21 May 2014

Botswana and Kenya have a bilateral agreement aimed to revitalise and strengthen primary health care and health systems towards prevention and control of communicable and non-communicable diseases.

Briefing the visiting Kenyan delegation of eleven officials, director of health sector relations and partnerships in the Ministry of Health, Ms Naledi Mlauzi said the agreement that was signed in 2011, covered areas of health services, health training and capacity building and research for health.

Ms Mlauzi said under the health services, the two countries would enhance system based strategies and solutions to strengthen human resources and exchange of best practices and advocacy for access to healthcare.

Under the health training and capacity building, she said, the countries would share ideas on under graduate and post graduate training in the health field, training in bio-medical sciences and biotechnology exchange.

In addition, she said under research for health, Kenya and Botswana research institutions would collaborate in human health research and co-operate and consult on health care financing.

They would also share ideas on action oriented research for health planning and decision making and translation of research findings to policy and practice, she said.

Ms Mlauzi said there were 44 Kenyan health professionals in Botswana working in different areas such as, medical doctors, pharmacists, occupational therapists, radiographers, physiotherapists and dentist laboratory scientists.

These, she said are mainly in the government sector, adding that there are also some Kenyans in the private sector as well. The health sector relations and partnerships director said there are currently four Batswana training in Kenya in different health areas such as neurosurgery, two in ophthalmic and one in orthopedics.

The Kenyan delegation led by Nyeri County-Assembly Health Services Committee chairperson and also Dedan Kimathi ward representative, Mr Stephen Kiboi  arrived in Botswana on May 18.

For his part, Mr Kiboi said the purpose of their week-long visit was to learn about all the operations of the Ministry of Health, share experiences and exchange ideas on the best practices the two could have to improve their health care services.

The delegation has so far visited a Community Home Based Care Centre (CHBCC) in Bontleng and the Block 9 clinic in Gaborone where they learnt about the operations of CHBC and the District Health Management Teams (DHMT). Ends