strengthen Health Workforce Management in Kenya’s Counties

Promoting County Training Needs Assessments for Effective Human Resources for Health Capacity Development in Kenya

Strengthening Data for Decision-Making in Human Resources for Health Management Through Systems Interoperability

Countries Kenya

Projects Human Resources for Health (HRH) Kenya Program

By Mathew Thuku, Janet Muriuki, Esther Wanjiru Kariuki, Wycliffe Omanya

Promoting County Training Needs Assessments for Effective Human Resources for Health Capacity Development in Kenya

kmelton — Wed, 15 Sep 2021 20:12:04 +0000

Promoting County Training Needs Assessments for Effective Human Resources for Health Capacity Development in Kenya 2021 kmelton September 15, 2021

This policy brief shares the benefits, and makes a case for institutionalization of training needs assessment (TNA) as a systematic process of identifying gaps in the performance of health service providers and or related system, based on an analysis of the desired performance and the actual performance observed. Without comprehensive TNA, counties are unable to determine the priority areas for long- and short-term training and more likely to fall into the trap of biased and unsystematic methods such as intuition and patronage. Read how the use of TNA is streamlining human resource development in select counties in Kenya.

Download

Technical & Policy Briefs: Human Resources for Health (HRH) Kenya Program

Improving the Quality and Accessibility of Medical Training to Increase Health Workforce Numbers to Meet Universal Health Coverage Needs

Improving Leadership, Management, and Governance of the Health Workforce in Kenya’s Devolved System

Optimizing Data Use for Effective Decision-Making in Managing Kenya’s Health Workforce

Averting Public Health Sector Industrial Unrest in Kenya: Establishing Stakeholder Work Councils to Foster Harmonious Labor Relations

Building a Sustainable Financial Resource Base to Support Health Workforce Training Toward Universal Health Coverage

Establishing Human Resources for Health Units to Strengthen Health Workforce Management in Kenya’s Counties

Strengthening Data for Decision-Making in Human Resources for Health Management Through Systems Interoperability

Countries Kenya

Projects Human Resources for Health (HRH) Kenya Program

By Janet Muriuki, Esther Wanjiru Kariuki, Wycliffe Omanya

Improving Leadership, Management, and Governance of the Health Workforce in Kenya’s Devolved System

kmelton — Wed, 15 Sep 2021 20:07:51 +0000

Improving Leadership, Management, and Governance of the Health Workforce in Kenya’s Devolved System 2021 kmelton September 15, 2021

County leadership were ill prepared in human resources for health management capacity, leadership structures, and organizational arrangements when the Government of Kenya devolved health service delivery including management of the health workforce to the 47 counties. This resulted in acute shortages and imbalanced health worker distribution with no proper administrative systems – all leading to recurring health worker industrial unrest, and disrupted service delivery. This technical brief shares approaches, results, adaptive lessons and recommendations from IntraHealth International efforts to strengthen health workforce leadership, management and governance in the public health sector.

Download

Technical & Policy Briefs: Human Resources for Health (HRH) Kenya Program

Improving the Quality and Accessibility of Medical Training to Increase Health Workforce Numbers to Meet Universal Health Coverage Needs

Optimizing Data Use for Effective Decision-Making in Managing Kenya’s Health Workforce

Averting Public Health Sector Industrial Unrest in Kenya: Establishing Stakeholder Work Councils to Foster Harmonious Labor Relations

Building a Sustainable Financial Resource Base to Support Health Workforce Training Toward Universal Health Coverage

Establishing Human Resources for Health Units to Strengthen Health Workforce Management in Kenya’s Counties

Promoting County Training Needs Assessments for Effective Human Resources for Health Capacity Development in Kenya

Strengthening Data for Decision-Making in Human Resources for Health Management Through Systems Interoperability

Countries Kenya

Projects Human Resources for Health (HRH) Kenya Program

By Mathew Thuku, Janet Muriuki, Esther Wanjiru Kariuki, Wycliffe Omanya

Improving the Quality and Accessibility of Medical Training to Increase Health Workforce Numbers to Meet Universal Health Coverage Needs

kmelton — Wed, 15 Sep 2021 19:47:14 +0000

Improving the Quality and Accessibility of Medical Training to Increase Health Workforce Numbers to Meet Universal Health Coverage Needs 2021 kmelton September 15, 2021

Health worker shortage is a perennial problem in many sub-Saharan countries. Read how this Kenyan public-private partnership is helping increase the numbers of health workers through an innovative revolving Afya Elimu Fund that enables students with financial difficulties to complete their studies. This technical brief shares results of efforts to increase health worker numbers, improve quality of training for preservice medical training institutions, and enhance quality in-service training to ensure health workers are up to date with skills needed for service delivery towards universal health coverage.

Download

Technical & Policy Briefs: Human Resources for Health (HRH) Kenya Program

Improving Leadership, Management, and Governance of the Health Workforce in Kenya’s Devolved System

Optimizing Data Use for Effective Decision-Making in Managing Kenya’s Health Workforce

Averting Public Health Sector Industrial Unrest in Kenya: Establishing Stakeholder Work Councils to Foster Harmonious Labor Relations

Building a Sustainable Financial Resource Base to Support Health Workforce Training Toward Universal Health Coverage

Establishing Human Resources for Health Units to Strengthen Health Workforce Management in Kenya’s Counties

Promoting County Training Needs Assessments for Effective Human Resources for Health Capacity Development in Kenya

Strengthening Data for Decision-Making in Human Resources for Health Management Through Systems Interoperability

Countries Kenya

Projects Human Resources for Health (HRH) Kenya Program

Topics Education & Performance Health workforce development Health Workforce & Systems

By Peter Milo, Tervil Okoko, Janet Muriuki, Esther Wanjiru Kariuki, Wycliffe Omanya

Optimizing Data Use for Effective Decision-Making in Managing Kenya’s Health Workforce

kmelton — Wed, 15 Sep 2021 19:44:16 +0000

Optimizing Data Use for Effective Decision-Making in Managing Kenya’s Health Workforce 2021 kmelton September 15, 2021

Read how IntraHealth International is supporting Kenya’s Ministry of Health to use human resources data from the integrated human resources information system (iHRIS) for informed decision making. iHRIS tracks detailed information about health workers throughout their employment, including where they are deployed, salary history, promotions and transfers, qualifications, in-service training courses, and reasons for attrition, as well as open positions and applicants. This technical brief presents the strategies for sustaining iHRIS gains towards improved management of health workforce in Kenya’s devolved system.

Download

Technical & Policy Briefs: Human Resources for Health (HRH) Kenya Program

Improving the Quality and Accessibility of Medical Training to Increase Health Workforce Numbers to Meet Universal Health Coverage Needs

Improving Leadership, Management, and Governance of the Health Workforce in Kenya’s Devolved System

Averting Public Health Sector Industrial Unrest in Kenya: Establishing Stakeholder Work Councils to Foster Harmonious Labor Relations

Building a Sustainable Financial Resource Base to Support Health Workforce Training Toward Universal Health Coverage

Establishing Human Resources for Health Units to Strengthen Health Workforce Management in Kenya’s Counties

Promoting County Training Needs Assessments for Effective Human Resources for Health Capacity Development in Kenya

Strengthening Data for Decision-Making in Human Resources for Health Management Through Systems Interoperability

Countries Kenya

Projects Human Resources for Health (HRH) Kenya Program

By Janet Muriuki, Esther Wanjiru Kariuki, Wycliffe Omanya

Strengthening Data for Decision-Making in Human Resources for Health Management Through Systems Interoperability

kmelton — Wed, 15 Sep 2021 19:42:14 +0000

Strengthening Data for Decision-Making in Human Resources for Health Management Through Systems Interoperability 2021 kmelton September 15, 2021

Kenya’s Ministry of Health, regulatory boards, and councils that register and license health workers operate independent systems for various management functions. Yet all these systems target a single health worker in different ways. This policy briefs presents a case and the value for systems interoperability to optimize data for decision making and efficiency in health workforce management.

Download

Technical & Policy Briefs: Human Resources for Health (HRH) Kenya Program

Improving the Quality and Accessibility of Medical Training to Increase Health Workforce Numbers to Meet Universal Health Coverage Needs

Improving Leadership, Management, and Governance of the Health Workforce in Kenya’s Devolved System

Optimizing Data Use for Effective Decision-Making in Managing Kenya’s Health Workforce

Averting Public Health Sector Industrial Unrest in Kenya: Establishing Stakeholder Work Councils to Foster Harmonious Labor Relations

Building a Sustainable Financial Resource Base to Support Health Workforce Training Toward Universal Health Coverage

Establishing Human Resources for Health Units to Strengthen Health Workforce Management in Kenya’s Counties

Promoting County Training Needs Assessments for Effective Human Resources for Health Capacity Development in Kenya

Countries Kenya

Projects Human Resources for Health (HRH) Kenya Program

By Janet Muriuki, Esther Wanjiru Kariuki, Wycliffe Omanya

Establishing Human Resources for Health Units to Strengthen Health Workforce Management in Kenya’s Counties

kmelton — Wed, 15 Sep 2021 19:39:02 +0000

Establishing Human Resources for Health Units to Strengthen Health Workforce Management in Kenya’s Counties 2021 kmelton September 15, 2021

The Constitution of Kenya, 2010 gave county governments the responsibility of managing health service delivery, which formed 50-70 percent of the county workforce after devolution. In the former centralized system, the national government had a human resources (HR) unit in the Ministry of Health to oversee health workforce management. After devolution, counties lacked strong HR management (HRM) systems and designated HR officers for managing health workers leading to grievances and confusion in the public health sector. This brief proposes a county-level policy to institutionalize the establishment of an HRH unit in each county department of health, in alignment with the Devolved HRM Policy Guidelines on HRH.

Download

Technical & Policy Briefs: Human Resources for Health (HRH) Kenya Program

Improving the Quality and Accessibility of Medical Training to Increase Health Workforce Numbers to Meet Universal Health Coverage Needs

Improving Leadership, Management, and Governance of the Health Workforce in Kenya’s Devolved System

Optimizing Data Use for Effective Decision-Making in Managing Kenya’s Health Workforce

Averting Public Health Sector Industrial Unrest in Kenya: Establishing Stakeholder Work Councils to Foster Harmonious Labor Relations

By Mathew Thuku, Janet Muriuki, Esther Wanjiru Kariuki, Wycliffe Omanya