USAID Funds Project to Strengthen Kenyan Health Organizations

The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) has awarded a new program that will strengthen Kenyan civil society organizations (CSOs) that provide health services. The FANIKISHA program is a five-year activity valued at over US$41 million (about Ksh 3.7 billion). In addition to its focus on the management and performance of these organizations, FANIKISHA (“accomplish” in Kiswahili) will advocate at the national level for the inclusion of CSOs in the country’s health policy and strategy development mechanisms. Once empowered in this way, it is hoped that the CSOs will be able to contribute to the national discourse on increasing the quality and availability of health services in Kenya. 

Numerous Kenyan CSOs play a critical role in delivering health services to the marginalized, poor and underserved populations around the country. These CSOs can be empowered to play a bolder and larger role in Kenya’s health sector in close collaboration with government and private agencies. The FANIKISHA program will work to enhance and consolidate the activities of these CSOs into a single, national system that will generate important information for the CSOs themselves, the Government of Kenya (GOK), Development Partners, and other stakeholders to help Kenya’s health sector make informed and evidence-based decisions.

FANIKISHA will support the GOK’s efforts to consolidate existing databases into a national database of CSOs working in the health sector. With such a database, the tools and strategies that will be used to build the capacity of local organizations can be rolled out nationally.  

USAID has been working in Kenya for more than 50 years. Today, USAID/Kenya is working with the Government of Kenya, civil society groups and the private sector to advance democracy and the rule of law, to improve health and education services, and to modernize and grow the economy so that Kenya's wealth is shared by more.