Reproductive Health Network Kenya

What if getting healthcare was as simple as going to the market? 🛍️🏥 You wake up, get ready for the day and head to the market. Maybe you’re there to sell, buy, catch up with someone, or simply get on with the day’s work. But what if, while you’re there, you could also take a moment to check on your health? That was the idea behind three outreach events held by our RHNK Mashuuru Clinic across Mooi, Ngatu and Mashuuru Markets in Kajiado. 📍💜 Instead of waiting for people to make the journey to a health facility, the health team brought essential services closer to where the community already lives, works and gathers. And the community responded. Across the three markets, 364 interacted directly with our healthcare providers. People accessed family planning, HIV testing, cervical cancer screening, antenatal and postnatal care, curative services, health checks and other essential services. More than 200 clients received condoms, with over 210 condoms distributed. 👏🏽 And in Kajiado, these numbers tell a deeper story. For these communities, seeking sexual and reproductive health services can come with additional layers of hesitation—distance, stigma, concerns around privacy, gender and social expectations, and cultural norms that can sometimes make conversations around SRH difficult. So when more than 360 people feel able to access prevention information and commodities in a familiar community space, that is a meaningful step towards making SRH care more accessible and normalising conversations about health. 💜 But let’s pause on that number, 364 people. That’s 364 opportunities to answer a health question. 364 opportunities to identify a concern early. 364 opportunities to connect someone to care. 364 reminders that healthcare doesn’t always have to wait until someone walks through a clinic door. 💙 For communities in Kajiado, where distance, time, work and everyday responsibilities can make accessing health services challenging, bringing care directly to markets can make a real difference. It means you don’t necessarily have to choose between earning a living and looking after your health. 🌱 This is what taking healthcare closer to communities looks like. And perhaps the best part? The outreach didn’t just bring services to the markets, the community came out to meet them🤝🏽 Moi. Ngatu. Mashuuru. Three markets, one message: your health matters, wherever you are. 💜 💬 What other places in our communities could become unexpected entry points for healthcare?

Today, our offices welcomed two guests whose presence tells you everything about the kind of partnership we're building toward. 🌍 Dr Claudia Shilumani , IPPF Africa Region Director, and Cynthia Mwase , Director for Health at the Gates Foundation Africa, walked through our doors, and we are still smiling. 😊 This was a foundation whose priorities, reducing maternal and neonatal deaths, cutting under-5 mortality, preventing infectious disease, investing in research and innovation, and lifting people out of poverty through agriculture and economic empowerment; sitting across the table from an organization doing exactly that work🤝 That's what makes today close to our heart. ✨ In 2025 alone, we reached over 4 million women with reproductive health services, through integrated service delivery, digital health platforms and community-based programs. 🎯 Over the next 5 years, through our #HerHealthInitiative across 5 counties, and with room to grow further as resources allow, we are targeting over 1.36 million adolescent girls in rural, marginalised communities. If you only had one minute to understand why these five counties, this is it. 👇 Here's what the evidence from the #HerHealthInitiative baseline told us: 📍 Tana River carries the heaviest burden. 🔴 81.3% of sexually active girls have ever been pregnant. 27.5% were pregnant at the time of the survey. Only 53% have ever attended school. Only 51% can read. 📍 West Pokot had the highest proportion of girls who reported ever having had sex (34.4%). 📍 Samburu recorded the earliest average age at first sex, just 15.5 years old⚠️ 📍 Homa Bay had the highest school attendance (99.1%) and literacy (98.7%) among the five counties. 📍 Garissa reported the lowest proportion of girls who had ever had sex (1.3%), highlighting a very different social and cultural context. But here is the thread of hope. 🌱 This is exactly why Dr. Claudia and Cynthia's visit means so much to us. This baseline is the evidence behind every county we've chosen. 📋 This work is anchored in partnership with county and national government. Local ownership carries forward long after the funding cycle ends. 🏛️ So today, we say thank you. Thank you to Dr. Claudia and Cynthia for taking the time to see this evidence, and this work, up close. We are excited about the possibility of building on this conversation with the Gates Foundation Africa to strengthen our health systems strengthening work. The opportunity is investing in the systems, people and partnerships that can make those gains last. To every partner and donor watching this space: an adolescent girl in West Pokot deserves the same quality of care as one in Nairobi. Every investment in the systems around her is an investment in her ability to learn, make informed choices, stay healthy and realise her full potential. This is what your investment makes possible. We'd love to have you at the table next. #HerHealthInitiative #AdolescentHealth #SRHR #GlobalHealth

Picture three teenagers on the same day. One walks past a health kiosk in a Nairobi settlement, weighing whether to walk in. The other herds cattle near Torosei, Kajiado, miles from the nearest clinic. In Samburu, another sits through a school lesson, waiting for a chance to ask the question she’s been holding onto for weeks. 🐄🏫 Different communities. Different challenges. Different opportunities. 🌍 But listen to young people closely, in any of these places, and a common aspiration emerges: to be heard, to have a say in the decisions that affect their lives, and to make a difference in their communities. 🗣️ At RHNK, we see this every day. Through youth-friendly services, community outreach, comprehensive sexuality education, mentorship, youth leadership and advocacy, we work alongside young people, not simply for them, to create spaces where they can ask questions, challenge what isn’t working and participate in finding solutions. 🌱 Because meaningful youth engagement is more than inviting young people into a room. 🚪 It is trusting their experiences, ideas and leadership enough to let them influence what happens in that room. That is where youth-led systems change begins. Watch closely and you’ll see it everywhere 👇 📍 A question asked in a classroom 📍 A young advocate speaking at a policy table 📍 A peer helping another young person access care Small acts of leadership. But string enough of them together, and they become something much bigger. This International Youth Day, we celebrate young people across all their different contexts, and the common aspiration that connects every one of them: to make a difference. And we remain committed to ensuring they have the voice, space and opportunity to lead that change. 💙 What’s one way you’ve seen a young person lead change in your community? Tell us below. 👇 #IYD2026 #YouthLedSystemsChange

In a conference room in Eswatini, a health official from another African country leaned over and asked Kenya's team a simple question: "How do you actually know it's working?" 🤔 Not "how did you write the policy." How do you know it's working. That question is harder to answer than it sounds. 📊 It's one thing to develop national guidelines. It's another to know whether those guidelines are reaching healthcare providers, influencing budgets, improving access to services, and ultimately changing people's lives. That's the challenge Kenya has been working to solve. 🌍 Last week, we joined Ministries of Health, development partners and health leaders from across the region at the 16th ECSA-HC Best Practices Forum and 32nd Directors' Joint Consultative Committee Meeting in the Kingdom of Eswatini, where Kenya's experience in monitoring and institutionalizing self-care took centre stage. 🎤 As the Secretariat of Kenya's Self-Care Community of Practice (CoP), hosted by the MOH - Division of Reproductive and Maternal Health , RHNK has been privileged to convene partners, strengthen collaboration and support the development and piloting of Kenya's Self-Care Policy Monitoring Tool, built to track progress from policy adoption to implementation. Because a policy is only as strong as what happens after it's launched. Four questions decide that 👇 ❓ Is it funded? ❓ Is it being implemented? ❓ Are healthcare providers using it? ❓ Are people benefiting from it? These are the questions the monitoring tool helps answer. At the regional forum, Kenya showcased how the tool has strengthened reporting, coordination and accountability across the country's self-care agenda, giving partners a consistent way to track progress from policy adoption to implementation. One example stood out: instead of training healthcare providers one facility at a time, Kenya disseminated the National Self-Care Guidelines through CPD-accredited webinars, delivered in partnership with professional associations. ✅ The result: 👩⚕️ 5,000+ healthcare providers sensitized, including nurses, midwives, pharmacists and pharmaceutical technologists One approach. Reached thousands. That's what scale looks like. 🚀 The experience resonated across the region. The Self-Care Trailblazer Group (SCTG) is now encouraging more #ECSA countries to adopt the monitoring tool as a practical way to strengthen reporting, coordination and accountability for self-care implementation. For us, this recognition reflects years of working alongside the MOH, SCTG, development partners and members of the Self-Care Community of Practice to strengthen Kenya's self-care agenda. Because strengthening health systems isn't only about writing better policies. 📝 It's about knowing whether those policies are reaching the people they were designed to serve. And when countries learn from one another, stronger health systems don't stop at borders. They spread across the region. 🌍 #SelfCare #HealthSystemsStrengthening

What happens when the way we fund health begins to change? The question isn't simply how organisations will adapt. It's how we ensure that the health systems and services people depend on remain strong, responsive and sustainable. We support the conversation emerging from the Kenya Healthcare Federation (KHF) Stakeholder Engagement Forum for Development Partners, particularly its focus on partnership, innovation and forward thinking. Sustainable health outcomes cannot depend on one organisation, one project or one source of funding. They require governments, development partners, the private sector and communities to think beyond individual interventions and invest in systems that can withstand change. As the funding landscape evolves, this becomes even more important. We need new partnerships, smarter approaches to financing and stronger private-sector engagement; not simply to replace declining donor resources, but to build a more resilient healthcare ecosystem. We believe the work of strengthening health systems means preparing for that future now: building government ownership, strengthening local capacity, creating partnerships that last and ensuring that the gains made through health programs continue to translate into better services for people. #HealthSystemsStrengthening #SystemsThatWorkForHer

Somewhere in Kenya right now, a woman is self-injecting her contraceptive at home instead of taking a day off work for a clinic visit. Somewhere else, someone is testing themselves for #HIV in the privacy of their own room. 🏠💉 Neither of them shows up in a headline. But they show up in data, if we're measuring the right things. 📊 That was one of my biggest takeaways from the recent MOH - Division of Reproductive and Maternal Health - Health Promotion and Demand Generation (HPDG) Community of Practice meeting, where we were well represented. 🤝 What gets measured gets attention. What gets attention gets investment. And what gets investment has the power to change lives. As Kenya continues to make progress in advancing self-care, one question kept coming up in the room: How do we know we're actually making progress? 🤔 The conversation quickly reminded us that developing policies and guidelines is only half the journey. The other half is measuring what is working, identifying what isn't, and using that evidence to continuously improve. One highlight: the review of the Draft Kenya Self-Care Investment Case, a document that makes a compelling case for investing in interventions such as DMPA-SC self-injection, HIV self-testing, and HPV self-sampling. 💡 The discussion wasn't about whether self-care works. We already know it does. It was about making the investment case even stronger, by: ✅ Reflecting the broader self-care agenda ✅ Clarifying stakeholder roles ✅ Strengthening the monitoring framework ✅ Recognizing the contributions of government, development partners, civil society, and the private sector We also had the opportunity to present the Self-Care Progress Tracking Tool for validation. Members recommended making the tool simpler, stakeholder-specific, and focused on measuring implementation rather than knowledge. Sometimes, the best innovation isn't adding more questions, it's asking the right ones. ✔️ It was equally encouraging to hear updates from partners across the country. From research on new self-care interventions, digital health messaging, #HIV self-testing, and Community Health Promoters, to webinars, IEC materials, and integrating self-care into HIV and #RMNCAH programmes, the momentum is real. 🤝 Perhaps the most exciting discussion was around data itself. We agreed that before we can truly measure progress, we need to understand where we're starting from. 📍 A recommendation was made to conduct a national baseline assessment, to map existing self-care data systems, identify gaps, and support the integration of standardized self-care indicators into routine health information systems. Because data doesn't just tell a story. It shapes decisions, influences investment, and helps build stronger health systems. 📈 What's one thing your organization measures that actually changed how you work? We'd love to hear it. 👇 #SelfCare #PrimaryHealthCare #UHC #HealthPromotion

"Every time I visit an indigenous community, I am reminded that the greatest challenge is rarely resilience, it is access. These communities have always possessed strength, knowledge and rich cultural traditions. What they have too often lacked is equitable access to healthcare and opportunities." ~ Nelly Munyasia International Day of the Worlds Indigenous People 🤝🏾 Read more about our work with these communities here👇🏾 https://lnkd.in/dvjZZUgX

She takes the same bus to work every morning. Same desk, same shift, same nine hours. But does she leave her rights at the door when she clocks in? 🚪 For millions of people, the workplace is where they spend most of their waking hours. It should be a place that protects their dignity, safety and wellbeing, not one that puts their rights at risk. ⚖️ That question sat behind the room, as we joined the State Department For Justice, Human Rights and Constitutional Affairs, the Federation of Kenya Employers and a broad coalition of government institutions, businesses, academia and civil society organizations to begin reviewing Kenya's National Action Plan on Business and Human Rights. 🤝 At first glance, it may look like a policy discussion. 📋 But the conversations are really about people. ❓ How do we create workplaces that are free from violence and discrimination? ❓ How do we ensure businesses uphold human rights, promote gender equality and protect the wellbeing of their employees? ❓ How do we make sure the most vulnerable are not left behind? These are the questions that will shape the next chapter of Kenya's National Action Plan. For RHNK, this is an opportunity to ensure that SRHR and gender equality are embedded into the country's business and human rights agenda from the very beginning. Not as an afterthought, but as essential components of healthy, productive and inclusive workplaces. 💙 This builds on our ongoing work to advance SRHR and Gender Equality in the Workplace, where we've partnered with employers to strengthen workplace policies, support employee wellbeing and demonstrate that investing in people's health is also an investment in stronger businesses. 🏢 Because workplaces are more than places of employment. They are places where people build livelihoods, raise families and shape their futures. 🌱 As the review of the National Action Plan moves forward, RHNK looks forward to continuing this conversation alongside government, the private sector and civil society, helping ensure Kenya's next roadmap reflects the realities, rights and aspirations of the people it is meant to serve. Because protecting human rights shouldn't stop at the workplace door. It should be part of every workplace, every policy and every decision. 💙 What would change in your workplace if human rights were built into every policy, not added as an afterthought? Tell us your thoughts below. 👇 #BusinessAndHumanRights #SRHRAtWork #GenderEquality

Six weeks. That's how long one employee sat by her child's hospital bed after he suffered severe burn injuries. 🏥💔 No countdown on her leave. No choice between her job and her son. Because her workplace had already built the space for her to be both a mother and an employee, without having to give up one for the other. 🤱 That's what a lactation room and a flexible arrangement meant in the moment it actually counted. That's the future we've been working towards through the Sexual and Reproductive Health Rights (SRHR) and Gender Equality at the Workplace Project. 💼💙 A healthy workplace isn't just one where people work safely. It's one where they can thrive. 🤱 Where a new mother can return to work knowing she has a safe space to breastfeed. 🗣️ Where employees can access sexual and reproductive health information and services without fear or stigma. ⚖️ Where gender equality isn't just a policy on paper, but part of everyday workplace culture. Together with the Federation of Kenya Employers and partners, we joined company CEOs, business leaders and workplace champions in Kisumu to reflect on the project's impact and, more importantly, discuss how these gains can be sustained as the project moves into its next phase. 🤝 One question sat at the centre of every conversation: How do we ensure that investments in workplace wellbeing continue long after donor funding ends? 💭 The answer lies in leadership. When CEOs champion sexual and reproductive health, gender equality and safe workplaces, these priorities get embedded in company policies, budgets and everyday practice, not left dependent on a project's lifespan. Here's what that leadership has already built 👇 ✨ 12,600+ women and vulnerable workers reached through SRHR education 🏥 3,200+ employees connected to workplace wellness outreaches 🤝 1,100+ workplace complaint and reporting mechanisms established 👥 89 peer educators and 18 Trainers of Trainers and SRHR Champions trained to keep driving change from within their own workplaces Behind every one of those numbers is someone like the mother who got to walk back into her workplace with her dignity, and her job, intact. 💙 Stories like hers remind us that workplace policies are never just policies. They shape real lives. For us, advancing SRH doesn't stop at health facilities. It extends to schools, communities and workplaces, because people spend a significant part of their lives at work, and every workplace has the opportunity to promote health, dignity and equality. 🏢 As Kenya continues strengthening workplace protections, including efforts to advance safer and more inclusive workplaces, we remain committed to working alongside employers, government and partners to make sure this progress becomes part of how workplaces operate every day. Does your workplace have a policy that's made a real difference for someone? We'd love to hear the story behind it. 👇 #SRHRAtWork #GenderEquality #HealthyWorkplaces