Strategic change in the Kenya National Malaria Strategy by the division of Malaria control of the Ministry of Public Health and Sanitation

Abstract

This project set out to do a case study of the strategic change in the Kenya national malaria strategy by the division of malaria control of the ministry of public health and sanitation. Data was collected from the head of DOMC, deputy head of DOMC, focal persons of the various units in DOMC including vector control, case management, epidemic preparedness and control, monitoring and evaluation, advocacy communication and -social mobilization and malaria in pregnancy. Additional data was also collected from the malaria advisors in WHO and MSH. The nature of the questions was structured open ended questions on the need and nature of the strategic change. Secondary data was collected from the national malaria program review, the national malaria strategy 2000 to 2010, the national malaria strategy 2009 to 2017 and other programmatic guidelines.

The objectives of the study were to determine the need for strategic change in the Ministry of Public Health and Sanitation's Division of Malaria Control and to establish the nature of the strategic change in the Ministry of Public Health and Sanitation's Division of Malaria Control. Results showed that the need for the change in the strategy included the adoption of a new vision, the changing malaria epidemiology, the push for impactful indicators, the global economic crisis, the expiry of the old strategy, the need for teamwork, focus and partnerships and the introduction of performance contracting by the government of Kenya. The vision was arrived at through alignment with vision 2030, the Abuja targets and the millennium development goals.

The process of developing the new strategy was through a multi-stakeholder, multi-sector participatory approach in line with recommendations from the Malaria Programme Performance Review. The malaria program review provided a situation analysis of malaria in the country outlining its strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. The nature of the strategic change was planned with the key feature being the malaria program review which provided the situation analysis and recommendations for adoption in the new strategy. The type of change was mainly transitional because the new strategy was not a significantly different from the old one.