Reducing Kenya’s health system dependence on donors
This blog was first published in Brookings Future Development Blog, March 2, 2021. The authors are Kaci Kennedy McDade, Kenneth Munge, Gilbert Kokwaro, and Osondu Ogbuoji. Health systems in most low- and middle-income countries face two major obstacles: insufficient domestic funding and inefficient use of available resources. While the problem of insufficient domestic funding has partly been mitigated by foreign aid, these arrangements are changing quickly: As countries move from low- to middle-income status, they are perceived as capable of financing their health systems. Some donors have begun to transition out of such middle-income countries. While graduation from foreign aid is a positive milestone for any country, this transition, if poorly managed, may lead to a reversal of health gains. The suspicion is that this is happening in many countries. To…