Players in the health sector are set to meet and chat a way forward on issues affecting the sector, key among them remuneration.

This comes at a time when healthcare workers' strikes have been on an upward trend, especially with the disparity in remuneration by different devolved units for the same job description.

In an effort to streamline the differences, the Ministry of Health and Kenya Health Human Resource Advisory Council (KHHRAC) will conduct dialogues with the stakeholders ahead of Mashujaa Day celebrations.

The engagements will focus on identifying innovations and best practices in strengthening health workforce development and management in Kenya.

This will include employment and remuneration, mobility, performance management, incentivization, public-private collaboration, and trade union relations.

According to the Chairperson, Kenya Health Human Resource Advisory Council Francis Wafula, effective health service delivery requires strong coordination across money, people, supplies, and information.

“Two state corporations, the National Hospital Insurance Fund and the Kenya Medical Supplies Authority, are responsible for the ‘money’ and ‘supplies’ agendas, while the health information is being ably managed under the broader government ICT Digital Masterplan Agenda,” said Wafula.

He points out that what has been missing is a ‘backstop’ institution for health workforce policy coordination across county and national levels, tasked with synthesizing the complex web of health workforce-related policies.

Wafula added that through the dialogues, the health sector players will develop a roadmap with clear timelines to guide the ecosystem actors in coordinating efforts to strengthen the human resources for health function and its contribution to UHC.

The Ministry of Health-led dialogue is set to bring together stakeholders from national and county government, drawn from public and private sectors, and working directly in health, or non-health sectors that touch on human resource matters.

The forum will assess the current health workforce situation and challenges in Kenya, identify innovations and best practices in strengthening human resource development and management in the country.

This will culminate in the development of a roadmap to guide the ecosystem actors on action to strengthen the human resources for health function and its contribution towards the achievement of universal health coverage.

“The full day dedicated to health workforce dialogue is expected to generate priority action points to improve health workforce performance for UHC,” added Wafula.

The care economy is touted to be a new growth engine, with the International Labour Organisation estimating that global care jobs are expected to grow from 206 million to 358 million in the next few years.