More than one hundred participants representing churches, health units, and church organizations met on May 7, 1999, at the Kunste Hotel in Nakuru to deliberate on the theme “Policies and Strategies for Sustainable Health Services by the Church.”

The invited participants included government officials, church leaders, the Kenya Catholic Secretariat, the Christian Health Association of Kenya, the Mission for Essential Drugs and Supplies, and church-based health units.

The objectives of the conference were to 1) review government health policy framework, 2) identify entry points for a church-state partnership in health service provision, and 3) share information regarding the performance of church health units.

The participants noted that:

 1. churches provide more than 35-40% of health services to the citizens of Kenya;

 2. churches' mission in health and healing is to provide services accessible to all people, particularly the poor;

 3. the current policy trends and the Health Sector Reform have forced the cost of care to escalate personnel costs;

 4. there are no longer allocations in the health budgets towards the churches' health services;

 5. many clinics of dubious quality have sprung up, providing poor-quality services and yet diverting patients away from legitimate health institutions;
 
 6. the development of new facilities by the government has not always been rational, often leading to unhealthy competition and duplication of health services in some areas.

Therefore there is urgent need for the government to provide an enabling environment in which services for the poor by churches can be delivered in a sustainable way. This should include the regulation of services to ensure quality of care and thus minimize unnecessary duplication and unnecessary competition.

The government should include churches as partners in health care in all health policy formulation forums at the national, regional, and district levels. This partnership should result in the inclusion of the health services of churches in the national health budget (e.g., allocating 35-40% of the budget, commensurate to the proportion of services provided by churches). Some of this allocation could be in the form of provision of staff. It is also hoped that the government would waive taxes on medical equipment and supplies such as mosquito nets.

The churches, for their part, will undertake to review their own policies, strategies, and structures to ensure good governance, effective management, and cost-effective and cost-efficient services that minimize costs of care and maximize access for the poor.

The churches should also develop effective health management information systems to ensure sound and timely decision-making. They should also take advantage of public media to communicate messages of health and healing, to market essential services provided by them, and to advocate for equity in health service provision in partnership with all stakeholders.

It is our hope that through effective partnership with the state and other stakeholders, we can together make health and healing a possibility for ALL beyond the year 2000.