The Public Health Officers and Technicians Council (PHOTC) and Amref Health Africa in Kenya have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to collaborate on the provision of Continuing Professional Development (CPD) training in sanitation marketing.
The MOU signing that took place at the Ministry of Health offices, is aimed at facilitating the joint designing, implementation and monitoring of CPD programmes for Public Health Officers and Technicians towards improving quality, promoting access and sustainability of training programmes for public health officers.
The MoU also seeks to promote and market joint training programmes not only to Public Health Officers and Technicians, but also to donors and other stakeholders in the sanitation field.
According to the World Bank, one out of every two people who lack access to improved sanitation practice open defecation. Combining community-led total sanitation (CLTS) and sanitation marketing approaches has proven effective in stopping open defecation at scale, and moving households up the sanitation ladder. Sanitation marketing is thus considered a sustainable measure towards ending open defecation.
“We cannot achieve Universal Health Coverage (UHC) without sanitation interventions, this partnership is an investment towards UHC,” Said Dr Kepha Ombacho, Ministry of Health Director of Public Health.
The MoU was signed by Amref Health Africa in Kenya Country Director Dr Meshack Ndirangu, and Ministry of Health Director of Public Health, Dr Kepha Ombacho.
The MoU proposes Amref as a provider of Continuing Professional Development (CPD) training for Public Health Officers and Technicians in Nakuru County for a pilot period of one year.
Successful implementation and performance review of the pilot is anticipated to lead up to roll out across the entire country in fulfilment of CPD requirements for the renewal of professional licenses for public health officers and technicians by their regulatory body PHOTC.
Amref Health Africa in Kenya has been involved in capacity building of mid-level and community health workers through in-service, pre-service and CPD for many years. From 2011 to 2015, we trained over 100,000 health workers.
Guided by our current strategic plan (2018-2022) Amref Health Africa in Kenya has deliberately set out develop and sustain human resources for health (HRH) to catalyse the attainment of universal health coverage in Kenya. Specifically, we seek to educate and improve the skills of 120,000 health workers by 2022.