White Ribbon Alliance Kenya (WRA Kenya) is a National people-led movement for women’s health and rights. Established in 2009 and registered as a local organization in 2017, we work to directly influence Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) 3 and 5, and to promote good health and gender equality broadly. We advocate and fight for what women want by rooting our work in the self-articulated needs of women and girls, in all their diversity. At WRA Kenya, we ask women and girls what they need, we listen, then act on their demands and advocate for others to do the same, especially rights holders who are accountable to them.
WRA actively challenges this paradigm through direct campaign mobilization, supporting women and girls to amplify their voices, influence change, and negotiate for their own interests. We advocate for women’s and girls’ voices and demands to lead change at the Local, National, Regional and Global level. Recognizing that solutions are best implemented at the local level. WRA Kenya provides members with self-care tools, trainings, and a globally connected network to broaden the reach of their advocacy efforts, and realize lasting change for women and girls in their communities. .
In Bungoma and Makueni counties, there have been significant changes made to respond to the needs of people living with disabilities following the UHC For Me project. The UHC for Me project was designed to simultaneously improve UHC principles of quality, equity and dignity at the point of service delivery and influence long-term, system-wide change for priority populations through national and county UHC planning, policy, budget and implementation processes. We worked with women and girls living with disabilities in the two counties to voice their demands for quality and accessible healthcare locally, while ensuring their perspectives inform county and national dialogues on UHC.
Listening to women and girls with disabilities
Since the onset of the UHC For Me project, women and girls with disabilities in Bungoma and Makueni Counties have shared their lived experiences and most pressing needs while accessing health care in their local health facilities: lack of ramps: disability friendly toilets; availability of family planning commodities; adjustable maternity beds; and disability competent health care workers emerged as top requests.
“For long, majority women living with disabilities of different types did not seek health care in health facilities because their previous experiences were shameful, I remember stories of women about how nurses were disrespectful to them during delivery. They assume women with disability should not get pregnant.” – Resident, Bungoma County
To make sure the ‘numbers’ work for people, especially for those who commonly experience inequality on the basis of sex, age and disability status, this dialogue must be broken wide open and owned by the grassroots. The joint partnership with the Youth for Sustainable Development (YSD) – Bungoma and Makueni Chapters – rallied the organizing power of young people to claim space in the ongoing health dialogues at the local level. Guided by a series of advocacy capacity strengthening activities led by WRA Kenya, the youth advocates have successfully mobilized women and girls with disabilities in their respective Counties to strongly articulate the ‘UHC they want’ through the implementation of the joint project dubbed UHC For Me.
“The village I come from, most people living with disabilities have no sources of income and majority are also abandoned by their families, many cannot afford transport to the health facilities leave alone the hospital fees. Women living with disabilities face stigma, and this has made most opt not to seek help in the past.” – Resident, Makueni County
While the general health needs of persons with disabilities are the same as everyone else and can often be met by primary health services, they may also have additional specific health needs related to specific impairments or comorbidity. These include access to rehabilitation and assistive devices (such as wheelchairs, prosthesis, visual supports). Studies have confirmed that women with disabilities further face a host of socio-cultural, financial and structural barriers which impact their access to healthcare. These range from being ignored and judged at the health facilities, to exclusive transportation options while seeking care, and even lack of insurance coverage that responds to their unique health needs. Through community validation meetings held in sub county villages and guided by the Power ON toolkit, the youth advocates worked closely with women and girl with disabilities to prioritize their health issues and design corresponding plans to demand action from their health decision makers.
“We now move around our health facilities with ease after the construction of ramps, the toilets are clean and disability friendly, we have adjustable delivery beds for mothers living with disabilities, health workers are more friendly and understand us better” – Elika Sanya, Resident, Milo, Bungoma County, Kenya
Working in partnership with Sustainable Development Goal Forum (SDG Forum Kenya), in Kajiado County, the What Women Want campaign exposed the gender imbalance at policy decision-making levels. Elected positions were entirely dominated by men; therefore, women’s voices were underrepresented. The Gender Mainstreaming Policy ensures that when senior officials are selected for appointment, their gender is a deliberate consideration. The policy endeavours to ensure that women’s perspectives inform priority services and interventions that expand access to employment opportunities and end harmful practices for women and girls. The policy also has key provisions on ensuring adequate WASH facilities in schools to support menstrual health and bolstered security measures at health facilities to prevent mistreatment.
Additionally, the What Women Want campaign inspired the development of a gender sector working group in Kajiado that has been consistent in working with other players and the county government to advance gender equality and help in the fight against gender-based violence.
The What Women Want campaign informed and inspired dialogue around gender-responsive budgeting, encouraging allocations to projects that support women and children. One powerful example is the Women’s Economic Empowerment (Ushanga Initiative) in Kajiado County, which aims to bring economic opportunities to women at the grassroots level.
“The campaign influenced how we interact as government, CSOs, and communities. It has inspired the development of a county gender sector working group. We all sit at one table, plan, and execute activities as a team. We are not in silos now.” –Eve Merin, Director, Gender & Social Welfare Department, Kajiado County, Kenya
Midwifery has long been underrecognized as a profession in Kenya, with investments focused on nursing alone. White Ribbon Alliance has made concerted efforts to elevate midwifery as a stand-alone profession, ensuring it is acknowledged in legal and policy documents and making it possible for midwives to chart their own career and practice pathway through the Midwives Voices Midwives Demands Campaign. Specifically, WRA organized a cohort of midwifery champions, as well as conducted a series of listening sessions and advocacy trainings with them, that helped to elevate the issue of midwifery in the media. As a result, and through close collaboration with the Ministry of Health, the Nursing Council of Kenya, and the Midwifery Association of Kenya, WRA prompted the development and launch of the National Nursing and Midwifery Policy and regulatory tools for nursing and midwifery education and practice in Kenya. This is the first such policy recognizing and incorporating midwifery in Kenya.
The next move is to advocate for midwifery autonomy and scope of practice as demanded by midwives in Kenya. Key to this is expanding the Nursing Council to a Nursing and Midwifery Council, giving equal voice and rights for midwives. Midwifery advocates drafted a bill that was tabled before parliament that proposed this amendment. Though the efforts are yet to be realized, WRA and the Midwifery Association of Kenya will not stop advocating to ensure that the demands by midwives are realized, and that midwifery attains status
“SMART advocacy training conducted by WRA Kenya, and the listening exercise gave me the confidence to speak up and demand that midwives be given their rights back. I was afraid in the past and did not know where to start or who to go to. I feel that now midwives have the power to own their problems and demand solutions from those who make decisions.” –Mark Katumila, midwife champion, Kilifi County
WRA Kenya is part of the consultative process that is supporting the Senate Reproductive Health bill, aligned around mental health, SRH, and women with disabilities. Currently in Parliament, the bill is contentious (dubbed the ‘abortion bill’ in Kenya) with many opposers. What Women Want responses were invoked for the consultative process, through which the bill’s final memo was co-developed. What Women Want demands were included in the 2nd reading of the bill. WRA has since brought in youth to speak to the importance of the bill. The East Africa Sexual Reproductive Health Bill mirrors the Kenya legislative piece.
Midwives are essential providers of primary health care and can play a major role in this area and other levels of the health system. White Ribbon Alliance launched the Midwives’ Voices Midwives’ Demands report that highlights midwives’ demands globally, Kenya included. White Ribbon Alliance Kenya held a National Virtual Round-table with midwives and stakeholders calling on the government to prioritize investments in the sector. Watch the event.
Powerful change by women for Women! “We now move around our health facilities with ease after the construction of ramps, the toilets are clean and disability friendly, we have adjustable delivery beds for mothers living with disabilities, health workers are more friendly and understand us better” – Elika Sanya, Resident, Milo.
The UHC for Me project by @White Ribbon Alliance Kenya is designed to simultaneously improve UHC principles of quality, equity and dignity at the point of service delivery and influence long-term, system-wide change for priority populations through national and county UHC planning, policy, budget and implementation processes
@White Ribbon Alliance Kenya worked with women and girls with disabilities in the two counties to voice their demands for quality and accessible healthcare locally, while ensuring their perspectives inform county and national dialogues on UHC.
All over the world, the COVID-19 pandemic had devastating effect on the lives of girls and young women, the worst economic, social and health crisis of our lifetimes.COVID-19 has had a devastating impact on people’s health and livelihoods in almost every country in the world. In Nairobi Mukuru and Kibera slums, cases of GBV remarkably and most women were unable to access health services
Women were at the front lines of the COVID-19 crisis, as health care workers, caregivers, community organizers and as some of the most exemplary and effective national leaders in combating the pandemic. The crisis highlighted both the centrality of their contributions and the disproportionate burdens that women carry.
Women were at the front lines of the COVID-19 crisis, as health care workers, caregivers, community organizers and as some of the most exemplary and effective national leaders in combating the pandemic. The crisis highlighted both the centrality of their contributions and the disproportionate burdens that women carry.
Women were at the front lines of the COVID-19 crisis, as health care workers, caregivers, community organizers and as some of the most exemplary and effective national leaders in combating the pandemic. The crisis highlighted both the centrality of their contributions and the disproportionate burdens that women carry.
The situation in Kajiado Kajiado County is dire for girls and women. Harmful cultural beliefs and traditional practices strip opportunity from thousands of young girls and women and prevent them from achieving their God-given potential, condemning them to a life that is anything but equal. For instance, FGM typically takes place between infancy and the age of 15 and can result in serious, life-long health consequences such as severe bleeding, life-threatening infection, complications in childbirth and increased risk of newborn deaths.
Through our project with Sustainable Development Forum, community and leadership engagements have been key in creating a conducive Kajiado for women and girls through policy mechanisms that will see end to GBV for women and girls
Women and girls in Kajiado County voiced their demands for quality health services during the 2018 What Women Want survey, 3 years later, remarkable changes have been implemented by the county following continued advocacy efforts. Deployment of more health workers in health facilities has made services faster for women and girls.
The request for more midwives and nurses was one of the top requests from the What Women Want campaign in Kenya. Women and girls described their lived experiences while voicing their demands for Increased, competent and better-supported doctors.
To fully realize the demand for midwives, we needed to understand better from midwives themselves what they want and need. In Kenya over 3,500 midwives voiced their demands on what they need most to be able to deliver quality services to women and girls. White Ribbon Alliance Kenya is pushing for improvements in midwives’ working conditions, changing the public’s perception of their work and supporting then in advocating for their profession. All of which in turn, will lead to improved care for women and newborns.
Over the next 3 years, WRA Kenya will convene 500,000 adolescents, grassroots youth groups, SRHR coalition members, faith leaders and media champions through self-care advocacy and intergenerational dialogues to destigmatize adolescent pregnancies and lead to an increase in availability, access and utilization of adolescent-friendly sexual, reproductive and maternal health information and services. The campaign will seek to raise and amplify adolescent voices to directly inform and cultivate a positive self-care culture for sexual, reproductive and maternal health, and ultimately lead to decreased unplanned/unintended pregnancies among young people. This will be demonstrable through the emergence of a fact-based narrative about adolescent pregnancies led by and with adolescents and young people, and the formation of active adolescent self-care collectives.
WRA Kenya plays an important convening role to build consensus, identify gaps and coordinate action. Our stakeholders in advocacy include adolescents, women and communities, civil society organizations, media, faith leadership, and regulatory bodies. We will leverage these key relationships to develop effective and coordinated strategies and action plans to drive our work. To build collective ownership and gear up for the campaign, we will reignite conversations with strategic partnerships, including our media champion network, grassroots youth accountability groups and key sexual and reproductive health partners involved in past campaigns addressing adolescent health. Furthermore, we will tap into our membership status in multisector gender and youth technical working groups and ongoing conversations with religious leaders to rally for their support and engagement. Finally, we will seek to establish new linkages with secondary learning institutions to deepen our adolescent reach.
Universal health coverage means that everyone has access to quality health services without experiencing financial hardship. It is a fundamental human right for all people to have access to UHC and health systems and facilities have to be inclusive and accessible to all persons, including persons with disabilities who are more likely to lack health coverage since most of them are more likely to live in impoverished conditions and to be the most marginalized. In 2019, WRA Kenya began the UHC for Me project and campaign. The project seeks to enhance the numbers and competencies of health workers to respond to PWD needs, disability-friendly infrastructure and services in health facilities, availability of PWD-specific medicines and supplies, cleanliness and sanitation in health facilities and reduction of wait times in health facilities within Bungoma and Makueni County Health facilities
The UHC For Me project is an integrated social accountability and advocacy project in two counties of Makueni and Bungoma to ensure the country’s policies, plans and budgets on UHC are equitable and inclusive. The project is designed to simultaneously improve UHC principles of quality, equity and dignity at the point of service delivery and influence long-term, system-wide change for priority populations through national and county UHC planning, policy, budget and implementation processes.
Powerful change by women for Women! “We now move around our health facilities with ease after the construction of ramps, the toilets are clean and disability friendly, we have adjustable delivery beds for mothers living with disabilities, health workers are more friendly and understand us better” – Elika Sanya, Resident, Milo.
The UHC for Me project by @White Ribbon Alliance Kenya is designed to simultaneously improve UHC principles of quality, equity and dignity at the point of service delivery and influence long-term, system-wide change for priority populations through national and county UHC planning, policy, budget and implementation processes
White RibbonKenya worked with women and girls with disabilities in the two counties to voice their demands for quality and accessible healthcare locally, while ensuring their perspectives inform county and national dialogues on UHC.
Bringing Hope to Women and Girls
sustainable development. Girls and women in Kenya hold unlimited potential. The barriers that limit women are multifaceted. Issues like gender-based violence remain pervasive. Women and are underrepresented in decision-making processes at all levels and their voice remain unheard! Alongside other partners, WRA Kenya works to promote women’s engagement in every aspect of Kenya’s development in all levels, ensuring women voices are at the centre of policy development and implementation. We working with the SDG Forum Kenya to;
Community Journalism is when everyday people collect, analyze, and share news and personal stories about health and rights. Community journalists connect with mainstream media representatives to publish their stories on radio, TV, and print media to reach far and wide.
In 2020, White Ribbon Alliance Kenya engaged a multi-sectoral coalition of approximately 40 organizations, with partners
drawn from grassroots, youth, women’s rights and international non-governmental organization, to launch Deliver for Good Kenya (DFG-Kenya) – a multi-year advocacy campaign bringing together diverse stakeholders to drive progress toward gender equality and the Sustainable Development Goals. Through a comprehensive policy mapping exercise, the national advocacy strategy was co-developed and an advisory council constituted to convene and lead respective policy investment areas. WRA Kenya was tasked to coordinate advocacy on sexual and reproductive health services to achieve universal health coverage with an emphasis on adolescents’ enjoyment of their sexual and reproductive health and rights.
At the subnational level, WRA Kenya mobilized and organized a diverse network of youth groups in Narok County into a coordinated youth accountability network and strengthened their advocacy and communication capacities to push for the implementation of the National Adolescent Sexual Reproductive Health Policy (NASRHP) as it relates to establishing comprehensive sexual and reproductive health services and aligned to universal health principles. Community journalism, a social accountability approach was applied to collect, shape and elevate stories from adolescent girls’ and young women’s experiences with the local health system.
Community journalism is when everyday people collect, analyze, and share news and personal stories about health and rights.
Community journalists connect with mainstream media representatives to publish their stories on radio, TV, and print media to reach far and wide. Community journalism helps people’s powerful stories be heard or seen by a wide audience to inspire change. This includes duty-bearers and decision-makers that communities are trying to influence. Community Journalism is also a way to increase community members’ confidence in telling and sharing personal stories that may be emotional or hard to talk
about.
In 2021, trained community journalists in Narok successfully collected adolescent girls’ and young women’s self-expressed sexual and reproductive health needs. They presented these priorities to local health decision- makers and leveraged established media relationships to compel action. As a result, commitments linked to the NASRHP implementations were secured. Particularly, actions to ensure improvement of youth- friendly centers and the incorporation of comprehensive health education in the school programmes directly benefiting over 600 adolescents engaged in the campaign. Additionally, 3 members of the Youth Accountability Network (including citizen journalists, young parliamentarians, youth advocates and peer-educators) were selected to join the County Youth Sector Working Group and End Teenage Pregnancy Task Force to amplify advocacy and social accountability efforts beyond the campaign.
Community Journalism helps people’s powerful stories be heard or seen by a wide audience to inspire change. This includes duty-bearers and decision makers that you are trying to influence in your Community Action Plan. Community Journalism is also a way to increase community members’ confidence in telling and sharing personal stories that may be emotional or hard to talk about. Community Journalism is easier than ever given the development of various Internet platforms. New media technology, such as social media platforms and media-sharing websites, in addition to the increasing availability of cell phones, have made Community Journalism more accessible to people wherever they are in the world.
There are three key steps to Community Journalism.
1. Identify and gather a compelling and accurate story.
2. Create media relationships.
3. Develop and publish your piece.
Approximately 300,000 women and girls die during pregnancy and childbirth every year. In Kenya, where the maternal mortality rate stands at 362 per 100,000 live births (DHS 2014/2015), changing this picture begins with women and girls. When women and girls are involved in identifying the barriers and solutions to healthcare, progress accelerates. As quality has a huge impact on whether a woman or girl will seek care, the heart of the What Women Want campaign is about understanding quality from women’s and girls’ perspectives. As part of the global White Women Want Campaign, WRA Kenya and partners mobilized over 118,545 responses from women and girls across Kenya. The top demands: improved Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH), respectful and dignified care, Improved menstrual hygiene services. Our advocacy strategy centers around making these demands a reality for women and girls in Kenya.
The request for more midwives and nurses was one of the top requests from the What Women Want campaign in Kenya. Women and girls described their lived experiences while voicing their demands for Increased, competent and better-supported doctors.
To fully realize the demand for midwives, we needed to understand better from midwives themselves what they want and need. In Kenya over 3,500 midwives voiced their demands on what they need most to be able to deliver quality services to women and girls. White Ribbon Alliance Kenya is pushing for improvements in midwives’ working conditions, changing the public’s perception of their work and supporting then in advocating for their profession. All of which in turn, will lead to improved care for women and newborns.
Approximately 300,000 women and girls die during pregnancy and childbirth every year. In Kenya, where the maternal mortality rate stands at 362 per 100,000 live births (DHS 2014/2015), changing this picture begins with women and girls. When women and girls are involved in identifying the barriers and solutions to healthcare, progress accelerates. As quality has a huge impact on whether a woman or girl will seek care, the heart of the What Women Want campaign is about understanding quality from women’s and girls’ perspectives. As part of the global White Women Want Campaign, WRA Kenya and partners mobilized over 118,545 responses from women and girls across Kenya. The top demands: improved Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH), respectful and dignified care, Improved menstrual hygiene services. Our advocacy strategy centers around making these demands a reality for women and girls in Kenya.
We ask, Listen, Act
Women living with disabilities voiced their demands for inclusive health facilities – (watch above)
The 1.2 million open-ended responses White Ribbon Alliance received have been categorized, analyzed, and are now available at your fingertips through the What Women Want Interactive Dashboard, a unique tool that connects women’s voices with the almost infinite possibilities of digital analysis.
The Dashboard offers an unprecedented level of access to women’s demands to allow anyone, anywhere to see exactly what women want when it comes to their healthcare, and to meaningfully respond.
You can filter by selecting Kenya to see all the responses from women and girls in Kenya
Women/girls are demanding respect in accessing health care. At least some Respect is all we are asking for🙏. What does Respect mean to you? The challenge is open to everyone between June 15th and September 15th, 2022 . Create your short video and share. Use the #tags below and stand a chance to win 5000USD to advance respect in your community. The most liked and shared video stands a chance to win 5000USD and there are many more categories. Awards will be announced in October 2022. Remember you must tag @whiteribbonalliance and @White Ribbon Alliance Kenya LET’S GO people and spread the Respect word!
To learn more and participate in the campaign: click here.
