NOFO: Kenya Digital Health Ecosystem Program

Deadline: 20-May-2024

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is seeking applications for a cooperative agreement from qualified entities to implement the Kenya Digital Health Ecosystem Activity.

KDHE activity will explore opportunities in the digital health act as it provides technical assistance to the MOH on the deployment of integrated comprehensive health information systems. KDHE will continue to support the management of the systems’ evolutions while aligning its strategic approaches and activities to the new Digital Health Policy environment and the GOK’s vision on achieving UHC through implementation of Primary Health Care (PHC) and the Primary Care Networks (PCNs) with a strong digital component at all levels.

KDHE Purpose

• KDHE’s overall purpose is “Increased country’s ownership and management of one national integrated and comprehensive sector-wide health information ecosystem to achieve health systems outcomes of equity, quality, and resources optimization”. The Kenya Digital Health Ecosystem (KDHE) activity aims to contribute to the achievement of the desired health systems outcomes under Development Objective 1: Key Systems such as Health, Markets and Governance Improved. The operationalization and implementation of Development Objective 1 is through the designed activities under the Health Systems Project Development Document (HS-PDD). The overall purpose of the HS-PDD is “Increased leaders who drive change, institutions and Organizations responsive to citizens’ needs strengthened”. The hypothesis underlying the project is that if the country develops leaders across all levels of the health system, then they will be able to drive changes that will positively impact the health system and health outcomes of the citizens. Strengthened institutions and organizations will make them more responsive to the health needs of the citizens.
• The Activity will focus on the following three sub purpose result statements to achieve the above purpose:
  • Sub purpose I: Integrated digital health solutions, infrastructure, and services’ provision ecosystem.
    • Illustrative health systems outcomes:
      • % of Primary Health Care Network (PCN) hubs integrated with one national integrated health information ecosystem. (PCNs will be domiciled at the sub county level).
      • % of Counties with at least one fully functional Smart PCN
    • Output 1.1: Strengthened use of the integrated and triangulated technology-enabled data analytics tools (Systems integration)
      • Enhanced and transformed integration of national level digital health solutions
      • Global health security surveillance systems’ response capacity at community, county and national levels enhanced.
    • Output 1.2: Optimized Use of Digital Health Enterprise Architecture resources.
      • National digital health enterprise architecture resource capability effectively optimized.
      • County digital health enterprise architecture’s resource capability effectively optimized.
  • Sub Purpose II: Enhanced Digital Health Ecosystem’s Vision, Strategy, and Governance capacity.
    • Illustrative Expected health systems outcomes:
      • % of counties where digital health governance and oversight policies and structures are established and functional
      • Number of national, county and health facilities where national data privacy, security, and governance policies and guidelines have been operationalized.
    • Output 2.1: Data governance, protection and security measures strengthened.
      • Existing policies, guidelines, and standards on data protection, security and storage effectively implemented.
      • Communications strategy on data protection, governance, security, and storage developed and effectively disseminated.
    • Output 2.2: Strengthened National Digital Health Ecosystem’s leadership and governance capacity.
      • Strengthened capacity of County Digital Health Ecosystems on leadership and governance
      • Existing legislations, policies, guidelines, and data standards effectively implemented at county level.
  • Sub Purpose III: Strengthened strategic partnerships and collaborations to sustain investments in the digital health ecosystem.
    • Illustrative health systems outcomes:
      • Number of strategic partnership/collaborative frameworks between MOH and private tech firms operationalized.
      • Number of strategic partnership/collaborative frameworks between MOH and academia operationalized.
    • Output 3.1: Optimized strategic partnerships and collaborations to leverage on and exploit digital capabilities of the international, regional, and national tech firms.
      • Development and adoption of legislations and policies on use of cloud-based data hosting platforms by MOH enhanced.
      • Capacity of national and county digital health workforce on cloud-based data hosting strengthened.
    • Output 3.2: Meaningful collaboration with the academia on human capacity development on digital health solutions evolution enhanced.
      • Collaboration with the international North American Universities on digital solutions for development is institutionalized.
      • Regional based local university tech hubs strengthened to sustain use of integrated digital health ecosystem.

Funding Information

• USAID intends to provide $14,334,675.00 in total USAID funding over a five (5) year period.

Geographic Focus 

• USAID’s activities that are geared towards achieving results in Development Objective 1, are expected to support both national, county and sub county health, market, and governance systems. The health system project development document activities would as much as possible be aligned to and complement the earlier designed health systems strengthening activities (health analytics, financing and social protection, human resources, quality improvement and community systems, governance and strategic partnership and health private sector engagement) at national and county levels. HPN supports health services in 34 counties out of which 20 are also CDCS focus counties. At county level, this activity will support 40 counties in line with the PEPFAR’s Collaborative Pillar-III focus counties. It’s expected that this activity will invest in key high impact systems strengthening interventions to address key digital health systems’ barriers in priority USG health programs for effective and equitable service delivery.

Eligibility Criteria

• Eligibility is restricted to Local Partners, who are Kenyan entities as defined below. USAID/Kenya and east Africa is transferring resources to Kenyan organizations so they can further their reach in implementing locally led sustainable health activities.
• USAID defines a “local entity” as an individual, a corporation, a nonprofit organization, or another body of persons that:
  • Is legally organized under the laws of; and
  • Has as its principal place of business or operations in; and
  • Is:
    • majority owned by individuals who are citizens or lawful permanent residents of; and
    • Managed by a governing body the majority of who are citizens or lawful permanent resident of Kenya.
• USAID welcomes applications from organizations that have not previously received financial assistance from USAID.
• While eligibility for this opportunity is limited to local entities, USAID strongly encourages local entities to collaborate with at least one international entity as a sub-recipient and apply as a consortium. This collaborative approach leverages the technical expertise of the international sub-recipient to build the capacity of the local prime recipient and ensures the integration of diverse perspectives, ultimately enhancing the potential for successful project outcomes and long-term sustainability.
• Faith-based organizations are eligible to apply for federal financial assistance on the same basis as any other organization and are subject to the protections and requirements of Federal law.

For more information, visit Grants.gov.