Leadership, Management and Sustainability (LMS) Program

Over the past decade, the Government of Kenya has been focusing on reversing the downward trends in health the country experienced in the 1990’s. While many key indicators have stabilized or marginally decreased, such as infant and child mortality, others such as maternal mortality have risen. LMS Kenya works country-wide to supporting public sector units of the health system, nongovernmental organizations, faith-based organizations, and other USAID partners by strengthening leadership and management capabilities in the health sector. Our goal is to help facilitate and accelerate improved access to, and use of, quality health services, thereby improving the health of the population.

RESULTS

By August 2009, 83 teams from district hospitals, district management teams, faith-based hospitals, health centers, and rural health clinics had completed the Leadership Development Program; all are now focused on improving health service delivery in areas such as increasing immunization coverage and births in health facilities.
In November 2009, LMS/Kenya provided technical assistances to the Kenya Episcopal Conference (KEC) and Muslim Health Secretariat in the areas of proposal development, strategic planning and Health Management Information Systems (HMIS).
LMS/Kenya collaborated with Kenya Medical Training College, United States International University (USIU), and Galilee College to develop a Health Systems Management course with a curriculum built upon the strengths of each institution. LMS also supported the enrollment of 20 officials from Kenya's Ministries of Health in the first offering of this Health Systems Management course.
MSH and USAID conducted a collaborative programmatic assessment in Kenya in 2009-2010 to evaluate the impact of the Leadership Development Program (LDP) on service delivery outcomes. For teams that received the LDP intervention, the average coverage rate for selected health indicators was 38% at baseline, 48% at endline, and 51% at approximately six months after the LDP had ended, showing that the teams were able to improve their measureable results and sustain the improvements six months after the end of the LDP. Click here for a summary of the report.

EXPERIENCE IN COUNTRY

Kenya Health Sector Leadership and Management Assessment

Kenya Health Sector Leadership and Management Assessment

The assessment was conducted from March through June 2008. Its aim was to document in-country health sector staff's leadership and management capacity development needs; examine the degree to which the needs identified are being or have the potential to be met through current training programs offered in Kenya; and develop an MOH Strategy Paper to guide USAID and its partners on how best to strengthen leadership and management in the MOH and its affiliated implementing partners. The assessment findings indicate a consistent pattern of management and leadership capacity gaps among health managers surveyed. While more than 90% of all health managers at the district level or above view quality management as important for effectiveness in their job, 61% said that they felt inadequately or not prepared at all for their current role. Of all health managers interviewed, 30% had not received pre- or in-service training, and among those who had, 58% had not received pre-service training. The Kenya Health Management and Leadership Strategy developed with LMS support offers a comprehensive and sustainable framework for responding to how Kenya prepares and continuously equips those who lead and manage its health delivery at all the levels of care.