U.S. and Kenyan officials at a signing event at the State Department announced a new health partnership on behalf of the United States and Kenya, with the U.S. committing $1.6 billion in health assistance over five years and Kenya pledging sizable domestic contributions.

The U.S. speaker said the administration intends to shift away from channeling most aid through international nongovernmental organizations and toward direct partnerships that strengthen host-country health systems. "If you want to help a country, work with that country, not work with a third party that imposes things on that country," the U.S. speaker said, framing the new approach as a move to reduce overhead and increase local control.

Kenya's speaker described a decades-long partnership with the United States and praised past U.S. investments in preventing malaria, HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis. "The framework we signed today adds momentum to my administration's universal health coverage," the Kenyan speaker said, listing priorities such as modern equipment for hospitals, more timely delivery of health commodities, enhancement of the health workforce and health insurance to "leave no Kenyan behind."

Officials said the U.S. investment — described at the event as $1,600,000,000 over five years — will be combined with Kenyan resources. The U.S. speaker said Kenya would contribute $850,000,000 to support the effort; the Kenyan speaker said Kenya is mobilizing roughly $3,000,000,000 in domestic resources to support health infrastructure deployment.

Kenya's representative also highlighted the country's community health workforce, saying "we now have 107,000 community health promoters built into [our] health infrastructure, building from the bottom of the pyramid in every village, in every health center, in every dispensary." The Kenyan speaker committed that every shilling and dollar would be "spent efficiently, effectively, and accountably."

As part of the event, the U.S. speaker framed the partnership as the first signing under an "America First Global Health Strategy," and said the model is intended to make countries more self-sustaining so they will eventually require less external assistance. The Kenyan speaker described the signing as "consequential, transformative and historic," and commended officials from both countries for their work preparing the agreement.

Both speakers also referenced regional security matters: the U.S. speaker praised Kenya's role stabilizing Haiti and urged other countries in the hemisphere and the Caribbean to step forward with personnel and funding; the Kenyan speaker reiterated Kenya's intention to remain engaged in Haiti and called on regional actors and the Organization of American States to assist.

The event closed after mutual thanks and an acknowledgment of a related forthcoming event at the Institute of Peace on the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Rwanda.