Kampala, February 21, 2024— Health Development Partners (HDPs) in Uganda have actually promised to enhance the harmonization and coordination of their efforts to efficiently support the nationwide health advancement strategy and spending plan in 2024. This dedication was made at their current HDP yearly retreat held at the World Health Organization (WHO) in Uganda, which is the secretariat of the HDP Forum.
The retreat united thirty advancement partners’ agents and UN firms. They talked about methods to enhance their assistance to reinforce the health system in Uganda. These consist of enhancing health service shipment, promoting for sustainable health funding through more efficient and effective usage of advancement support for health, and increasing federal government financing to the health sector.
Other locations of focus consist of supporting the scale-up of the neighborhood health program, digitizing procedures to enhance prompt health interventions, enhancing teen health services, especially lowering teenage pregnancy, and pandemic readiness.
In his discussion, Dr Richard Kabanda, Commissioner for Health Promotion, Education, and Strategic Communication at the Ministry of Health, acknowledged the assistance offered by advancement partners to advance Uganda’s health program, specifically in neighborhood health.
“Communities are at the center of all health interventions. There is an immediate requirement to enhance their strength by reinforcing Village Health Team structures, enhancing financing for Community Health Extension Workers (CHEWs), and guaranteeing harmonization of actions throughout significant public health projects”, he mentioned.
With assistance from the HDPs, the Ministry introduced the neighborhood health technique and is presenting the CHEWs program that was piloted effectively in the Mayuge and Lira districts.
Dr. Rose Okot-Chono, the Team Lead of Health System Strengthening at the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and Chair of the HDP Forum called on all partners to align their action prepares with federal government top priorities. “As health advancement partners, we have various concerns. To have a considerable effect, we ought to align our assistance with the top priorities of the Ugandan federal government,” she stated.
Consequently, the UNFPA Deputy Country Representative and Co-chair of the HDP Forum, Mr. Daniel Alemu, stressed the important nature of the present year’s activities, especially relating to the recognition and completion of the National Health Policy 3. “This policy is important for advancing essential health top priorities in the coming years,” he mentioned.
In 2023, the HDP supported the Ministry of Health in performing and releasing the 2022 Uganda Demographic Health Survey (UDHS), which highlighted considerable decreases in maternal, baby, and under-five death. The UDHS notifies decision-making and interventions to enhance health service shipment in the nation.
In addition, Health Development Partners continued to support the Ministry of Health’s efforts towards monetary sustainability by promoting for a boost in the allowance of nationwide resources to the health sector. This has actually led to a boost of over UGX 200 billion in nationwide resources assigned to the health sector, from UGX 3,684.56 billion in FY 2022/23 to UGX 3,895.70 billion in FY 2023/24.
The WHO Representative to Uganda and long-term Co-chair of the HDP Forum, Dr Yonas Tegegn Woldemariam, advised advancement partners to construct trust, openness, and responsibility through details sharing. “We require to record our interventions and finest practices to enhance nations’ readiness for health emergency situations. This will likewise promote openness and responsibility, enhancing trust in between partners and federal government,” he described.
The Uganda Health Development Partners Forum has actually been actively participated in health-related efforts given that 1997. Its 3 primary goals are: to offer an online forum for coordination in between partners operating in the health sector to align their actions with federal government strategies and budget plans; to increase the efficiency and performance of the execution of the health sector advancement strategy; and to enhance responsibility in between federal government and advancement partners.