UNICEF Somalia wanted an institutional organisation to revise an existing draft national strategy revision (2023-2027) document and make it more representative of the government’s vision for community health. KIT was selected to conduct the revision due to its track record working on similar strategy development projects and having an existing pool of experts.

Project Approach

The national community health strategy (NCHS) revision project started in October 2024 with a kick-off meeting between KIT and the strategy development taskforce team made up of representatives from UNICEF Somalia, World Bank, WHO, implementing partners involved in community health interventions and the federal member states. The taskforce was to provide feedback on the revised strategy and the other documents to be produced during the project and ensure that the vision of the government is well articulated. Stakeholder groups to be consulted during the strategy development also includes community health workers and community leaders.

Deliverables

Four documents are to be developed during the project namely;

1. The national community health strategy – stating the vision, mission and strategic priorities for the community health programme in Somalia which entails harmonising all community health interventions under a unified governance structure.
2. The national costed operational plan – estimating the cost of activities necessary for operationalising the strategy, focusing on the activities that institutionalise governance structures between the Federal government and the Federal member states.
3. The investment case – argues the case for investing in the Somalia community health programme, highlighting the benefits to be derived per amount of investment made.
4. The Policy brief – presents the Somalia community health programme, highlighting the investments to be made and the values projected to be gained.

The strategy brings all community health interventions under a unified governance structure that highlights the relationships and lines of report from one level to another. The revised governance structure places more responsibilities on facilities for coordinating community health activities and the two community health worker cadres i.e. the female community health worker and the community health volunteers. A three-phased implementation of the strategy is envisaged, first, the set up of all structures and developments/revision of curriculum, training of staff, procurement of materials required. The second phase involves the rapid scale-up of activities, while the third phase entails the continuation of all activities beyond 2029.

The duration of strategy implementation is from 2025 to 2029. A nation-wide implementation is planned across all FMS. It is expected that each FMS will develop a costed operational plan to guide implementation.

The community health strategy revision, costed operational plan, investment case, and policy brief, were needed to provide a roadmap to guide a harmonised community health programme embedded within the larger health system. The strategy overcomes the current situation of unstructured community health implementation by multiple partners and workers, by defining two cadres of community health workers, and a clear governance structure.

Outcomes

In collaboration with partners, KIT has produced the revised national strategy, costed national operational plan, investment case and the policy brief. These documents provide the governance structure and financing pathway envisaged for operationalising the revised national community health strategy for the period between 2025 to 2030.