SBS Partners with Kenya Healthcare Federation (KHF) and National Hospital Insurance Fund (NHIF) to Host the Annual Health Summit 2022

On Monday, 28th November and Tuesday, 29th November 2022, Strathmore University Business School (SBS) partnered with Kenya Healthcare Federation (KHF) and the National Hospital Insurance Fund (NHIF) to host the Annual Health Summit 2022. This year’s summit brought together key stakeholders in the Kenyan health sector to discuss health financing issues and how to improve the financing function to enhance progress towards Universal Health Coverage (UHC).

Discussions focused on three priority areas as outlined in the Kenya Health Financing Strategy (KHFS):

• Mobilization of the resources needed to provide essential health services to the population
• Maximizing efficiency and value for money in the management and utilization of available resources for health
• Ensuring equity and financial risk protection in the mobilization and allocation of health resources

Over the past decade, the Kenyan health system has undergone several reforms which aim to ensure equitable, sustainable and high-quality health care for all. Key among these reforms has been the development of the Kenya Health Financing Strategy (KHFS) 2020-2030 which provides a blueprint for steering the country towards achieving UHC. The strategy aims to realize these objectives through strategic interventions targeting the areas of resource mobilization, resource allocation and resource utilization.

The reforms currently being implemented by NHIF also took centre stage during the summit given the key role that NHIF plays in the journey towards UHC. The Fund got an opportunity to share with stakeholders the reforms that have taken place so far, their outcomes and implications for UHC.

On paper, the path to UHC is relatively straightforward; countries must raise adequate funds, reduce their reliance on direct payments for services and improve efficiency and equity in the use of funds. In practice, however, this path is not that simple.

After two days of intense and in-depth discussions, we concluded that function determines the structure, and structure determines resources. There are many interlinkages between the health sector and other sectors, the health sector cannot operate in a vacuum.

Health financing is just one of the building blocks of the health system. For us to have a robust healthcare sector, it is critical that all the functions of health financing are optimized.

Par Juliet Hinga

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