Ciheb’s work in Kenya continues to make progress in building health service capacity and in expanding prevention efforts for HIV and tuberculosis. The five-year Boresha Maabara project (Swahili for “improve laboratory services”) has been helping build diagnostic capacity at the national and local level. This Centers for Disease Control and Prevention–funded project supports the Kenya Ministry of Health’s National Public Health Laboratory and the Kenya National Blood Transfusion Services in strengthening laboratory systems and providing national leadership for and coordination of the provision of sustainable high-quality TB/HIV diagnostic services.
During the past four years, Boresha Maabara has contributed to the development of national laboratory-related policy documents and national tools including: the National Laboratory Strategic Plan, the Kenya Stepwise Laboratory Quality Improvement Process Towards Accreditation (SLIPTA) Guideline, and the Kenya Bio-risk Management Curriculum to name a few. Other achievements include spearheading the integration of quality management systems in the lab, including external quality assessments and lab accreditation.
Boresha has also been directly supporting 108 laboratories in 10 Kenyan counties. The support includes facilitating comprehensive planning so that the labs are able to stay on track in meeting their public health objectives.
Recently, the project facilitated a laboratory strategic planning meeting for Nairobi City County. The county has been working to finalize a new strategic plan, and the meeting brought together relevant stakeholders to ensure continued comprehensive and coordinated efforts.
The county’s plan will include a framework for structured support and will define and track interventions for the next five years.
—Dr. Carol Ngunu Gitwathi – Deputy Director, Nairobi County Preventive and Promotive Health Services
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