Advocacy in Kenya

In Kenya, we are leveraging our deep expertise to support both the Ministry of Health and the country’s decentralized county-level governments to scale and sustain effective community health systems. With Living Goods staff directly seconded to the Ministry at national and county levels, we regularly review and provide input on technical and policy documents, collect data and advise on the strategic need for the future.

We serve on numerous national strategic committees in Kenya to raise awareness of the Living Goods approach and elevate evidence that demonstrates the impact of digitally empowered CHWs. Showcasing these successes facilitates the process of obtaining buy-in and support from partners throughout the country.

At the national level, Living Goods shares actionable knowledge and data generated through our mobile app tools with the Ministry of Health to help advocate for increased prioritization of CHWs by multilateral donors. At the county level, Living Goods works with four counties in Kenya to increase the local budgets for community health. Solid relationships with the government are essential to achieve lasting impact at scale.

To this end, we supported the Government of Kenya in developing an investment case for community health that showed a 9.4-fold return on investment for every dollar spent when factoring in both the lives saves and increased economic productivity.

Living Goods is one of just two organizations that has been granted “registration agent” status with the National Hospital Insurance Fund (NHIF). Living Goods partners with the government to register households to participate in the health care system, most notably in Isiolo county. In Isiolo county, we recently launched a pilot under the government’s Big Four Agenda to drive economic and social growth, which includes achieving universal health coverage (UHC). The initiative is part of a plan to scale up NHIF coverage to reach 100 percent of the population by leveraging private sector investments and alternative financing, health budget allocations, and digital health technology to ensure the availability of medicines and medical equipment.