- Kenya CCG Member
Noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) account for approximately 41% of deaths and nearly half of hospital admissions in Kenya. Despite this, financing has historically been fragmented and focused on treatment rather than long-term investment.
An early but important shift is underway. As Kenya advances its Universal Health Coverage reforms, including the 2023 Social Health Insurance framework, there is a key opportunity to better integrate NCDs into national financing systems.
Support from the Financing Accelerator Network for NCDs (FAN) — through technical support, peer learning, and catalytic funding — is helping drive a move from individual efforts towards a more coordinated and strategic approach to financing NCDs.
A major milestone has been the formation of a multi-stakeholder Country Core Group (CCG) in Kenya. For the first time, actors across government, development partners, and civil society are aligned within a single platform focused specifically on financing for NCDs. This builds on consultations with 18 stakeholders and regional learning with countries including Ghana, Rwanda, and Uganda.
As one CCG Member reflected,
“Bringing people from different organisations together helps us speak from the same page and move in one direction.”
FAN engagement has triggered a shift from viewing NCDs as service delivery challenges to treating them as investment priorities. This is reflected in growing attention to economic evidence and financing strategies: “Health financing was not an area most of us looked into… but we have developed a greater appreciation of what needs to be done.” - Kenya CCG member.
The establishment of the CCG represents the first multi-stakeholder platform focused on financing NCDs in Kenya. It marks a step-change in alignment, helping to strengthen coordination and setting a shared financing agenda. In addition, a resource mobilization subcommittee has been established to align priorities with national budgeting processes:
“We developed a resource mobilisation committee… to decide programmatic priorities and approach the National Treasury.”
A key initiative is the development of an economic modelling proposal to estimate the costs of inaction and returns on investment for NCD interventions. This reflects a shift towards more data-driven decision-making: “We need to show how much it will cost and how much we will save.”
FAN activities is also helping to improve collaboration with health economists, boosting the use of modelling to generate relevant investment evidence.
“This project is enabling us to interact more closely with health economists who can generate the evidence needed for advocacy.” – Kenya CCG Member
Kenya is beginning to translate this shift into implementation. The NCD Financing Action Plan also outlines priority actions over a 6–12 month catalytic implementation period, while informing longer-term reforms.
While measurable increases in financing will take time, Kenya has shown important early progress within a relatively short timeframe since joining FAN in 2025. These include:
What is emerging is a clear shift in trajectory. As one Kenya CCG member noted, “Without FAN engagement, it would have been business as usual.”
This underscores the importance of targeted support in supporting Kenya move toward a more coordinated, evidence-driven, and sustainable approach to financing NCD prevention and care.
“Previously we approached NCDs in fragmented silos… now we are looking at NCDs across the continuum of care." - Kenya CCG Member.
The FAN is helping to unlock sustainable financing for NCDs, strengthening the foundations for more resilient and equitable health systems.
Kenya’s devolution of health policy and budgets to 47 counties has opened space for locally driven innovation in financing and managing NCD care.
FAN Fund's seed grant will support Kenya to develop an NCD Economic Modelling Framework with the goal of generating robust economic evidence to support increased and sustained financing for NCD prevention and control in Kenya.