Table of Contents
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
Background of KPA
The Kenya Psychiatric Association is a professional association registered with the Registrar of Societies in 1986 as a non-political, non-religious, and non-profit making organization. The Association’s aims and objectives are:
- To foster positive relationships among the fraternity of psychiatrists.
- To promote the field of Psychiatry in Kenya.
- To promote and improve mental health in the community.
- To conduct and co-ordinate mental health-related research and disseminate this information through publications, journals, periodicals, and newsletters.
- To maintain professional and ethical standards in the practice of psychiatry.
- To co-ordinate and liaise with National and International bodies with similar objectives on matters related to mental health.
- To offer expertise and advice on professional matters related to mental health.
- To organize meetings, conferences, seminars, workshops at regional, national, and international levels in promotion and furtherance of the above aims.
- To lobby for funds for the promotion and furtherance of the above aims.
The association over the years has lived to achieve its aims and purposes through tremendous achievements and contributions some of which are listed below:
- Technical contribution to the development of policies and legislation such as the Mental Health Act 1989 and the Kenya Mental Health Policy 2015-2030
- Contributions to scientific research and academic development in psychiatry and mental health in general.
- Sustained partnership and collaboration with local and international institutions in the development of mental health and other health agendas.
- The association has demonstrated transformative leadership in promoting mental health and best practices in psychiatry by supporting the welfare of its members, providing mentorship to trainees, and community engagement and support through corporate social responsibility initiatives.
The strategic positioning of KPA has guided the formulation of this strategic orientation through a critical consideration of its Strengths, Limitations, Opportunities, and Threats (SLOT). KPA envisages generating concrete solutions and new knowledge to overcome these challenges and build internal capacity, benchmark best practices, and ultimately, through these interventions offer practical solutions that best fit Kenyan mental health context and a coherent policy foundation with which to improve sector outcomes.
The niche of KPAis defined by the following features:
- Well-established relationship with the Ministry of Health (MOH) and other government Ministerial, Departmental, and Agencies (MDAs).
- The only association to exclusively focus on mental health (holistic approach) thus unifying all mental health professionals Experience in engaging with multi-sectoral health stakeholders at different levels.
- Diversity of members in terms of constituency, interventions, and levels of impact.
- Joint interventions and networking with well-established institutions and evident past record of promoting health generally, and mental health specifically.
Nevertheless, KPA’s significant contribution and success in advancing mental health have resulted from not just isolated intervention from its members but from continued collaboration with numerous organizations and entities that work from different perspectives to promote inclusion and sustainability in the health sector. The shifts in the National and Global health policy environment call for KPA to respond with realism, imagination, and a readiness to introduce profound changes in the mental health arena.
KPA theory of change holds that combining rigorous member capacity enhancement and mentorship strategy, research and policy analysis, well- timed advocacy and engagement with health sector actors and policymakers can lead to improved and accountable management of the overall mental health sector.
Strategic planning will be crucial for KPA in providing a sense of direction and in outlining measurable goals. A useful tool for guiding day-to-day decisions and also for evaluating progress and changing approaches when moving forward. To this end a SLOT analysis was conducted as shown below.
| STRENGTHS | LIMITATION |
|---|---|
| Diverse backgrounds | Poor sense of ownership amongst the members. |
| Unity of purpose | Research skills are limited among members hence reduced interest. |
| Mentorship within the association. Expertise in psychiatry and mental health | Scarcity of funds, financial dependence on corporate support. |
| Existence and continuous growth of KPA | Low number of psychiatrists |
| Good trainers and researchers | Low visibility as an association |
| Many young and enthusiastic psychiatrists | Low membership |
| Strong functional and committed leadership | No full time operational secretariat |
| Accredited provider of continuous Professional Development (CPD) in mental health. | Poor mobilization of members to different causes. Poor psychiatrists distribution within the country. |
| OPPORTUNITIES | THREATS |
|---|---|
| Expertise and voice of authority in mental health | Stigma and discrimination |
| Increasing numbers of psychiatrists | Anti psychiatry movements |
| Increase in media coverage of mental health | Rising trends in disease burden with limited resources in the healthcare settings. |
| Mental health a global concern, so more focus | Poorly defined roles in mental health care provision. |
| Increased mental health research funding | Limited political good will |
| Increased training opportunities and Sub specialization in psychiatry | |
| Existing linkage to Kenya Medical Association (KMA) and other professional associations | |
| Technological advancement in medicine |
CHAPTER 2: KPA STRATEGIC FOCUS
VISION and MISSION:
The Vision: To be a leading professional association in mental health globally.
The Mission: To promote leadership, mentorship, and evidence-based service provision, capacity building, and research in mental health.
Core Values:
KPA commits to abide, in letter and spirit, by a set of 7 distinct values that underpin the pursuit of its mission, and also reflect its broader approach to mental health:
- Professionalism: KPA shall discharge its duties diligently and in line with nationally and internationally recognized ethical and professional standards.
- Non Discrimination: KPA shall be a non-partisan and impartial professional association with independent positions in relation to mental health issues.
- Unity of purpose: KPA shall employ an approach of inclusivity for all its members, partners, and all mental health stakeholders in an effort to strengthen mental health systems
- Connective engagement: “strength in numbers” – the strategic operational approach is in collective strength. All association members and partners shall be given the opportunity to contribute meaningfully to the implementation of the KPA strategy.
- Ethical integrity: KPA shall ensure high integrity and ethical standards in service delivery and health research.
- Leadership, accountability, and transparency: KPA shall continuously improve the quality of leadership while maintaining transparent and accountable governance systems.
- Empathy: KPA shall be committed to upholding human dignity and ensure no prejudice in the delivery of mental health services.
These values are reiterated and emphasized throughout the strategic plan and will be referred to continuously in the process of its implementation.
Guiding Principles:
The Strategy and Operational Framework of the KPA are guided by the following principles:
- Evidence-based approach – to inform mental health issues and best practices in psychiatry.
- Partnership and Collaboration – the ability to build synergies and complement other health agencies through leveraging internal and external partnerships as well as prioritizing its own capacity strengthening.
- Innovation, Efficiency, and Effectiveness in the delivery of the KPA mission.
- Holistic and Integrated approach to solutions, and aptitude in articulating challenges through persuasive and credible engagement with decision-makers.
- Information Sharing and Education – public education and communication through a planned media outreach strategy.
- Sustainability – adopt a selectively, focused, and an incremental approach to its program implementation to achieve a tangible impact.
- Accountability and Transparency; participatory needs assessments and performance reporting, social accountability through community engagements.
To this end, KPA needs to initiate a collective learning and joint mental health advocacy agenda on the challenges facing the sector in the country
Strategic Goal and Objectives
Goal: To mobilize and empower mental health professionals in advocating for evidence based mental health practices by 2024.
Key result areas:
- Advocacy and awareness creation in mental health
- Promote evidence-based and best practice in mental health
- Leadership and Mentorship
- Strengthening the institutional capacity of KPA
Strategic Actions:
- To provide technical advice on mental health-related matters.
- To provide public mental health literacy.
- To collaborate with different stakeholders in implementing a research project biennially.
- To collaborate in the development of best practice guidelines in mental health.
- To provide continuous medical education and professional development for members.
- To provide technical assistance on existing and emerging mental health issues
- To provide mental health leadership training
- To recruit new members and retain current members
- To strengthen partnerships, collaboration, and networking
- To align the KPAconstitution with the strategic plan
- To mobilize resources for Strategic Plan Implementation
Overarching Strategies:
KPA shall achieve the outlined objectives by:
Becoming more agile; continually revisiting strategic priorities, focusing on where it can make a difference; responding to the new global environment by working more systematically on cross-cutting and transnational issues.
Becoming locally rooted and globally connected; Engaging more effectively with local and regional actors, even as we maintain the capacity for high-level regional and global advocacy.
Becoming more visible; strengthen brand recognition, visibility and coherence; refine the means by which we deliver our mission, including through an interactive website; raise media profile and extend the use of new communications channels and social media networks.
Becoming more effective; diversify the forms of engagement; reinforce the managerial capacity in line with the requirements of the strategic model and constitution.
Becoming more proactive in fundraising; With the support of the National executive committee, we shall increase efforts to secure the necessary funding to provide a platform for gradual programmatic growth; engage more dynamically with government and donors and pursuing new funding streams through a robust fundraising strategy.
To foster partnerships, synergies, and networks; to leverage the competitive advantages as a trusted national and global actor in mental health. To build extensive networks and collaborate with partners, for mutual development and impact in mental health.
CHAPTER 3: IMPLEMENTATION FRAMEWORK
| Key Result Areas | Strategic Actions | Activities | Expected Outcomes | Key Performance Indicators |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Advocacy and awareness creation in mental health | To provide technical advice on mental health related matters | Drafting of at least 2 advisory papers biennially | Provision of expertevidence based recommendations on key issues | Number of advisorypapers published |
CHAPTER4: RESOURCESMOBILIZATIONAND FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT
The KPAwill embrace a resource mobilization strategy that ensures there is a systematic, sustainable and well coordinated approach to soliciting, acquiring, utilization, management, reporting, monitoring, and evaluation of resources to implement the strategic plan. The resource mobilization model will ensure the needed resources are acquired at the right time and there is cost effective utilization. The funding platform needs to be aligned with KPA’s mission and priority areas, should take into consideration its capacity and independence and should ensure that the KPA broader reputation and mandate is not negatively impacted.
Types of Resources:
Material resources; includes financial and physical capital such as; office space, money, equipment, and supplies.
Human resources; such as labor, experience, skills, and expertise to execute the tasks under the strategic objectives.
Social / Organizational resources; this includes social capital that ensures support for the vision and effectively communicates the mission.
Steps in Resource Mobilization:
Identifying partners; undertake continuous stakeholder mapping to establish potential resource partners. The partners will play varying roles and responsibilities in the funding model such as; direct support of activities, collaborative work, capacity building, and service requisition; establish the potential partner funding cycle, preconditions for support, and funding application procedures.
Funding process; build a mutual relationship with the partners through dissemination of the strategic plan Vision and Mission, then negotiate on the opportunities for partnership and the value for money in the investments. The partnering process will be undertaken through proposals, contracts agreements and memoranda of understanding.
Managing the partnership; KPAwill maintains good relations with partners and clients, ensure contractual requirements are well managed and effectively delivered; KPAwill also ensures that resources are optimally utilized and well documented and accounted for through a transparent reporting system.
CHAPTER5: MONITORING, EVALUATION, AND LEARNING
The strategy will be implemented within the 2019-2024 period. The monitoring and evaluation roadmap will put into consideration factors such as; selectivity, incremental program expansion and the need to build internal methodological capacity progressively.
Annual work plans will be developed and monitored. Periodic reports, including an annual report shall be prepared by the secretariat in collaboration with KPA National Executive Committee (NEC) and presented at the Annual General Meeting.
These will track the progress towards achieving KPA strategic objectives and the extent to which the plans are being implemented. Periodic reviews shall be conducted and recommendations incorporated during reflection, learning sessions, and scheduled NEC meetings to allow timely adjustments.
The strategic plan will be implemented through annual work plans with specific calendar of activities and desired targets. At the end of the annual work plan, a detailed implementation evaluation will be undertaken with a focus on targets achieved, effectiveness, efficiency and lessons learnt. This will inform the subsequent year work plan activities, set targets and implementation strategies. The strategic plan implementation will be results-based with the aim of achieving desired outcomes with high impact.
