Kenya is a developing country in East Africa region with a total land area of 582,646 km2. It gained independence in 1963 from British colonial rule. It is neighbor to Somalia and Sudan which have experienced political instability marred with civil strife but the country has remained relatively stable despite the effects of such on socio-economic status of the country. According to Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (2010), Kenya has 38.6 million people with a growth rate of 2.8% annually with a majority population living in rural areas (World Bank, 2010). Under its current constitution (promulgated in 2010), Kenya is headed by a president with a devolved county government system comprising of 47 counties. Its last concluded general elections in 2013 were peaceful compared to the conflicted 2007 that sparked violence in the country.
The health services are a devolved function in the current transition to county system. Kenya had an annual economic growth rate of about 2.2% in the 90’s with a further increase in GDP of 4.5% in the last decade (World Bank, 2010) which was disrupted by the political crisis in 2007. According to World Bank (2010) statistics, about 46.6% of Kenyans live below the national poverty level. It is one of the countries with highest levels of economic inequity in the society (World Bank, 2010). According to WHO (2013), Kenya is ranked position 147 0ut of 177 with a Human Development Index of 0.521.
The country faces various health challenges including a high burden of communicable diseases (such as HIV/AIDS that is responsible for 29.3% of all deaths, malaria and Tuberculosis) and non-communicable diseases (Government of Kenya, 2011). Health services are provided by government, missionaries, ...
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...f Conduct was developed to coordinate these development stakeholders to work together and avoid duplicating their activities and funding (CSIS, 2014, World Bank, 2010, 2014 & Government of Kenya, 2011).
The chart below illustrates the bilateral patners in kenya.
Source: Global Health Policy, Center for Strategic & International Studies (CSIS), 2014
To achieve vision 2030, health sector is a key pillar through provision of accessible, quality and relevant health services to have a healthy workforce. Increasing allocation of resources, improvement in health personnel and facilities, better health management are among the strides made. However, challenges still exist due to infrastructural constraints, inadequate human resources, increasing cost of medical care, financial constraints, HIV/AIDS Pandemic, increasing non communicable diseases and high poverty levels.
Healthy People 2020 is geared towards betterment of health for the most citizens by year 2020.It is a carefully and exhaustively planned project by the different sectors of government and health agencies with the inclusion of the analyses of the determinants of health, and disparities, using different kind of public health models in order to make appropriate policies and programs that are feasible to implement and practical to abide for the benefit of the population served.
The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), otherwise known as the Global Goals, are a universal call to action to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure that all people enjoy peace and prosperity. Among the 17 goals the third goal is to achieve good health and well-being (UNDP). To achieve this goal, it is definitely known that passing the obstacles available in the overall activities performed to bring about health and well-being. The third goal in its sub goal gives attention on achieving universal health coverage which is an ongoing process for every country as they work to ensure that all people receive the health services they need without experiencing financial hardship. How these financial hardships can be minimized?
National health systems are assessed by the extent to which expenditure and actions in public health and medical care contributes to the crucial social goals of improving health, increasing access to quality healthcare, reducing health disparities, protecting citizens from penury due to medical e...
In today’s fast paced era, health care is a continuous process, in which medical demands as well as needs are progressively getting challenging therefore accessibility to a good health care system is necessary in order to provide major improvements in the quality of care. Additionally, health of an individual is the most vital aspect of human life that enables people to perform all their tasks in life. Without good health, people struggle to maximize each moment in their life. Also, a healthy nation consisting of healthy, fit and strong individuals can play big factor in development and success rate of that country as well. Therefore, sufficient investment towards well-structured health system must be a top priority of a
Public health is now in the epidemiological transition of communicable diseases to non-communicable diseases. This shifting in trend of diseases continuously strike almost all parts of the world, particularly the developing countries. Many of these ill health outcomes can be prevented if the policies are effectively implemented in timely manner. As such, states should be aware of these changes and respond in appropriate public health systems and policies.
Access to health does not only relate to how available the services are but also how they are delivered at the point of care. People should have access to equity healthcare which means the provision of fair goods and services and opportunities needed for the physical, psychological and spiritual health (McGibbon, Etowa & McPherson, 2008). These health services can be made available through the creation of more public clinics and hospitals. Several studies done in developing countries indicates that introducing medical user fees leads to reducing utilization which tends to affect the poor (CSDH, 2008).
After the smallpox pandemic, science has done a lot to cure and control most other outbreaks of diseases. But with the shortage of healthcare and medication in the developing regions, what is there to stop many diseases from spreading. In Kenya, there is only 1 doctor for over 5000 people. How does 1 doctor make sure 5000 people are not in trouble with a live-threatening disease?
There are many inequities in this global world; should there be such gross inequities in the health of people around the world? We hear words like health gap, health care inequality and sustainability. What can be done to eliminate the health gap, health care inequities and maintain sustainability? The World Health Organization (WHO) and other organizations, private and public are working towards eliminating these disparities. Healthy People 2020 are one such goal that has achieved considerable progress in attaining sustainability in the pursuit of global health goals (Gostin et al., 2013). The health gap can be minimized through health strategies. Among them are essentials for all in this global world; clean air, water, healthy food and adequate housing with hygienic living conditions. Primary, secondary, tertiary prevention and care services should be available to all who seek health care services.
On attaining independence in 1963, the inaugural Kenya government identified poverty illiteracy, disease and unemployment as the most debilitating of challenges facing the country. Almost five decades later, despite numerous policy efforts, these challenges continue to enslave many Kenyans. The situation is even more debilitating when one is a youth. According to the Kenya Integrated Household Budget Survey , approximately 67 per cent of the unemployed in the country are youth.
On the eastern coast of Africa lies a land full of sunny blue skies and large plains in which zebras and elephants roam. This land is the country of Kenya. Outside of Kenya’s cities and towns lies many samples of natures beauty. Unfortunately, the people living in this land are troubled by their struggle with the government and trying to form a democracy. Matthew Carotenuto stated, “Much of the world had historically viewed Kenya as an island of peace and economic potential in a roiling sea of stateless chaos.” What he means is that people have long seen Kenya as a peaceful place that is surrounded by countries suffering from all sorts of violence and unfortunate circumstances. What many people do not know is that Kenya has a long history for political violence going way back to when the country was colonized. Understanding that Kenya’s past violence was due to their struggle for social and political authority helps us understand some of their violence issues today. According to Maina Kiai, violence broke out after Kenya’s 2007 election. Many people had thought that Kenya was a more peaceful country compared to others in Africa because they were working towards a democracy. Currently Kenya is a republic (“Kenya” The World...). Another thing Kiai mentioned is that one of Kenya’s major political problems is that Kenya's constitution gives the president full power to elect anyone he wants into a political position for any salary he chooses. Scott Baldauf and Robert Crilly also explain how Kenya is trying to become a democracy but its political system is weak and allows the president too much power, making the nation a dictatorship in disguise. This leads to many ethical issues within the governments systems. We should care about Ken...
Kenya is a republic of East Africa. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean on the southeast. The capital of Kenya is Nairobi. It is located in the south central part of the country. It has a population of 1.5 million. The National Musum of Kenya, the National Theater and the University of Nairobi are in the city.
Once resources, energy and creativity of all these actors will harness, there will be significant improvement in global health (Gostin & Mok, 2009). • It is also essential to recognize that HIV/AIDS has risen rapidly to prominence in donor health agendas. There is a need to ensure that as this epidemic is addressed, funding and attention for other major sources of illness and death in developing countries are not neglected (Shiffman,
As a future healthcare leader, I will start by collecting data on the health of the community that my organization serves. I will develop a five-step program to contribute to public health efforts within my organization. My five-step program towards public health will involve monitoring, diagnosing and investigating, informing and educating, partnering, and researching. I will monitor the health indicators of my community and be aware of health needs and disparities. I will seek to identify hazards through research and analysis and diagnose root causes. Once root causes are recognized, improvement is possible. It is
...tly should attend to the most urgent and highest needful problems to reduce the risk of developing those issues. Health priorities include reduction of non-communicable diseases (NCDs), decrease the road traffic accidents rate, reduce the infectious disease and vaccine preventable diseases, prevent transmit of HIV infections and reduce the poverty by minimizing gap between rich and poor. In addition, this health problems should be addressed in accordance to WHO guidelines, Millenniums development goals and according to other international health reporting standards. Moreover understanding the burden of disease is important where it helps to measure weightage of disease in a specific nation with that of the global situation. So supportively this will help to prioritize the urgent health problems in the country which will support the prevention of those health issues.
Like any other developing countries, Ethiopian health care delivery suffered with a lot of problems. The country has a poor health status in relation to other low-income countries, morbidity and mortality rate is very high, major health problem of the country are communicable diseases and nutritional disorder. Indeed the government devised strategies to deal with the issue but still the problem is there, no major change observed or brought. In Ethiopia life expectancy is 54 years- for women 55.4 years and for male 53.4 years. The infant mortality rate is 77/1000, under five mortality rate 101/1000, maternal mortality rate 590/100,000 according to demographic and health survey (2005), even though this figure showed a lot improvement as compared to the previous years, still it needs a lot improvement.