Towards the end of March, the Ministry of Health (MOH), in collaboration with World Health Organization (WHO) and partners assessed progress made on the implementation of the sector interventions during the Financial Year 2021/2022.  

In the 2022 Joint Review Mission (JRM) under the theme ‘Reinvigorating Health Promotion and Disease Prevention for Universal Health Coverage through a multi-sectoral Approach: My Role, your role, our role’, participants emphasized the need to strengthen community health and increase the overall allocation of public resources to the health sector.

They also requested the Health Service Commission to urgently fill vacant human resource positions as one way to improve access to quality and equitable delivery of effective health services throughout the country.  The participants additionally recommended that the MoH leverage the Sudan Ebola recovery efforts and support from partners to strengthen emergency preparedness and resilience.

Regarding the persistently high neonatal and maternal mortality rates in some districts, participants urged the government to undertake a survey to identify the underlying factors and build the capacity of health workers at all levels of care as one of the effective ways to address the problem.

The Minister of Health, Dr. Jane Ruth Aceng Ocero, concurred with the participants on the pertinent issues noting that, “there needs to be efficiency in the use of resources, accountability for every dollar, but also work progressively towards ensuring that the sector budget is enhanced to a level at which the sector can carry out its performance with the quality that is desired.”

Dr Aceng recognized the commitment of health workers, partners, civil society, the private sector, and donors towards providing quality healthcare services in Uganda. She observed that, “progresses in performance were made possible by the commitment from both the public and private sectors.”

Ms. Grace Kiwanuka, who represented the private health sector at the JRM, advocated for the inclusion of the private sector in local and national planning and design processes for the health sector. ‘‘As the private sector, we have embraced the opportunity to mobilize resources to complement the government of Uganda and other development partners,” she said.

For WHO and international partners at the JRM, Dr. Yonas Tegegn Woldemariam, WHO Representative in Uganda commended MoH for making important strides in the performance of the sector during the period under review. “We need to continue emphasizing the importance of multisectoral actions in controlling communicable and non-communicable diseases, as well as responding to public health emergencies,’’ he concluded.