Kenya will hold its first national human resources for health (HRH) conference from December 7-9, bringing together stakeholders in the health sector from public, private and faith-based organisations.
Under the theme ‘Renewing commitment to the health workforce towards achievements of MDGs and Vision 2030’, planners of the event say they want to avail a platform for placing health as a priority in the health strategy and national development towards Vision 2030.
They also want to devise ways and means to mitigate the negative effects of health worker migration; share best practices and mobilise greater investment in HRH; and promote the implementation of policies and strategies for scaling up, retention, education and training of the health workforce.
Some background is necessary, to appreciate the context in which this conference will be vital. Early this year, the World Health Organization (WHO) held a similarly-themed session in Bangkok, Thailand. I was privileged to be among a few journalists, on a WHO fellows programme, detailed to cover the event that brought together 1,000 experts on HRH and international leaders.
At the time, I was disappointed that apart from the Kenya embassy staff in Bangkok, the highest ranking government representative at the event was assistant minister for Public Health and Sanitation James Gesami. While he represented the country well, I wondered why his boss, Hon Beth Mugo, wasn’t there herself. (Medical Services minister Anyang’ Nyong’o was being treated for cancer in the United States).
Beyond the government’s low-level representation, Kenyan media concentrated on the coalition politics of the time, leaving the job to The East African, which was generous enough to run one of my write-ups on the session. Apart from seemingly making up for the low-level representation and media blackout of the event, the Government is – in the upcoming conference – acknowledging some of the concerns raised about Kenya in Bangkok.
According to the WHO, Kenya needs to increase its number of nurses by more than 30,000 to meet the healthcare needs of a nation beset by HIV/Aids, malaria and tuberculosis. And in order to retain health workers in Kenya, the government needs to implement incentives, such as better salaries and working conditions for health workers.
Helpfully, the WHO has introduced a code of practice – adopted by countries at the World Health Assembly in May last year – on the international recruitment of health personnel, and developed guidelines for nations to encourage health workers to remain in rural areas.
In Bangkok, participants agreed on key actions to accelerate progress to implement the Kampala Declaration and Agenda for Global Action, the roadmap adopted in 2008 to drive improvements in the health workforce.
Although many developing nations are attempting to address the distribution and shortage of health workers, they lack long-term financing and capacity to plan and implement programmes to sustain improvements.
In 2006, the World Health Report drew attention to the global health workforce crisis and its dramatic impact in 57 priority countries – Kenya included – affected by severe shortages, inequitable distribution, poor motivation, and uneven performance of health workers, which hinder delivery of essential health services.
I hope the Nairobi conference will result in the adoption of an agenda and ambitious roadmap for national action to resolve the nation’s health workforce woes.
Kenya is already on the right track, going by a little-reported award it won at the Bangkok forum. The award citation observed that the system identified personnel discrepancies, eliminated payroll discrepancies, influencing Kenyan health policy in the process, and still inspires South-to-South co-operation on health issues, with visits from teams in Nigeria, Uganda, Tanzania and Zimbabwe.
The writer is a media consultant (www.jesse-masai.com).
