National Training, Funzo Kenya Project (Funzo)
Funzo Kenya supports the Government of Kenya’s efforts to make dramatic changes to its health worker education and training systems. “Funzo” means training in Kiswahili. The activity works across the public and private sectors to strengthen pre-service education of health workers, increase the number of health workers graduating from Kenya’s medical training institutions, improve access to training for existing health workers, and link professional licensing to ongoing professional development. The activity initiates public-private partnerships to increase available funding for health worker training and professional development.
Activity Description
Funzo Kenya works with the Ministries of Health to forecast the number of new health workers needed and works with selected training institutions to increase their admissions capacity. The activity increases access to training through loan and scholarship programs for pre-service students and in-service health workers.
Funzo Kenya supports training institutions to develop modern, relevant, and standardized courses based on set curriculum, and to develop Web-based distance learning modules. The activity establishes regional training hubs to address the gaps in the skills and knowledge of those already working in the health field. Managers and supervisors staff the hubs to provide ongoing post-training support.
Funzo Kenya strengthens the capacity of regulatory bodies to standardize training curricula and provide quality assurance for training, establish performance norms, identify gaps, and strengthen the link between continuing professional development and registration or re-licensure. This includes creating a database to make training data available to the Ministry of Health, regulatory bodies, and health workers
Expected Outcomes
- Forecasts the number of new health workers needed and works with training institutions to increase admissions capacity
- Increases access to training by developing loan and scholarship programs for pre-service students and in-service health workers
- Supports training institutions to develop and deliver content and curricula through new learning modalities
- Strengthens the ability of regulatory bodies to identify performance gaps, review curricula, and strengthen the link between continuing professional development and registration/relicensure. This includes creating a database to make training data available to the Ministry of Health, regulatory bodies, and health workers.
Actual Outcomes
- Conducted in-service training for 5,734 health workers across the country
- Supported the Ministry of Health to conduct an e-induction of 1,301 health workers from eight counties
- Supported 335 medical students with training scholarships and 2,029 to access medical training loans
- Established an iHRIS Train system to capture health workers training data for better management
