Enhancing Universal Health Coverage in Kenya through Digital Innovations: A Financial and Health Diaries evaluation study of i-PUSH

Under the Sustainable Development Goals, there has been renewed international commitment to Universal Health Coverage (UHC), the goal of ensuring that all people have access to the quality health services they need without suffering financial hardship in paying for them. However, currently in many countries there are significant resource shortages and service delivery gaps. As a result, the poor lack access to care or may be pushed further into poverty from high healthcare costs. In Kenya, PharmAccess and Amref Health Africa are developing and implementing a range of innovative digital products and services to enhance the movement towards UHC. The research project will support PharmAccess and Amref Health Africa in their endeavor through a high-frequency, high-detail Financial and Health Diaries study. The research has three core objectives:

1. Provide under-the-skin insights in the financial lives and health-seeking behavior of the target population.
2. Rigorously evaluate the impact of PharmAccess and Amref’s i-Push program on health care utilization, financial protection and women’s empowerment.
3. To compare the financial and health consequences of two risk-pooling systems (subsidized health insurance in Kakamega vs. free public care in Kisumu). 

PARTNER INSTITUTIONS (IF APPLICABLE):

• Amsterdam Institute for Global Health and Development (AIGHD)
• PharmAcess International
• Amref Kenya 

PROJECT PERIOD:

• November 2018
• June 2021

PROJECT FUNDERS:

• Joep Lange Institute
• Amref
  PharmAcess (through the iPush program)
• Health Insurance Fund 

PROJECT TEAM:

• Principal Investigators: Assoc. Prof. Wendy Janssens (AIGHD) and Dr Estelle M Sidze (APHRC)
• Co-investigators: Prof. Menno Pradhan (AIGHD) and Dr Hermann P Donfouet (APHRC)
• Project Managers: Dr. Amanuel Abajobir (APHRC), Dr Richard de Groot (AIGHD)
• Data analysts: Ms. Anne Njeri (APHRC) and Mr. Daniel Maina (APHRC)
• Research officer/Research coordinator- Ms. Caroline Wainaina (APHRC) 

Links to add to the project page

• The short-term economic effects of COVID-19 and risk-coping strategies of low-income households in Kenya: A rapid analysis using weekly financial household data: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/342684490_The_Short-Term_Economic_Effects_of_COVID-19_and_Risk-Coping_Strategies_of_Low-Income_Households_in_Kenya_A_Rapid_Analysis_Using_Weekly_Financial_Household_Data

• Project website – https://diaries.aighd.org/

3.     The new normal: How to adapt to new data collection methods

• https://aphrc.org/blogarticle/the-new-normal-how-to-adapt-to-new-data-collection-methods/