Kenya's health care system suffers from a critical shortage, low productivity and maldistribution of skilled health workers and managers. In response, the goal of the Capacity Project's work in Kenya has been to increase the ability of the public health sector to rapidly mobilize qualified health workers as well as strengthen long-term human resources for health planning and management. A strong human resources information system (HRIS) has therefore been seen as a key factor in achieving both of these goals.
The Capacity Project helped to establish a strong stakeholder leadership group, the HRIS Technical Working Group (HRIS TWG), to guide HRIS strengthening in the public sector. A data-driven decision-making workshop was conducted for HR planners and mangers to invigorate their skills in data analysis, reporting and decision-making. The Project further supported the initiative by renovating and equipping a room in the MOH for HRIS use. In June, the HRIS work transitioned to a Capacity Project Associate Award, Capacity Kenya Project, which is now supporting the health sector in adapting and implementing iHRIS Manage.
iHRIS Manage is currently being customized for Kenya to meet the country's specific HR information needs. Initial development work has been completed and HR data from the public health sector is being cleaned, formatted and uploaded. So far, over 35,700 records of health professional working in government facilities and information on over 6,000 health facilities and the services they provide have been uploaded. Soon, the software's training module will be modified to track continuing professional development to accommodate HR dynamics in the sector and data sharing with existing systems.
The next steps are data cleansing and validation; user training; and rollout of iHRIS Manage to the provinces, Kenya Episcopal Conference (KEC) and Christian Health Association of Kenya (CHAK), so that FBOs, and regional health planners and program managers can regularly receive and use the workforce data. Development of a data sharing policy is also underway to address data integration needs in the health sector and is being championed by data users and owners. This will ensure that HR data are being used, both at national and sub-national level, for decision making and informing policies.