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Kenya must stop reliance on donor funding if the country is to build strong health systems. This was one of the messages at the recent 'Third International Conference on Financing and Development' in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, which challenged Kenya and other African countries to find innovative ways to raise resources for health.
The management of major diseases continues to be heavily reliant on foreign donors, leaving big unfunded gaps in efforts to save the lives of Kenyans who die of preventable and treatable diseases.
According to the Abuja declaration of 2001, African countries pledged to set aside 15 per cent of their annual budgetary expenditures for health. The overall health sector funding in the 2015/2016 budget increased by Sh11.8billion from Sh47.4 billion in 2014/2015 budget to Sh59.2 billion, however, this falls below the Abuja promise.
Kenya's reliance on foreign aid to fund health projects was analysed in a recent report released by Results UK and Kenya Aids NGOs Consortium, which pointed out that due to inadequate investment in health, at least one out of every four Kenyans lack access to sufficient healthcare.
The Addis Ababa conference identified health and education as leading social sectors that can be used to drive strong growth on the continent.
Mark Dybul, Executive Director of the Global Fund – one of the leading donors to Kenya's health sector, called for stronger linkages between the two sectors to build stronger communities that can continue to drive Africa's growth.
"In the end, it is education and health that will determine if an adolescent girl becomes a woman with equal opportunity," said Dr Dybul alluding to research that shows that keeping adolescent girls and young women in school not only reduces HIV infection rates but has the potential to create a critical mass of healthy, educated and financially independent women who make well-informed choices about their lives.
Dr Dybul further challenged leaders to build resilient and sustainable systems for health.
Matungulu MP Stephen Mule and a member of Parliament's health committee, who attended the conference, called for increase in the health budget allocation from domestic-pooled resources with the involvement of the devolved government. The conference launched the 'Addis Ababa Tax Compact' that encourages countries to view taxes as a more reliant source of income than donors.
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