• In 2017, former president Uhuru Kenyatta unveiled Universal Health Coverage (UHC) as one of the Big Four priorities for his administration.
• With it came various reforms including increasing the allocation of resources from both national and county coffers to finance growth in the healthcare sector.
Experts have recommended an exploration of methods to increase the efficiency, effectiveness, and equity of the allocated budget in the healthcare sector.
This is in a move to maximise the impact of public spending.
They say that the crisis resulting from Covid is weighing heavily on an important development indicator and access to healthcare.
Even as good progress has been made to uplift the Kenyan economy and its people, limited fiscal reserves to finance the rollout of additional healthcare facilities combined with Kenya’s reputation as a source of emigrants and host country for refugees have also played a part.
In 2017, former president Uhuru Kenyatta unveiled Universal Health Coverage (UHC) as one of the Big Four priorities for his administration.
With it came various reforms including increasing the allocation of resources from both national and county coffers to finance growth in the healthcare sector.
According to the UHC QI policy brief, it was founded on the aspiration that “all persons in Kenya would be able to use the essential services they need for their health and wellbeing through a single unified benefit package, without the risk of financial catastrophe".
Analysts predict that the Kenyan government will have to limit its spending on health in the short term, while they wait for the economy and fiscal reserves to grow.
According to World Bank, the Kenyan economy now grapples with a post-pandemic recovery exacerbated by rising inflation, mass unemployment, and fears of a global recession.
Through a publication by the institution, they recommended five important steps that need to be taken in the short term.
They include concerted efforts that need to be taken to tackle the largest sources of inefficiency within the health sector and increase the value for money of public spending.
Emphasis on ‘effective’ care by incentivising and enabling healthcare workers to provide better treatment, and the need to continue prioritisation of investing in solutions tailored to disadvantaged areas and population groups are also part of the recommendations.
Other recommendations are the need to implement systems that can properly monitor health targets to guide future spending and the need for Government leaders to consider introducing reforms to accelerate investment into healthcare facilities.
Innovate UK KTN Global Alliance Africa knowledge transfer manager for Kenya Basil Malaki said that while it might be easy to list these steps on paper, in practice they each present significant tasks at hand.
He said that they will no doubt find themselves intertwined with other developments in both Kenya’s internal politics and external affairs.
“As a starting point, it would be wise for those responsible for advancing healthcare in 2023 to consider the role that innovation can play in achieving both these short-term recommendations and longer-term aims of UHC,” Malaki said.
“As a concept, innovation is limitless and can help us achieve the five short-term goals that encompass efficiency, value-for-money, enhanced and accessible care for the under-served, and better oversight of how care is provided.”
“However, innovation on its own is not enough and can only be unlocked if three key ingredients are present: knowledge, skills, and resources.”
He said that providing all three is knowledge partnerships.
This means that they are collaborative vehicles that bring together a diverse range of stakeholders around a common interest.
In doing so, he said, compares their knowledge, skills, and resources with the aim of spurring growth in their shared field.
“Knowledge partnerships are already active in Kenya. An initiative like the Global Alliance Africa has brought together leaders from across the public, private and civil sectors to explore several issues facing UHC,” Malaki said.
The project was established under the stewardship of innovate UK KTN.
“These issues include unlocking the commercialisation of health-related research, an exploration into the various opportunities for potential public-private partnerships,” he said.
“Others are an assessment of the various levers that the Kenyan government could use to unlock greater market competition, possible solutions to current challenges facing intellectual property and methods to increasing the availability of financing for innovative enterprises.”
Malaki added that looking ahead this year, Global Alliance Africa is in the process of establishing a Global Innovation Network on Health.
This is a multi-stakeholder group connecting experts in Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, and the UK with an aim of creating opportunities for participants to collaborate on research.
It also seeks to introduce new markets and fund solutions to key challenges facing healthcare in Africa.
“However, for this network to effect change on the healthcare prospects of Kenyans, it requires their participation, and in doing so, we can all play our part in taking UHC one step further in 2023,” Malaki said.