Speeches Shim
There are an estimated 2.6 million Orphans and Vulnerable Children (OVC) in Kenya, of whom 650,000 are orphaned by AIDS. More than one million households care for an orphan. In the absence of a coordinated multi-sectoral response, OVC are at risk of: (1) not knowing their HIV status; (2) delayed treatment; (3) economic difficulty due to caregiver illness and death; (4) family separation; and/or (5) situations that put them at greater risk of protection violations and HIV infection (school dropout, early marriage, risky behaviors).
Kenya requires a large number of well-trained, well-distributed and culturally-sensitive health workers. Currently, Kenya has a health worker crisis with 1.5 health workers per 1,000 Kenyans, against the World Health Organization recommendation of 2.3 health workers per 1,000 Kenyans. The shortages are exacerbated by inappropriate skill-mix, chronic absenteeism, low morale, and inefficiencies in hiring, deployment, performance and retention and, a growing population.
Despite the overall improvements in maternal and child health in Kenya, several sub-counties of Baringo and Nakuru have experienced minimal improvements in maternal and child mortality, skilled birth attendance, child immunization, or contraceptive prevalence. For example, rates of pregnant women attending at least four antenatal care visits are substantially low in several sub-counties, with rates as low as 14 percent in both East Pokot and Kuresoi North (DHIS2, 2015).
The Health Informatics Governance and Data Analytics Project (HIGDA) is a five-year project mandated to support the health sector of the Government of Kenya (GOK) to strengthen national and county organizational and management capacity in governance, health informatics, data analytics, monitoring, evaluation, learning and accountability.
With adult (15-49 years) HIV prevalence estimated at about 4.9% in 2017 and approximately 1.5 million people living with HIV, Kenya has made good progress in addressing the epidemic through focused interventions. However, to sustain the progression of the national response, there is a need for interventions that can effectively address the varied nature of the epidemic across different counties while remaining focused on meeting national targets.
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