Kenya Launches New Malaria Strategy with First-ever Financial Sustainability Plan
On April 25, as the global community marked World Malaria Day, Kenya launched the next iteration of its national malaria strategy—one that includes, for the first time, a financial sustainability plan outlining resource needs and availability, and funding opportunities. The resulting costed Kenya Malaria Strategy (KMS) 2019—2023 will inform the Ministry of Health’s planning and prioritization of key malaria interventions and guide the country over the next five years as it pursues its goal of a “Malaria-free Kenya.”
USAID, through the Health Policy Plus (HP+) project, supported the development of the new strategy, assisting Kenya’s National Malaria Control Programme in their regular Malaria Programme Review. HP+ conducted a financial analysis of the previous malaria strategy, costed the new KMS, and prepared a financial plan to ensure the sustainability of Kenya’s anti-malaria efforts.
HP+ estimated the cost of implementing the KMS 2019—2023 to be 61.92 billion Kenya shillings (Ksh), a sharp contrast to the Ksh 37.81 billion in available resources. The financial sustainability plan aims to help Kenya close the approximate Ksh 24 billion funding gap and achieve the KMS’ goal of reducing malaria incidence and death by at least 75% (of 2016 levels) by 2023. Specifically, the KMS’ financial sustainability plan seeks to:
- Support the development and implementation of the malaria resource mobilization strategy to guide resource mobilization for malaria programming
- Encourage the national and county governments to allocate funds for malaria in their budgets
- Prioritize malaria as a sub-program in county-level programme-based budgets, particularly in malaria endemic counties
- Generate evidence to support advocacy efforts for increased public and private sector investment in malaria
- Support high-level advocacy to direct increased malaria funding towards strategic commodities predominately funded by donor
Addressing the gravity of malaria in Kenya, HP+ Kenya Country Director Stephen Muchiri stated, “Three-quarters of Kenya’s population are at risk of infection, and older children ages 10–14 years have the highest prevalence, at 11 percent.” The new malaria strategy—and the plan to fund the most pressing interventions—offers hope of reducing malaria, saving lives, and lessening the indirect costs of the disease such as lost wages and missed days from work and school.
