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{
    "id": 1084119,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1084119/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 276,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. (Dr.) Zani",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13119,
        "legal_name": "Agnes Zani",
        "slug": "agnes-zani"
    },
    "content": "talking about community health volunteers involved in health outcomes. There are certain countries like Germany that come to mind immediately. This is where because of such strong structures, the community health volunteers move from one household to the other. They are well known. Indeed, they are elected by the people themselves to give these services. They are able to do and treat so much. Madam Temporary Speaker, I hoped that this Bill would have come at the point when we were dealing with the issue of COVID-19 when it started. It is when the things that we talked about are being entrenched. Sen. Farhiya, Sen. Sakaja and Sen. Khaniri eloquently referred to this issue. When the community is involved and pushed forward to make some of these outcomes, it makes it very easy for us to have a framework of delivery of the community health services. We are talking about a workforce that is very important and entrenched in Article 43 of the Constitution, which is the highest attainable level of health. The highest attainable level of health is a right. It guarantees every person the right. The First Schedule of the Health Act recognizes community health services as Level 1 of the tier of health care delivery, and that is in keeping with the Ministry of Health Second National Health Sector Strategic plan, which shifted emphasis from the burden of disease to the promotion of individual health and emphasized strong community involvement at the healthcare. It is only now the system and structure for us to do that is not entrenched in the Health Act as it stands now. That is the lacuna that we are trying to address. In 2006, the Ministry of Health (MoH) initiated a community health strategy to fast-track the establishment of Community Health Units (CHUs) to bring services closer to the community by empowering communities with health information and essential services. That is what this Bill at the various levels such as community level, community health volunteer level or the CEC health a system must be put into place. The structure that we have in many counties is that the volunteers do a lot of the essential services, a proper scheme has not been put into place. In the initial Bill, we stipulated how this would work. However, we have realized that there is a lot of variation from one county to the other. The provision to guide and move forward has now been taken as a responsibility of the CS for Health at the National level with the CEC Members for Health being responsible at the county level. Madam Temporary Speaker, allow me to give specific examples from various countries to show how important this is and ensuring that the workforce is taken into consideration and that they are able to do what is expected of them. Indonesia, for example, restructured its health system in 1982 to focus on district health development. As a result of involving the local communities, the activities at that time included family planning, health education, immunization, treatment et cetera . According to the World Health Organization (WHO) report, it led to a significant health status achievement. For example, infant mortality dropped by 30 per cent within seven years, while immunization coverage improved significantly. Closer home, Isiolo County has done very well in the health sector. They have been in partnership with the Living Goods, a Non-Profit Organization (NPO) for the delivery of cost effective integrated community health services within the county."
}