This three-year programme will harness opportunities for private and public investments in public health to improve access and uptake of sexual and reproductive health and HIV services among low income adolescent girls in 10 counties in Kenya.
Nairobi, 25th May, 2022 — A Joint United Nations team in Kenya comprising the UN Resident Coordinator’s Office, SDG Partnership Platform, UNFPA, WHO, and UNAIDS has partnered with Triggerise to introduce an innovative financing vehicle aimed at transforming adolescent health outcomes in Kenya by tackling the challenges of teen pregnancy and HIV infections among adolescent girls.
Backed by a $7 million investment from the UN Joint SDG Fund, the Adolescent Sexual Reproductive Health Development Impact Bond (DIB), will tap into resources from both private and public investors to finance the provision of quality adolescent and youth-friendly sexual and reproductive health services, including HIV testing and treatment, to adolescent girls aged between 15 and 19 years in low-income settings.
The project will be rolled out in partnership with the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation, Triggerise, KOIS, as well as the Government of Kenya through the Ministry of Health, Council of Governors, and participating county governments of Nairobi, Mombasa, Kisumu, Migori, Homabay, Kisii, Nyamira, Bungoma, Busia, and Kakamega.
“This project will foster collaboration among stakeholders across the spectrum including the government, donor agencies, and the private sector and unlock additional external resources and financing that are critical to not only improving adolescent health outcomes but also the attainment of the sustainable development goals,” remarked the UN Resident Coordinator in Kenya, Dr Stephen Jackson
Teenage pregnancy and HIV are major drivers of adolescent mortality and morbidity and result in a lifetime of missed education and employment. In Kenya, 42% of new adult HIV infections occur among young people between the ages of 15 and 24. Moreover, one in five adolescent girls is either pregnant or already has a child, with an estimated 330 000 girls becoming pregnant each year.
How does it work?
The new programme will support the scale-up of Triggerise’s “In Their Hands (ITH)” programme, an innovative digital platform with real-time data capabilities that links adolescents to health services in pharmacies, public, and private facilities, and provides them an opportunity to rate the services received. Public facilities which receive high ratings unlock rewards which partly go towards facility improvements and partly towards health care providers as incentives. Private facilities and pharmacies, on the other hand, are reimbursed for the services they provide with the incentive being: more clients for better ratings. This results-based financing mechanism ensures that quality is ingrained or institutionalised in service delivery.
Through the DIB, social investors will be invited to pre-finance the programme for a return. Progress to ensure vulnerable adolescent girls have access to quality SRH and HIV services will be tracked through ratings submitted on the ITH platform and the progressive reduction in adolescent birth rates and new adolescent HIV infections over a period of three years. Upon independent verification of the results by an evaluator, the social investors will then be reimbursed for their investment with a return, by the outcome funder(s), usually a traditional donor interested in social impact:
“The development impact bond is a unique approach to development financing that allows for a performance-based process of determining outcomes and results. Our goal is to mobilise over US$13 million additional funding from outcome funders and social investors to reach over 500 000 vulnerable adolescent girls with SRH and HIV services and contribute to overall improvement of over 300 primary health facilities in over 10 high burden counties in Kenya,” says UNFPA Kenya Representative Anders Thomsen
Key Facts:
Location: Nairobi, Mombasa, Kisumu, Migori, Homabay, Kisii, Nyamira, Bungoma, Busia and Kakamega (10 counties)
Focus: Improving adolescent health outcomes in the country by reaching over 500 000 vulnerable adolescent girls with SRH services and HIV services (testing and treatment).
Secured Outcome Funding: $ 7 million
Indicative Investments: $ 7 million
Additional outcome funding to be unlocked: $13 million
Return (Max): 10.7%
Role of UN inter-Agency team: Technical support, coordination, outcome fund management
Role of Triggerise: Project implementer through the ITH platform
Children’s Investment Fund Foundation (CIFF): Potential social investor
NOTE TO EDITORS
For further information, please contact: UNFPA — wangui [at] unfpa.org (wangui[at]unfpa[dot]org); kkigen [at] unfpa.org (kkigen[at]unfpa[dot]org)
Triggerise — anne [at] triggerise.org (anne[at]triggerise[dot]org)
