The Government of Denmark and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) on Thursday signed a Sh6 million agreement for Danish support towards the UN Joint Programme on Reproductive, Maternal, Newborn, Child and Adolescent Health (RMNCAH).
The programme aims at reducing the heavy maternal and newborn mortality burden through increased utilization of integrated quality RMNCAH, HIV and Gender-Based Violence (GBV) services in ten counties.
In the first phase, activities will take place in six counties, namely Mandera, Marsabit, Wajir, Isiolo, Lamu and Migori.
As the scope is scaled up, four more counties will be included.
The Joint Programme is a partnership between six organizations working on women, children and adolescent health also known as the H6 Partners (UNFPA, UNICEF, WHO, World Bank, UN Women and UNAIDS).
For the past two years, the H6 partners, under UNFPA leadership, have been working to find ways to save lives at childbirth and meet related challenges of reproductive health in the six counties accounting for close to 50 per cent of all maternal deaths in Kenya.
The majority of the counties benefiting from the support are part of the Frontier Counties Development Council (FCDC).
The seven FCDC counties are: Marsabit, Mandera, Garissa, Tana River, Wajir, Isiolo and Lamu.
The signing of the agreement was the highlight of a High Level meeting held at the UN Complex in Nairobi between the National Government, the FCDC, UN and development partners.
The signing was presided over by the Devolution and Planning Cabinet Secretary Mwangi Kiunjuri in the presence the Council of Governors Chairman Peter Munya.
Denmark Ambassador to Kenya Ambassador Mette Knudsen, the UN Resident Coordinator Mr Siddharth Chatterjee, Governors of the seven FCDC counties and other senior members from the National Government, the UN and Development Partners.
The health of mother and baby in these historically disadvantaged counties has increasingly become a key priority of the National Government, County governments and development partners.
Some of the initiatives that demonstrate the Government’s commitment to maternal health include the free maternal health policy and the First Lady’s Beyond Zero campaign.
The impact has been significant and the high level commitment has been shown on several occasions. One of these was HE Margaret Kenyatta’s visit to Mandera on 6 November 2015, together with the UNFPA Executive Director, 5 Ambassadors, private sector leaders and many others.
She was the first First Lady ever to visit the county since independence. It was a symbol of the concerted effort towards addressing the most pressing challenges, in the places most in need.
The combination of political goodwill and effective partnerships has, for instance, resulted in an increase in the number of Kenyan women giving birth under skilled care from about 40 to 60 percent since 2013.
Together with the government, UNFPA Kenya has also spearheaded the Private Sector Health Partnership Kenya to complement on-going efforts in the 6 counties.
This ground-breaking initiative harnesses the strength, resources and expertise of private partners and helps build models that offer the best of both public and private sector.
Since its launch in September 2015, partners have established a secretariat at Kenya Healthcare Federation to facilitate public private dialogue, joint-advocacy, technical collaboration and resource mobilization.
In 15 months over Sh200 million blended financing has been raised for three PPP demonstrations; Mandera Community Life Center; Lamu digital health solutions (Telemedicine and EMR); and Mandera and Migori innovations to ASRH-R service delivery.
The UN has consistently played the role of a convener and honest broker, always identifying opportunities for collaboration in this region and in the rest of the country.