In November of 2024, the County Assembly of Tharaka Nithi County in Kenya and its One Health Steering Committee adopted a new, five-year One Health Strategic Plan. The plan was developed by Brian Ikala and Biwott Kipyego Hazael of Kenya Red Cross as part of their capstone project for the Global Health Advocacy Incubator’s (GHAI’s) Civil Society Organization (CSO) Budget Advocacy Academy – in partnership with the International Federation of Red Cross, USAID Kenya, the Zoonotic Disease Unit and Tharaka Nithi County government.
The strategic plan provides a robust institutional framework to support the implementation of the One Health approach in the County. Successful implementation will help reduce the burden of zoonotic diseases (diseases that spread from animals to people) and public health risks, while expanding universal health coverage, enhancing food and nutritional security and improving livelihoods.
GHAI developed its 9-month-long CSO Budget Advocacy Academy in partnership with Resolve to Save Lives (RTSL) to strengthen civil society's capacity for epidemic preparedness advocacy and build a movement of advocates in the Africa region. Brian Ikala and Biwott Kipyego Hazael’s success demonstrates how targeted advocacy can strengthen local health systems and secure political commitment for public health.
Read more insights from Brian and Biwott below:
Q: How will the One Health Strategic Plan combat health security challenges?
A: This strategic plan has outlined key interventions to be undertaken by the County government with the goal of reducing the burden of zoonotic diseases and other possible public health events through a One Health approach. These goals include enhancing health surveillance systems, strengthening intersectoral collaboration and capacity for disease prevention and control, implementing sustainable environmental management, and enhancing research and evidence-based practices. The plan will also aim to strengthen the policy and legislative framework, promote community engagement and education and ensure adequate funding and resource allocation. The implementation of the plan will be supported by a robust financing framework from the government, development partners, civil society groups, private sector and community.
This strategic plan represents continued commitment to strengthen collaboration among the different sectors to ensure healthy lives and healthy environment to achieve Tharaka Nithi County development goals.
Q: How does this strategic plan demonstrate how targeted advocacy can strengthen local health systems and secure political commitment for public health?
A: Targeted advocacy ensures that different entities within the government understand their role in enhancing public health security. In our case, we targeted two entities who are key in political, technical and financial commitments:
County Assembly of Tharaka Nithi.
Being both a political/legislative and a key financial pillar in the county, we targeted the committee in charge of Health and Sanitation, Agriculture and Livestock, Finance and Planning and the County Assembly leadership lead by the clerk of the County Assembly. Our main aim was for them to understand the goal of the strategic plan as well as the financial requirements to implement the plan.
County One Health steering committee.
Being the lead in policy and advocacy for the implementation of the strategic plan in their relevant ministries and the departments, this group was targeted with the dissemination of the strategic plan to facilitate adoption of key budget lines in the ministerial and departmental annual budget and workplans developed by the County One Health technical working group.
Q: What was your involvement?
A: Kenya Red Cross started this process through its USAID funded community epidemic and pandemic preparedness project in April 2024. A draft strategic plan was developed by the County One Health technical working group. Once we joined the GHAI CSO Academy, we were able to convene key stakeholder meetings and engage the key groups on the urgent need to prioritize the finalization, dissemination and adoption of the strategic plan. This led to the inaugural launch of the strategic plan on November 26, 2024.
Q: How did the CSO Academy help you with this success?
A: Knowledge and insights gained from the CSO Academy made this win a reality. Insights from budget advocacy, developing a strategic plan, engaging decision-makers, building coalitions and developing communication plans were very instrumental in formulating clear objectives for conducting advocacy and dissemination of the strategic plan to the County One Health steering committee and County Assembly committee members of health, agriculture, finance and planning.
Q: What is the next step?
We are happy to see that the gains that we have made together with the Tharaka Nithi County One Health Unit will be sustained. This is part of the journey to self-reliance where local governments are being asked to finance their own development agendas - including epidemic and pandemic preparedness to enhance health security for its own population.
The next phase will be to initiate accountability tracking of the plan implementation. This will be done by the County One Health Unit by ensuring that the relevant sector working groups have committed to include relevant budget lines for implementation starting with 2025/2026 financial year where the County governments are currently on preparation phase. As Kenya Red Cross, we shall continue to support the County with quarterly One Health meetings where we shall be, in collaboration with other partners, advocating for accountability of the strategic plan implementation.
