Dr Custodia Mandlhate, the WHO Representative in Kenya and Dr Teguest Guerma, AMREF Director General unveil the publication
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The African Medical and Research Foundation (AMREF) and Dalberg Global Development Advisors launched a publication titled ‘Contribution of Civil Society Organisations to Health in Africa’ in Nairobi. The new report brings to light the contribution of CSOs across areas of service delivery, health workforce, health financing, access to medical supplies, health management information systems and contribution to leadership and governance in the health sector.
Over the last few years, the role of Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) in health has continued to bridge the gap to accessing health services particularly for rural and marginalised communities in sub-Saharan Africa. But while their contribution remains significant, CSOs have to respond to the perpetually changing dynamics such as decreased funding towards CSO activities, emerging disease trends and increased demands for transparency and accountability from citizens.
Speaking during the launching ceremony, Dr Teguest Guerma, AMREF Director General stressed the need to involve CSOs in the planning and decision making process in partnership with governments. “Governments cannot deal with health issues of a country on their own. They need to enter into partnerships, and because CSOs have been active particularly in the areas of HIV and Malaria they should be included the National Development Plan, strengthened and even funded by government,” said Dr Teguest.
The importance of collaboration was echoed by a cross section of stakeholders who reiterated that strong partnerships between governments, the private sector and the civil society organisations make efforts to improve health in the region more impactful. There were also calls for CSOs to uphold accountability and transparency while executing their responsibilities in order inculcate trust and encourage partnerships that will enhance a sustainable private public partnership model.
Dr William Maina from the Kenya Government Ministry of Health pointed out that the key responsibility of these organisations was to improve livelihood of its citizens. He said that government always engages different stakeholders such as CSOs in discussions, development of plans and evaluates these plans jointly in order to achieve set goals. For instance he said, CSOs played a very key role in the development of the Kenya National AIDS Strategic plan.
Currently between 40 to 60 per cent of health services in the Kenya are provided by CSOs. For instance, AMREF trains over 20 per cent of the nurses in the health work force and has contributed to 31percent increase in the number of registered nurses. CSOs have also increased access to medical supplies through the faith-based pharmaceutical network in East Africa and are responsible for providing medical supplies to 40 per cent of the population.
Dr Custodia Mandlhate, the WHO representative in Kenya, lauded AMREFs efforts in being a leader in improving health in Africa. “This report marks a tremendous milestone in advocacy and the role of CSOs as integral members of the Health Systems in Africa,” said Dr Mandlhate.
CSOs have been at the forefront of campaigning for access to equitable health services including lobbying government to allocate funds towards addressing neglected diseases in addition to monitoring government spending on health. In this report coping strategies for CSOs such as new partnership models in the light of decreased donor funding have been discussed.
The report comes at a time when donors, government and the private sector are developing creative strategies to engage CSOs using models that promote efficiency and improve accessibility of health services. Government willingness to recognise CSOs as partners in development and provision of a conducive environment for CSOs to operate in will determine the success of these organisations.
AMREF is a transparent organisation distributing funds of up to $85 million per year.
