Gains and progress made after decades of deepening access to contraceptives in Kenya face massive erosion, with health facilities in the east African country now facing an acute shortage due to dwindling global funding of reproductive health supplies, according to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).
The development is a significant drawback that is now raising concerns among reproductive health advocates, especially those who work in Kenya’s rural communities and across the country’s urban informal settlements, where significant gains have been achieved.
“Decades of progress in expanding access to contraception in Kenya could be unravelling, as global funding for contraception plummets. Stocks of many contraceptives are now dwindling in public hospitals,” writes UNFPA in the report in part.
It’s important to note that Kenya has been slowly but surely making huge strides in family planning, clearly underscored by the increased uptake of contraceptives. Partly this has been necessitated by the fact that access to safe family planning options is a key human right crucial to achieving gender equality and women’s empowerment.
The percentage of married Kenyan women using modern contraceptives has steadily increased over time, from 32 per cent in 2003 to 57 per cent in 2022, according to the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS). According to the aforementioned official data, over the same period, the unmet need for family planning declined from 27 per cent to 14 per cent, even as Kenya’s government alongside its global reproductive health partners aim to achieve 64 per cent modern contraceptive prevalence rate by 2030.
Besides the latest setback of dwindling donor funding and progress made in driving access to birth control products, Kenya has been among the five countries in the world with the lowest funding for contraceptive needs, according to a Family Planning Market report of 2024. Even then, only 50 per cent of contraceptive needs in the east African country were being funded, highlighting challenges faced by millions of vulnerable women living in rural areas as well as slums across the country. The latest sad state of affairs is only worsening an already bad situation, according to experts and stakeholders in the health sector.
Kenya needs an estimated Ksh8billion (US$62 million) annually to meet its family planning needs, according to Kenya’s National Family Planning Costed Implementation Plan between 2020 and 2024. Yet only half of it is funded, leaving the rest unfunded, with public health partners like United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the United Nations sexual and reproductive health agency (UNFPA), UK government’s Department for International Development (DFID), among others, playing an active role in financing the initiatives.
The recent US government global health funding cuts, affecting US government-supported healthcare supplies, which account for 24 per cent of Kenya’s family planning needs, have only worsened the situation.
Addressing the press, multiple healthcare workers have expressed concern with the sad state of affairs, pointing at an impending crisis and erosion of gains made over the years. Hilda Amimo, a health worker in Thika, a town on the outskirts of Nairobi, expressed frustration, saying “shortage of contraceptive stocks, especially short-term methods often preferred by rural women have run out in most facilities”. She added: “Kenyan women have been exposed to several family planning options, including hormonal, barrier and permanent solutions and each is unique with benefits and considerations. The crisis is likely to affect this with negative consequences”.
Stakeholders, especially nurses are afraid that the choices for women keen on birth control supplies are narrowing. Hassan Nyawanga, a nurse in Nairobi, says the consequences of contraceptive shortage have far reaching implications not just for women but their families as well. He says unavailability of birth control supplies and the inability to exercise choice has a negative impact on gains made.
“A lot of women have been embracing family planning in Kenya and the ability to choose what works for them or what responds well to their bodies has been a key driver to accessing contraceptives. Inability to have options to choose from puts women at all manner of risks, including unintended pregnancies, unsafe abortion and possibly violence from husbands,” said Nyawanga.
Concerned government authorities at the Ministry of Health have also expressed concerns, even as they promise to find lasting solutions, including increasing budget allocations towards birth control access and fully implementing the country’s transition plan from donor dependency to self-sustaining procurement.
While receiving family planning commodities a few weeks ago, funded by the United Kingdom, the Medical Services Principal Secretary Ouma Oluga admitted that the loss of donor funds was a major setback.
“It is likely to result in limited access to family planning services for over six million women in 2025, possibly increased unintended pregnancies, necessitate unsafe abortions as well as maternal deaths and a decline in contraceptive prevalence rate,” said Oluga, underscoring need for immediate intervention with support of stakeholders as well as development partners.
In a statement following the development, UNFPA said it is working to address barriers to accessing family planning in Kenya by ensuring a steady, reliable supply of quality contraceptives, strengthening the supply chain management system, and health workers’ capacity to provide services, particularly long acting and permanent family planning methods.
“UNFPA also works to integrate family planning services into primary health care, so that women and girls can access information and contraceptives no matter what health facility they visit. UNFPA Kenya is fully committed to supporting Kenya’s efforts to uphold the rights of individuals and additionally work towards ensuring women and girls have control over their bodies, lives, and futures,” read the statement in part.