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PROPEL Health successfully held a USAID funded PROPEL Health Validation Inter-Ministerial Policy Dialogue on Strengthening Primary Healthcare (PHC) Financing and Service Delivery between the Ministry of Health (MOH) and The National Treasury and Economic Planning (TNTEP), Kenya. The follow up policy dialogue meeting was held on September 4-5, 2023, in Naivasha, Kenya after the August 14-15, 2023, consultative meeting in Nairobi that had set a path for enhancing policy dialogue through development of a collaborative framework between the MOH and TNTEP. The collaborative framework is intended to strengthen the PHC financing and service delivery in Kenya. The policy dialogue was graced by Prof. Dominic Njinkeu, Interim Executive Director, AERC. Prof. Njinkeu reiterated the important role that AERC has played in influencing research, policy and training in Sub-Saharan Africa.  He mentioned that the policy dialogue was timely to generated evidence-based solution in Africa including Kenya.

The Validation Inter-Ministerial Policy Dialogue meeting is premised on participatory approach and localizing practical solutions toward improvement of resource mobilization, allocation (TNTEP) and efficient utilization of resources for best service delivery and PHC outcomes (MOH). The focus of the policy dialogues is to strengthen PHC financing and health outcomes is to raise awareness on the need for adequate, predictable, efficient, and sustainable finance of primary care as the best mechanism to improve health outcomes. Inter- Ministerial Policy platform enhances collaboration, synergy, and alignment of resources. The ongoing policy dialogues are envisaged to increase the effectiveness of both ministries in identifying challenges in resource planning and budgeting and facilitate agreements to expedite the release of allocated funds, track utilization, and enhance efficiency, accountability, and transparency of PHC spending over the budget cycle at the national and subnational levels. The expected outcome of the policy dialogues was to facilitate co-creation and launch of a collaborative framework between the Ministry of National Treasury and Economic Planning and the Ministry of Health to strengthen PHC financing and health service delivery. This is expected to propel better health outcomes in an efficient and effective resource allocation and spending space in the health sector.

During the validation policy dialogue meeting the status of collaborative arrangements of the two ministries was presented. The draft report covered the needs, challenges, and opportunities for collaboration to strengthen PHC financing and service delivery in Kenya. This was followed by presentation on the draft collaborative framework on enhancing policy dialogue for strengthening PHC Financing and Service Delivery in Kenya. The validation meeting included interactive dialogue sessions between the two ministries on the following areas:

Dialogue Session	Focus Areas
Structure of the collaborative framework and guiding principles between MOH and TNTEP: What to do? How to do it	Enhancing cooperation for resource mobilization and utilization Enhancing modes of collaborative engagements
The shared purpose of the collaboration framework: why and how to collaborate? Who is involved?	Enhancing the spirit de corps on collaborative engagements Enhancing shared purpose for better PHC financing and service delivery
Challenges and issues affecting existing collaborative engagements: What can we do better?	Enhancing policy dialogue towards efficiency and effectiveness of resource and use.
Performance monitoring and evaluation of existing collaborative engagements: Are we on the right track?	Enhancing accountability of collaborative engagements: Keeping the eyes on the goal.
Plenary Interactive Session
Linking the collaborative framework to existing engagements between MOH and TNTEP: Oiling the wheel
Lessons learnt in the inter-ministerial policy dialogue?

The co-creation of the collaborative framework through PROPEL Health has come at an opportune time when the Government of Kenya is implementing expansive health sector reforms in PHC and Universal Health Care (UHC) Financing structure. In the development of the collaborative framework at the national level, PROPEL Health envisages the cascading of the similar activities to other stakeholders in the PHC at the county level through the Council of Governors health committee, County Departments of Health, and Financing and Planning and sector working groups, that provides influences resource mobilization, allocation and effective use in service delivery in the health sector. The inter-ministerial dialogue also brought to light the needs for complementary research and capacity building component to empower the stakeholders in PHC in the government and non-state actors on building and nurturing coalitions that will enhance the collaborative framework implementation and ensure sustainability.

The merit of the collaborative framework is that it’s an innovative platform that will enhance working relationships of the MOH and TNTEP to enhance productivity of resource allocation and use in PHC financing as well as service delivery. Another merit is that the collaborative framework is versatile and replicable in other sectors.

The PROPEL Health Country office was represented by Dr. David Khaoya, PROPEL Health Country Director and Paul Abonyo, Health Financing expert. The dialogue sessions were moderated by Dr. Scholastica Odhiambo (AERC) and Dr. David Khaoya (PROPEL Health -Kenya Country Director). The policy dialogue meeting was facilitated by Dr. Moses Muriithi, Dr. Martine Oleche and Douglas Wanja. The participants from the MoH were from both the State Department for Medical Services and State Department of Public Health and Professional Standards: Dr Sospeter Gitonga and Eunice Wamani. The NTEP was represented by the State Department of National Treasury (Yusuf Karo) and State Department of Economic Planning (William Komu, Frank Jara; Taubman Olang; Judith Onyango)