Executive Director's Spotlight on HENNET

Meeting participants for the 'Advancing national commitments for women’s, children’s, and adolescents’ health and well-being: Unveiling Kenya’s Collaborative Advocacy Action Plan (CAAP) initiative and the Kenya Digital Advocacy Hub' convening coordinated by Health NGO Network (HENNET), in collaboration with Aga Khan University’s Centre of Excellence in Women and Child Health and PATH - Nairobi, Kenya 14 August 2025.

This month we are proud to spotlight Health NGOs’ Network (HENNET), a member of the NGO constituency for their outstanding work on the PMNCH-coordinated Collaborative Advocacy Action Plans (CAAP) initiative in Kenya.   

The CAAP initiative, led by PMNCH and partners, strengthens national accountability and advocacy for women’s, children’s, and adolescents’ health (WCAH). It aligns in-country efforts to accelerate SDG3 targets, reducing maternal, newborn, and child mortality while advancing sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) and adolescent well-being (AWB). Through a partner-led assessment of government commitments, stakeholders collaboratively drive advocacy actions to enhance implementation of existing commitments, while initiating new commitments where critical gaps exist. CAAPs are active in 10 countries, mainly in sub-Saharan Africa, with coordination from partners like HENNET in Kenya. National priorities also support the Global Leaders Network’s high-level advocacy, which includes Kenyan President H.E. William Ruto. 

HENNET promotes the roles and engagement of civil society to transform Kenya’s health sector by addressing gaps in health system financing, inequitable access to services, suboptimal quality of care, and deep disparities between and within counties. Founded in 2005, HENNET provides a common platform among the CSOs dealing with diverse health-related issues in Kenya for collaboration, the sharing of experiences, and joint advocacy, thereby strengthening voice and legitimacy and expanding reach into the health sector ecosystem and infrastructure as well as regional and global forums.  

Now with more than 112 members comprised of both local and international NGOs, faith-based organizations (FBOs) and research institutions in all the 47 counties in Kenya, HENNET is committed to the following strategic objectives: targeted and evidence-based advocacy and policy engagement; networking, coordination and collaboration; capacity development and sustainability; and research and knowledge management. As Kenya’s leading Health NGO coalition, HENNET engages across various working groups, technical advisory, and planning committees, including as a standing Non-Governmental Organization representative of the RMNCAH+N Multi-Country Stakeholder Platform. HENNET is actively engaged in the coordinating committee for Every Woman Every Child Everywhere (EWENE) and was instrumental in soliciting Kenya CSO-s input to Kenya’s recent Voluntary National Review.  

As part of the CAAP process, HENNET has coordinated a multi-constituency process to engage over 45 organizations in reviewing the status of national commitments and identifying priority areas for reproductive, maternal, newborn, child, and adolescent health (RMNCAH) advocacy which include: ending preventable maternal, perinatal, neonatal and child deaths; strengthening adolescent and youth-responsive health systems and ending teenage pregnancies; reducing an unmet need for family planning; increasing financing for health; and improving national, county and sub-county data quality.  Unique to Kenya’s CAAP advocacy journey has been the robust inclusion of subnational civil society groups and adolescent and youth-led organizations. Virtual convenings and the use of Kenya’s Digital Advocacy Hub helped spur broader participation of historically underrepresented constituencies, often barred from in-person participation due to funding and travel constraints.  

Feedback from partners on the ground has informed Kenya’s 2023/4-2027/8 Investment Framework Process. Additionally, a scorecard on the  National RMNCAH+N Multicounty Stakeholder Platform (MCP) functionality has been generated and disseminated to the MCP to strengthen consistency and the operationalization of the platform.  

Special thanks to HENNET’s Executive Director, Dr. Margaret Lubaale who also serves as the Global Financing Facility (GFF) CSO Implementer Group Alternate Representative. Sharon Musakali, Senior Program Officer, HENNET and CAAP focal point, along with Faith Ndungu and Brian Anyega, have also been critical members of the HENNET team.  

For more information, go to the HENNET website or follow them on X. 

We invite Kenya-based partners to support the efforts being coordinated by HENNET. For more information or to indicate your interest, please join the Digital Advocacy Hub.  The hub has attracted over 120 partners to foster the effective exchange of national and county-level information on projects andevents, PMNCH partners can network, collaborate on projects at the national and global levels, share knowledge and resources and other initiatives while also enabling stakeholders to share resources.