Accessing and utilizing a comprehensive package of high-quality reproductive health services is a key intervention for improving the overall health status of men and women in Kenya. Improving reproductive health is also a critical strategy for achieving national and international health and development goals, including the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Moreover, as enshrined in Kenya’s new constitution, reproductive health is a fundamental right: clients’ reproductive health desires should be considered and individuals given a range of options to meet their health needs and to improve access to services.
 

The Division of Reproductive Health (DRH) of the Ministry of Public Health and Sanitation (MOPHS) and its development partners are committed to promoting and providing adequate reproductive health services. Nevertheless, a number of factors limit the demand for and use of reproductive health services in many parts of the country:

• Logistical barriers, including distance and costs of services
• Social, cultural and religious beliefs and practices
• Behavioural restrictions, including a lack of women’s empowerment and male involvement
• Weak health-management systems
• Legal and medical regulations
• Poverty and increases in out-of-pocket expenses to access reproductive health services

The overall trends in reproductive health indicators point to challenges ahead. To improve the health of women and babies, more women need access to skilled deliveries. According to the Kenya Demographic and Health Survey (KDHS) 2008–09, only 44 percent of births had been assisted by a skilled provider, while 43 percent of babies were delivered at a health facility. The DRH is committed to decreasing the unmet need for family planning and to increasing the contraceptive prevalence rates for all methods from the current 46 percent (KDHS, 2008–09) to 56 percent by 2015. For this target to be realised, access to family planning services must be improved, especially among less educated, rural and poorer women. The unacceptably high maternal-mortality rate of 488 per 100,000 live births (KDHS, 2008–09) can be addressed only through increased, high-quality reproductive healthcare services.

To address these challenges, DRH plans, implements and monitors programmes to promote the reproductive health status and rights of Kenyans. DRH is responsible for coordinating high-quality, integrated reproductive health services at all levels in the service-delivery chain. This includes hard-to-reach and underserved groups, such as people with disabilities, pastoralists, refugees and internally displaced people and urban slum dwellers.