Last month, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) awarded the FUNZOKenya project to IntraHealth International. With this new five-year, $40 million cooperative agreement, IntraHealth and its partners, including Great Lakes University of Kisumu, the Kenya Healthcare Federation, Moi University, Results for Development Institute, University of Nairobi, and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, will support the government of Kenya to build a national training system to improve access to and quality of training for health workers. The project aims to increase the production of new health workers, improve training for current health workers, and link professional licensure to ongoing professional development.

“Health services in Kenya cannot be improved or expanded without a well-trained and managed workforce,” said Meshack Ndolo, IntraHealth’s country director in Kenya. “This new award is a great opportunity to collaborate with the Government of Kenya to achieve the goal set out in the new constitution—equitable and accessible health services for all of Kenya’s citizens.”

During the last decade, Kenya has achieved improvements in the overall health of its population, including declines in infant mortality and fertility. However, the health status of the Kenyan population remains vulnerable. HIV (29.3%), maternal-related conditions (9%), and lower respiratory conditions (8.1%) remain top causes of death, while the incidence of non-communicable diseases is growing. Wide health disparities exist geographically and among certain groups, with young people disproportionately affected.

Kenya continues to experience critical shortages of health workers, particularly nurses and clinical officers. Furthermore, shortages are intensified in rural areas, in certain regions (e.g., Northern Kenya), and at lower levels of care. Addressing shortages and upgrading the skills of current health workers to meet Kenya’s evolving disease burden require a dramatic shift in health education and training systems at both the pre-service and in-service levels.

The FUNZOKenya project will focus on the needs of health workers across the entire health system (public and private) and will focus on equipping health workers with the appropriate competencies to respond to health demands and to provide responsive, integrated comprehensive services. IntraHealth and its partners will work closely with Kenya’s ministries of health, leading health training institutions in Kenya, the National Health Training Working Group, and eight regional training hubs to strengthen training capacity, address the quality and accessibility of training for current health workers, and support training facilities and regulatory bodies.

The project will apply a set of evidence-based approaches and tools developed over many years and in multiple contexts to strengthen the training system and reach project goals. These approaches include IntraHealth’s Performance Needs Assessment, Optimizing Performance and Quality, Learning for Performance, and Training and Learning Standards.

“The [FUNZOKenya] project embodies IntraHealth’s mission of empowering health workers by fostering local solutions and leveraging partnerships,” said Pape Gaye, president of IntraHealth. “This initiative builds on our long history in Kenya and our ongoing efforts to support Kenya’s commitment to developing a strong health workforce that can deliver quality health services.”

The project is led by Dr. James Mwanzia as chief of party. He is a seasoned health professional and expert in health workforce training and has more than 15 years of experience managing large multilateral projects in Kenya and sub-Saharan Africa. IntraHealth has worked in Kenya for 30 years and also currently leads USAID/Kenya’s flagship Capacity Kenya Project which is focused on strengthening health workforce hiring, distribution, performance, and retention.