In autumn 2017, the German Ministry of Economic Development (BMZ) approved a proposal submitted by Malteser International (MI) to implement the German-Kenyan Specialized Health Professionals Initiative, a Multi-Actor Partnership (MAP1) intervention aimed at improving the availability, deployment and conditions for selected specialised health professionals in Kenya.

The three-year initiative, running from September 2017 to May 2020 is implemented in a partnership with the Kenya Healthcare Federation (KHF), a private sector membership-based organization that promotes Public-Private Partnerships, and Amref Health Africa, one of the leading NGOs committed to improving and strengthening health systems in the continent’s communities.

In preparation for this initiative, MI contracted the Collective Leadership Institute (CLI) to conduct a feasibility study on 06 February to 20 March 2017. The feasibility study examined the conditions for the initiative to be set-up as a Multi-Stakeholder Partnership (MSP), aimed at advancing and improving training and deployment of health professionals within a specific focus on Kenya.

As stated by MI, the health-care system in Kenya faces the following challenges:

• Shortage of medical professionals across the country & poor labor market absorption,
• Non-standardized, specialized trainings and education in the emergency sector and other health care professions,
• Definition & recognition of emergency professions,
• Knowledge, maintenance & service upkeep of equipment,
• Mainly governmental and corporate driven Health Policy Development (execution lacking).

MI, KHF and Amref, will tackle these challenges and improve the health-care system by fostering an MSP approach in its implementation of the initiative. As the initiative is in its formative stages, MI brought the core team together over a kick-off-workshop that was held on 29 November to 01 December 2017, in Nairobi, Kenya.