The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) provide a universal framework for addressing global challenges and achieving sustainable development in a balanced and integrated manner. While other continents are making progress towards meeting SDG targets, most African countries remain off-track. All progress monitoring reports have Africa standing out with colors that reflect the social challenges that APHRC programs seek to address. APHRC, through its work, seeks to contribute to the achievement of SDGs, saturating the continent with color through its policy wins within and for the communities we work with.
In keeping with the momentum from 2022 where we had 17 documented policy wins, 2023 saw APHRC continue to leave its mark on the policy landscape across the continent. The Center’s policy wins were registered in multiple countries and in different sectors. Below, we highlight select achievements in the East African Community, Kenya, Liberia, Malawi, Sierra Leone and several other countries included in the Countdown to 2030 initiative.
APHRC inched closer to improving childcare environments in Africa based on the nurturing care framework. The Early Childhood Development (ECD) research team led the review of the Child Facilities Bill in Kajiado and Nakuru Counties in Kenya and further spearheaded the crafting of guidelines. The counties have committed to setting up childcare facilities in each sub-county as community of excellence hubs that will set and maintain the standard of care for children younger than three years across Kenya. APHRC also contributed to the revision of the Kenya National ECD and the Unpaid Care and Domestic Work policies. The team continues to provide opportunities for other counties to learn from those with childcare bills in place. This approach ensures that the colors of change spread out from one county to another and eventually from one country to another.
APHRC also contributed to the revision of the Education and Training Sector Gender Policy in Kenya, which seeks to integrate emerging issues in gender and education and align with current policy frameworks with implications in these areas. The Education and Youth Empowerment (EYE) unit continues to expand its contribution to evidence that promotes inclusivity in education, both at the basic level and in higher education.
To further contribute to the health and wellbeing of children and adolescents, APHRC, supported by the ARISE Responsive Challenge Fund, worked with the Child Space Organization to reach out to children heading up households in an attempt to address their vulnerabilities. The project has contributed to the Nairobi City County Assembly Bill on Child-headed Households (CHH), focusing on vulnerable and marginalized groups in Nairobi’s informal settlements. A related policy on promoting sustainable solutions to child-headed households was debated and adopted on October 4, 2023.
APHRC also played a significant role in the development and review of a community handbook designed to engage adolescents, parents, and community leaders. The handbook, launched by the Ministry of Health through the Division of Adolescents and School Health, aims to promote the health and well-being of adolescents in Kenya by improving their cultural, economic, and health outcomes. Additionally, the Center contributed to the yet-to-be launched adolescent and young people reproductive health policy.
APHRC collaborated with the National Council for Population Development (NCPD) in the technical development of Sessional Paper No.1 of 2023 on Kenya’s National Population Policy for Sustainable Development. The policy, which has yet to be launched, seeks to align priority actions with the Constitution of Kenya (2010), Vision 2030, and International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD25) Kenya Country Commitments. It also outlines how Kenya’s economy, Human Capital, Human Development Index (HDI), labor force participation, and poverty eradication are key to population and development.
The Nutrition and Food Systems team developed a food safety manual in collaboration with consultants from the University of Nairobi. The Nairobi City County Public Health Office adopted the manual which public health officers will use to train street food vendors. APHRC also engaged in the development of the Kenya Nutrient Profile Model (KNPM) as a collaborative action between the Ministry of Health and the Food Environment Policy Action team. The KNPM will inform the public on thresholds for front-of-pack labeling for food. This will be the first policy of its kind in sub-Saharan Africa outside South Africa and is a critical tool in the prevention of noncommunicable diseases.
The Center’s contribution to the Ministry of Health technical working group on improving the information on causes of death in communities in Kenya led to the development of the Kenya Verbal Autopsy (KeVA) Resource Hub. This online platform serves as a national repository of data for collecting and analyzing information on causes of death. The KeVA hub provides users with resources, materials, and a platform to share verbal autopsies, data, and insights.
In support of the East Africa Community (EAC) Sexual and Reproductive Health (SRH) Bill 2021, popularly known as the EAC SRH Bill 2021, the Center provided evidence on contentious aspects of the Bill, such as abortion, adolescent sexual and reproductive health, assisted reproductive technology and sexual and reproductive health services for men.
Evidence from the ALOT-Change project under the Human Development research theme influenced the development, review, and validation of the tools used in the development and evaluation of the parental engagement and empowerment (PEE) framework as well as the review of preliminary PEE findings from a pilot study in Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania. APHRC significantly contributed to developing the framework (currently under review and validation) through the Regional Education Learning Initiative (RELI) based on the evidence and experience implementing PEE in the ALOT Change program. This is an example of how work from one setting in Kenya is shaping policy and practice in the region.
APHRC partnered with the Ministry of Health in Sierra Leone and the World Health Organization (WHO) to develop and validate comprehensive post-abortion care (PAC) guidelines. This initiative was informed by the Center’s study on abortion incidence and severity of related complications in Sierra Leone, conducted in collaboration with the Ministry of Health and Statistics Sierra Leone. These guidelines played a pivotal role in shaping the Safe Motherhood and Reproductive Health Bill in Sierra Leone, which has been gazetted and is currently undergoing validation by the Cabinet. In addition, we contributed to the review of the proposed Public Health Law in Liberia, which, if passed, is expected to be one of the country’s most progressive laws. Further, the APHRC’s collaboration with mental health partners to improve access to quality mental health services in Sierra Leone led to a significant commitment from the Ministry of Finance to allocate funding specifically for mental health initiatives in the country.
As a result of our engagements with Malawi’s Ministries of Health, Education, Youth, and Gender, where we shared our evidence on pregnant and parenting adolescents, APHRC was invited to provide evidence and technical expertise in the drafting and reviewing of four policies. These are the Ending Child Marriage (ECM) Strategy led by the Ministry of Gender, the Adolescent Girls and Young Women Strategy led by the Ministry of Gender, the National SRHR Policy led by the Ministry of Health, and the Basic Education Curriculum led by the Ministry of Education.
Through the Challenging the Politics of Social Exclusion (CPSE) and the PROMOTE projects, the Center has collaborated with partners in Malawi and Burkina Faso in initiating several interventions for pregnant and parenting adolescent girls, specifically to support the school re-entry of parenting adolescents. These interventions include subsidized childcare, where adolescent mothers receive monthly vouchers to access childcare centers, the formation of adolescent mothers’ clubs, and conditional cash transfers of $30 per term, dependent on their (re)enrollment in primary or secondary school and vocational training programs. These initiatives were informed by our studies on the lived experiences of pregnant and parenting adolescents in both countries.
Following the Countdown 2030 annual convening, reports from 20 countries, among them Cote d’Ivoire, Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, and Zambia, were disseminated to the national Ministries of Health in the respective countries and have been useful for reproductive maternal, newborn child and adolescent health (RMNCAH) planning and implementation, specifically in supporting and monitoring investment cases for RMNCAH programs within the Global Financing Facility (GFF) mechanism.
The Center led the evaluation of the 2015-2020 Kenya RMNCAH investment framework and the Liberia 2016-2020 RMNCAH investment case evaluation report, both completed in 2023. The evaluation reports will inform the development of the next GFF investment cases currently being developed.
The Center actively participated in the Ministry of Health’s midterm review exercise, which assessed the progress of the current Strategic Plan’s implementation. Insights from this review will inform the development of the upcoming Strategic Plan for Health in Kenya.
As a result of the Center’s study on African Research Culture, Wellcome - one of the largest funders of research globally - is reviewing the eligibility criteria for early career researchers, allowing consideration for postdoctoral opportunities beyond six years after PhD graduation. This aims to promote positive and inclusive research cultures by incorporating these values into the assessment criteria for funding proposals.
Among the numerous projects the Center runs, we spotlight a few where our research has facilitated partnerships that have resulted in the recognition and provision of critical services to communities.
The Zero Hunger Initiative’s work towards creating community-led solutions that would impact the accessibility of adequate nutritious food was profiled in 2023 on a global level. The initiative championing transformation towards food-secure cities through agroecological urban agriculture was widely celebrated when the King of England visited one of the projects run by a partner organization called City Shamba. This community-organized group seeks to transform urban livelihoods by providing practical training on urban farming to improve food and nutritional security in poor urban neighborhoods. The recognition reinforced our approach to engaging community groups as change agents. City Shamba continues to provide a platform for capacity-strengthening engagements that are instrumental in growing the Zero Hunger Movement.
The ECD team, under the Growth and Economic Opportunities for Women – East Africa project, set up a Center of Excellence for Childcare that was handed over to Nakuru County (Kenya) as a resource for training potential daycare proprietors. It was officially launched by the Nakuru County Director for Social Services on March 3, 2023. The daycare was constructed through a research program examining the effect of the provision of high-quality child care on women’s participation in economic activities. The Center is run by a community based organization called the Love Women Group that supports survivors of genderbased violence under the umbrella of the Lord’s Visitation Church International (LVCI). It provides quality care for children to increase women’s access to empowerment opportunities and demonstrates the power of action research and partnerships.
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