Kenya : Reaching the Poor through the Private Sector, A Network Model for Expanding Access to Reproductive Health Services

This study, carried out in the summer of 2003, measured the effectiveness of a Kenyan program dedicated to increasing the availability of reproductive health services to the poor through training and networking of private medical providers. The Kisumu Medical and Educational Trust (KMET) program focuses on family planning services and encourages providers to add these services to the normal range of consultations, commodity sales, and clinical care they already provide. The central question addressed in this study is whether it is possible to offer reproductive health services through a network of private sector, for-profit providers without exacerbating inequity in access to these services.. The study also looked at a pool of potential clients of KMET members to evaluate which wealth group benefits from the subsidy given to private providers through KMET. And finally, an analysis of actual KMET clients was used to better understand the program's success in providing quality reproductive health care.