As the national government gears up for the flag-off of the community health promoters’ kits and gadgets on September 25th, Kisumu County, in collaboration with the Ministry of Health, Kenya, and Living Goods, is taking significant strides to digitize community health services. They are also working to improve the community health services to include the Integrated Community Case Management (ICCM) using eCHIS (Electronic Community Health Information System).

The county envisions that all CHPs are trained in ICCM and use digital tools for service delivery and reporting. We supported to train 180 Community Health Promoters (CHPs) in Seme and 150 in Kisumu West, with plans to extend this training to an additional 400 CHPs to ensure full coverage across the county. This is in line with the government policies and strategies including the new ICCM policy framework, new malaria guidelines and eCHIS strategy, MoH training guidelines and manuals, community health strategy among others.

Notably, Kisumu County was the pioneer in adopting #eCHIS and successfully digitized nearly 100% of its CHP network. It also served as the primary e-CHIS Pilot site in Kenya, setting the stage for the current nationwide scaling of the program.

The CHPs are delighted to have received smart mobile tools equipped with the eCHIS app, which features a data-driven task list and a real-time performance dashboard. This app is seamlessly linked to the Kenya Health Information System, allowing CHPs to efficiently register households, diagnose, treat, and refer individuals within their communities.

To bolster these comprehensive digitization efforts, the Kenyan Government has introduced an enhanced kit that encompasses new interventions, including child and maternal health, reproductive health, non-communicable disease screening, and mental health, among others. CHPs undergo a unique 12-day comprehensive training program that emphasizes e-CHIS modules and culminates in a final clinical practicum before certification.

In the initial phase of the program, trainer-of-trainers (ToTs) capacity building sessions were conducted, with support from Local Government-backed CHPs hailing from Kisumu County. These CHPs have been trained and oriented in the performance management approach and are now integral members of the team, imparting their knowledge and skills to CHPs in other counties across the country.