The Government of Kenya, supported by its German development partners BMZ (Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development) and KfW Banking Group, is currently piloting a new model to help the poor to access good quality health care in the field of reproductive health care dubbed as ‘Output Based Aid’ (OBA) or also called ‘Vouchers for Health’.
OBA is intended to contribute significantly to the Kenyan Government’s goal of creating an efficient quality health care system that is accessible, equitable and affordable by every Kenyan household. The voucher concept represents a demand-side approach to financing health care by subsidizing health care clients directly and dispensing money only when services are actually provided. The client is free to choose a service provider which may be public, private or a non-governmental organization (NGO) from a list of approved health facilities. The purpose of this website is to inform about the OBA voucher program in Kenya.
The objective of the program is to provide subsidized high quality health care to a population of at least three million poor people. The initial three main target areas of the program are Safe Motherhood, Clinical Family Planning and Gender Violence Recovery Services. A pilot of the program was implemented in three rural districts (Kisumu, Kiambu, and Kitui) and in Nairobi informal settlement areas (Viwandani and Korogocho). As progress is made regional coverage of the program and range of services included will be extended.