ImpactNow Application in Kenya

From 2009 to 2014, the country's unmet need for family planning declined from 26 percent to 18 percent, and the use of modern contraceptives among married women increased from 39 percent to 53 percent. Consequently, fertility rates have steadily declined over the past five years, falling from 4.6 children per woman in 2009 to 3.9 in 2014. However, Kenya's population growth continues to challenge its development prospects, including the achievement of the goals outlined in Vision 2030, the country's long-term development blueprint, and the Population Policy for National Development (PPND). Despite gains in contraceptive use, government investment in family planning has declined with the advent of devolution, further threatening the realization of the country's population goals. For the past few years, development partners funded about 60 percent of Kenya's annual family planning commodity needs. To address this challenge, Kenya's National Council for Population and Development (NCPD) and the USAID-funded Health Policy Project (HPP) applied the ImpactNow policy model. The Microsoft Excel-based model uses different scenarios to quantify the short-term health and economic benefits of family planning. The model estimates the future health and economic benefits of family planning using three different policy scenarios: Low Effort, PPND, and PPND+. The outcomes focus on reproductive health and economic metrics, and can be used to generate policy dialogue and build consensus around optimal policy goals and budget support for family planning. The results of the ImpactNow application demonstrated that if national and county governments increased investment in family planning and reproductive health (FP/RH) programmes to meet the goals outlined in the PPND+ scenario, Kenya would reduce the number of deaths due to pregnancy- and birth-related complications, saving an additional 2,138 mothers' lives by 2020. Similarly, if national and county governments prioritized family planning in their budgets to achieve the PPND+ goals, Kenya would avert an additional 850,000 unintended pregnancies by 2020 and reduce the incidence of unsafe abortions, medical complications, and interrupted schooling. Through increased FP investments, Kenya would save KSh 6.8 billion (about US$69 million) in healthcare costs by 2020. To sustain the gains made towards increased FP funding before health services were devolved from the national government to the counties in 2013, county officials need to be sensitized on the health and economic benefits associated with investing in family planning. Family planning must be prioritized during the county budgeting process, and county health teams should be trained to apply the ImpactNow model to show the short-term health and economic benefits of investing in family planning at the county level.