The Population Council has worked in Kenya since the 1960s when it
helped to develop the country’s first population policy and program.
During the following two decades, the Council provided support to the
University of Nairobi and Kenya’s national family planning program. In
1988, the Council established a regional office for East and Southern
Africa in Nairobi. Today the Nairobi office, although no longer a
regional office, is the largest Council office in sub-Saharan Africa,
supporting work on HIV and AIDS, reproductive health, gender, and youth
in Ethiopia, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Rwanda, Senegal,
Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.
Until the early 1990s the Council concentrated primarily on
strengthening local professional and institutional resources,
fertility reduction, and introduction of contraceptive technologies.
Since 1994, the Council has assisted the Government of Kenya in
implementing a broader reproductive health strategy based on
recommendations of the International Conference on Population and
Development. It collaborates with the ministries of health,
education, gender, and social services, and with national and
international NGOs involved in service delivery, human rights,
poverty alleviation, and social and gender equality. In response to
the AIDS pandemic, the Council carries out innovative research and
tests a wide range of interventions to reduce sexual and perinatal
transmission of HIV, to highlight the particular vulnerability of
young women, and to mitigate its impact on individuals, families,
and society.
The Council’s vision over the next five years is to continue to
develop and test new program strategies to prevent and manage HIV
and AIDS, to improve sexual and reproductive health, and to enhance
healthy and successful transitions to adulthood. The Council will
intensify its efforts to build the capacity of national partners to
make better use of research-based planning and evaluation and to
scale up interventions with demonstrated impact. Increased attention
will be paid to cross-cutting issues of gender, sexuality, and
health-related rights, to the structural determinants of sexual and
reproductive health, and to strengthening health-care systems and
diversifying and integrating the roles of the private,
nongovernmental, and public sectors. Improving the lives of
vulnerable groups, especially adolescents, will remain at the
forefront of the Council’s activities.
- Played a key role in the establishment, in 1978, of the
Population Studies and Research Institute at the University of
Nairobi.
- Initiated a regional program for strengthening professional and
institutional resources that resulted in the formation of the
African Population and Health Research Center, now a leading
independent African research institution based in Nairobi.
- Highlighted the need for alternative approaches to improving
livelihood opportunities for boys and girls in Kenya and tested the
viability and effect of extending microcredit to adolescent girls.
- Designed and tested innovative approaches to integrate and link
various combinations of reproductive health and HIV/AIDS services.
- Provided a framework for responding to gender-based violence in
East and Southern Africa.
- Documented the process of advocacy and negotiation that led to
development of the Kenya Sexual Offences Bill.
- Pioneered services for prevention of mother-to-child
transmission of HIV/AIDS in Kenya.
- Developed a health-facility-assessment methodology, termed
“situation analysis,” which was used in many countries and has
subsequently been adapted by many organizations. (more)
Current Projects
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|
Fast Facts |
| Population (millions)
|
37 |
| Total fertility rate |
4.9 |
Infant deaths per
1,000 live births |
57 |
Maternal deaths per
100,000 live births |
560 |
Girls aged 20–24 married
by age 18 (%)
|
25 |
| HIV/AIDS prevalence (%) |
6.1 |
| Living below US $2 per day (%) |
58 |
|
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What's New |
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On 26 November 2008, the Population Council's office in Kenya
celebrated its 20th anniversary. The Council has conducted
research in Kenya for 43 years. (more)
Kenyan musician/songwriter Eric Wainaina performs "Mama," a tribute
to mothers and newborns, in a music video co-sponsored by the Population
Council. The song underscores the importance of perinatal care.
(dial-up)
(broadband)
Beyond the Numbers is a Council-sponsored video that shows how conducting maternal death reviews following the passing of
three African women—Maliun, Sahan, and Tshepang—taught practitioners
lessons that they used to save the life of Josephine and her baby.
(dial-up)
(broadband)
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Publications/Resources | |
"Social context,
sexual risk perceptions and stigma: HIV vulnerability among male sex workers
in Mombasa, Kenya" (2009) (abstract)
"Engaging men who have sex with men in operations research in Kenya"
(2009) (abstract)
"Changes
in sexual risk taking with antiretroviral treatment: influence of context
and gender norms in Mombasa, Kenya" (2009) (abstract)
“The overlooked epidemic: Addressing HIV prevention and treatment among
men who have sex with men in sub-Saharan Africa, report of a
consultation, Nairobi, Kenya, 14–15 May 2008” (2009) (PDF)
More |
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