The Embassy has recently inaugurated "Multi Annual Country Strategy Kenya 2023-2026" in which Netherlands seeks to deepen the steadfast economic ties it has enjoyed with Kenya over the years. In this, a number of priority sectors were identified in which the Life Sciences and Health is among them. This is a result of the interest developed by the health sector players from the Netherlands - companies, not-for-profit and knowledge/research organizations - in partnering with Kenyan counterparts. Co-creating solutions will help improve health outcomes in Kenya. A number of studies and trade missions have been held in the past which have shown potential for matching Dutch solutions with Kenyan challenges, especially in the areas of medical devices, e-health, health financing and training, education & research.

Also in the recent past, the Dutch minister for Foreign Trade and Development Co-operation, Liesje Schreinemacher issued a policy note - Policy Document for Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation: Do what we do best . In the policy note, the minister lays out Netherlands’ intent to achieve synergy between Foreign Trade and Development Co-operation. “By actively contributing to sustainable economic development worldwide, the Netherlands will enable developing countries to grow more rapidly into trade partners. This will raise their level of prosperity and increase  the Netherlands’ earning capacity.”

Kenya was selected as one of the 21 countries in which the combination of foreign trade and development co-operation will be combined. The health sector is one of the sectors in which this approach will be undertaken. The embassy in Kenya is the only one including the health sector in this approach amongst all the 21 countries. Over the period, the modalities of undertaking this has been taking shape. A number of consolations have been taking place in the Netherlands.

In March, Geoffrey Korir, the Embassy’s Senior Policy Officer for Trade and thematic lead for the health sector visited the Netherlands for the engagements which are being led by the Dutch platform for the internationalization of the country Life Sciences and Health sector- Task Force Health Care NL. The programme involved visits to numerous companies, University Medical Centres, knowledge institutes and NGOs to have a better understanding on how Netherlands can contribute to Kenya’s ambition of achieving Universal Health Coverage (UHC) targets. It also included a session with participants of the successful trade mission to Kenya last year November which was quite inspirational. Central to this approach will be an envisaged digital transformation which the interventions will help realize. In that case digital as well as sustainability considerations will be keenly considered as enablers to achieving UHC. A pilot approach with Kisumu county government is mooted in which the referral system, beginning with the primary health care level all the way up, will be strengthened with various identified solutions to be plugged in.

Task Force Healthcare Netherlands will be visiting Kenya in June to meet various local stakeholders in Nairobi and Kisumu to help enrich and validate the Combi-track strategy. Recently, Invest International – the Dutch government agency that supports Dutch or Dutch-linked businesses, host governments and investors to finance and develop impactful projects – also conducted a fact finding mission to Kenya.

We give regular updates on the Netherlands Embassy’s work in Kenya. Our activities and programs & financial instruments are available on our website and on our twitter @NLinKenya. We also send out a newsletter with information on relevant developments in the sector. If you would like to subscribe, please use the contact form, so we can add you to our contact database.