Kenya has coverage of over 80 per cent for the measles vaccine. Despite this success, the country still has documented measles outbreaks due to gaps in routine immunization. The Division of Vaccines and Immunization recently reported 1031 documented cases of measles between January 2011 and May 2012. The majority of these cases occurred in children aged less than 10 years. To address this, the government will be offering a second opportunity for measles vaccination through Supplementary Vaccination Activities. There is a planned vaccination campaign in 2012, offering measles vaccine and Vitamin A targeting children aged 6 to 59 months. There is however a funding gap and the Division made an appeal to development partners to consider supporting this area.


The Division made a presentation on the country’s immunization priorities, focusing on measles and polio at the Development Partners in Health Kenya (DPHK) monthly meeting held on May 22, 2012. The DPHK brings together development partners supporting the Kenyan government in the health sector. German Development Cooperation participated in this meeting with representation from GIZ Health Sector Programme and KfW-Development Bank.

Health financing is one of the six building blocks of a health system. In order to establish and maintain an efficient and appropriate health financing mechanism, it is crucial to know the costs that the health system generates. Costing models provide the answer to this question and aid in decisions on allocation of resources. Kenya currently has a number of costing models in use and a presentation was made on the main costing models. GIZ Health Sector Programme supported the government to develop the Dynamic Costing Model that offers facility based costing.

For the on-going development of the Kenya Health Sector Strategic Plan (KHSSP), the government is using the WHO One Health Model that offers strategic costing and financial gap analysis. Discussion was focused on making data from the models accessible to sector stakeholders. This can be achieved through institutionalization of the current costing models.

GIZ is supporting the Ministries of Health in this aspect. 
 Review of the National Health Sector Strategic Plan (NHSSP II) is underway and an initial report was made to the DPHK meeting. The consultant team supporting the Ministries of health in this review has already undertaken a desk review based on the priority areas outlined in the NHSSP II. A zero draft of the review will be presented to the ministries by the end of May and a stakeholder workshop is planned thereafter. It is foreseen that the outcome of this review will be incorporated into the new sector strategic plan (2012-2017).

Sector related updates were provided including the upcoming Pre- DPF (Development Partnership Forum) meeting in June. There was a summary on the outcomes of the KHSSP Development Retreat held on May 7-18, 2012. A zero draft of the KHSSP is expected by the end of May 2012 with the draft being circulated for comments in June and a stakeholder review meeting planned for the end of June.

Annual Work Plan (AWP) development is on-going in various districts for the period 2012/13. There will be a National Nutrition Symposium to be held on July 24-26, 2012.

As part of its commitment to the principles of the Sector Wide Approach (SWAp), GIZ Health Sector Programme participates in the DPHK forum in order to align its interventions with those of other development partners and support national priorities in the health sector.