A space open to contribution articles from everywhere, this column aims to serve as an observatory of challenging health issues in Uganda from a comprehensive view encompassing the policies, strategies and practices of all involved actors
image credit: WHO
Interview: Ms. Gloria Nirere, Menstrual Health Training Lead in Uganda
Menstruation matters in resource-limited countries where poverty substantially impacts menstruation health management. In this connection, PEAH had the pleasure to arrange a new interview to Ugandan stakeholder Ms. Gloria Nirere currently involved as Facilitator/Training lead, Research and Customer Service professional at AfriPads manufacturer (Kampala, Uganda). First interview was made four years ago when she was serving as menstrual health management trainer at Kampala based WoMena NGO (find HERE). Previously, Ms. Nirere long served in poorly equipped Ugandan contexts where she performed tasks concerning clinical research, community health, humanitarian assistance, and project management at local and national level
Interview: Joan Kembabazi, Gufasha Girls Foundation, Uganda
Gufasha Girls Foundation (GGF) is a non-profit community-based organization whose primary work is to advocate against child marriage and promote girls’ education. Founded in 2016 and headquartered at the Kayunga District, Uganda, the Foundation is committed to reaching the most vulnerable girl children to change their lives, give them hope and build a generation of empowered girls and women. In this connection, PEAH had the pleasure to interview Joan Kembabazi as Gender Equality Activist and Founder & Team Leader of Gufasha Girls Foundation
Find here a not yet anywhere published document by the Alliance of Women Advocating for Change (AWAC) partner organization. AWAC is an umbrella network of grass root female sex worker led organizations in cutting across the 6 regions of Uganda. It was established in 2015 by female sex workers (FSWs) to advance health rights, human rights, socio-economic rights and social protection for FSWs and other marginalized women and girls including their children in Uganda. Geographical focus areas encompass: slum areas, islands, landing sites, transit routes, mining, quarrying, plantations, road construction sites and border areas in Uganda
Success Stories: SUCCESS ARK by Tukashaba Felix
SUCCESS ARK is a registered Not-for-Profit Youth-Led organization operating in West Nile region in Uganda specifically in Arua City and Arua District. It was established in 2018, March. Its mission is to foster empowerment through advocacy for human rights, health education and poverty alleviation for positive living. PEAH is pleased to host here an illustrated summary by the Executive Director Tukashaba Felix on some SUCCESS ARK success stories in the fields of Education, ICT (Information and Communication Technology), Health and Environment projects
EXTRACTIVISM: THE QUIET RUINER OF HUMAN HEALTH, SETTLEMENT & BIODIVERSITIES IN UGANDA by Michael Ssemakula
As a dominant model of economic growth, development and economic diversification, extractivism continues its enormous existence and influence on the ecosystems and conservation approaches of the environmentalists and health activists in Africa. With the overwhelming ambitions of boasting the Countries’ Gross Domestic Products (GDPs) and nations’ income per capita especially among the emerging global-south economies, a heavy parallel diversion has existed over the years between the environmentalists and political-economic approaches to extractivism in Uganda. The economic impact that comes along with the valuable economic rent gains of extraction ventures elevate and strengthen the State’s economic growth stages especially from the pre-conditions to take-off economic stage through the drive-to-maturity economic stage. This paper further high-marks the unimaginable awful climate dynamic implications that come lengthwise with the mining activities that cause human-induced destructions. Mining in Uganda is mainly done for exportation of the raw-form minerals by the multinational corporations through private sector investments to the foreign markets and highly industrialized global-north nations that have highly-advanced appropriate technology to convert mined minerals into finished valuable treasurable products. This paper postures a heavy juxtaposition question on the two extreme ends of extractivism gains, that is, positive and negative gains through critically studying and analyzing the adverse health costs of extractivism in developing countries like Uganda. According to (Arquinego, 2014), climate change does not affect the global South and global North equally, and within those hemispheres not everyone is affected equally either. Climate impacts affect people according to their race, class and gender. Responses to climate change need to begin from this recognition. This paper continues to explore the gaps and issues underlying management and exploration of natural resources through natural resource governance, and approaches to extractivism, and its dangers on the Uganda’s ecosystem with oil exploration as the major area of focus. Further we discuss the health effects of extractivism as one of the physical environment determinants of health in the vulnerable communities and low-resource settings around the oil and other mineral fields, the displacement of the local natives due to dominant civil corporate controls with amplified militarization of resource regions and transnational corporations’ influence in the conservation policies of the environment protection authorities
Interview to Dr. Trudy Masembe, CINTA Foundation Uganda by Daniele Dionisio
CINTA Foundation – Uganda is a Kampala based Non-Government 0rganization founded in 2014 and registered in 2015, registration No. 11351. CINTA core programs include education support, skills training, economic empowerment and reproductive health& HIV/AIDS. Currently, the Foundation is operating in regions of Central and Eastern Uganda. In this connection, PEAH had the pleasure to interview CINTA Executive Director Dr. Gertrude Masembe
Venomous COVID-19: Ripping the Country of its Valuable Young Generation by Gertrude Masembe
This blog draws attention to the devastating effects of COVID-19 pandemic to the lives of the young generation in Uganda. Due to lockdowns, many children have been forced to join the labor force to support their parents with income making continuity of their academic journey very challenging. School closures have also left the girls in a precarious position without support systems of the school staff and in some cases parents. As a result, they have spent more times with boys and men resulting into exploitation and engagement in risky behavior
Risk Factors, Mental Health and Psychosocial Needs, and Coping Among the Children Under the Care of Female Sex Workers and Adolescent Girls Surviving in Sex Work Settings: a Rapid Assessment by AWAC-Alliance of Women Advocating for Change
Find here the second of a couple of not yet anywhere published documents by the Alliance of Women Advocating for Change (AWAC) partner organization. AWAC is an umbrella network of grass root female sex worker led organizations in cutting across the 6 regions of Uganda. It was established in 2015 by female sex workers (FSWs) to advance health rights, human rights, socio-economic rights and social protection for FSWs and other marginalized women and girls including their children in Uganda. Geographical focus areas encompass: slum areas, islands, landing sites, transit routes, mining, quarrying, plantations, road construction sites and border areas in Uganda
Decriminalizing Sex Work and Enhancing Equitable Access to Health, Justice and Social Protection by Female Sex Workers in Uganda by AWAC-Alliance of Women Advocating for Change
Find here the first of a couple of not yet anywhere published documents by the Alliance of Women Advocating for Change (AWAC) partner organization. AWAC is an umbrella network of grass root female sex worker led organizations in cutting across the 6 regions of Uganda. It was established in 2015 by female sex workers (FSWs) to advance health rights, human rights, socio-economic rights and social protection for FSWs and other marginalized women and girls including their children in Uganda. Geographical focus areas encompass: slum areas, islands, landing sites, transit routes, mining, quarrying, plantations, road construction sites and border areas in Uganda
The Corona Virus outbreak has underpinned unprecedented economic instability and global food supply disruptions – essentially in Africa. This has put global cooperation (aid, partnerships and concession finance) on test after the economic downturn in the world economy performance. This article provides a discourse on damaging interruptions caused by the pandemic on socio-economic survival of countries and food security. It further demystifies the gaps therein interventions (in line with IHR core principles) presented by WHO member states and UN agencies at seventy-third World Health Assembly – which PHM closely followed through its WHO Watch program
Rapid Assessment on the Impact of COVID-19 among Female Sex Workers, Adolescent Girls and Young Women, and Women Living with HIV & AIDS in Uganda by AWAC-Alliance of Women Advocating for Change
Find here a to-the-point study by the Alliance of Women Advocating for Change (AWAC) partner organization. AWAC is an umbrella network of grass root female sex worker led organizations in cutting across the 6 regions of Uganda. It was established in 2015 by female sex workers (FSWs) to advance health rights, human rights, socio-economic rights and social protection for FSWs and other marginalized women and girls including their children in Uganda. Geographical focus areas encompass: slum areas, islands, landing sites, transit routes, mining, quarrying, plantations, road construction sites and border areas in Uganda
The Effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the Health Service Delivery Systems in Uganda by Zziwa Joshua and Bukenya Denis Joseph
Health services in Uganda are at risk in the COVID-19 outbreak through various mechanisms. Clinicians and direct care givers of COVID-19 patients have a disproportionately higher mortality than the general age-adjusted population. Closure of logistics-related workplaces and transport services interrupts supply lines. Travel bans and reduction in public transportation limit access, and public perceptions of increased risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection near health facilities dissuade attendance, whereas clinic activities considered “non-urgent,” such as antenatal care, may be postponed. Uganda has a relatively fragile health system with limited capacity to expand critical care services
Politics and the Myths Around COVID-19 Pandemic Affecting the Right to Health by Bukenya Denis Joseph and Zziwa Joshua
A big number of people in Uganda are disregarding the Ministry of Health’s guidelines and Standard Operating Procedures simply because these people don’t feel that there is a real threat hence regarding COVID-19 pandemic as a scum and this is supported by most of their political leaders who have decided to preach drinking of water while themselves opting for wine. This is evident through the dishonesty of the government officials and who have visibly used the pandemic to steal and embezzle funds from the government coffers depicted through the continuous inflation of price of essential equipment like; face masks and the distribution of radios and TVs plus food that has either not reached the people or never been given at all
Interview to Ms. Gloria Nirere, Menstrual Health Management Trainer in Uganda by Daniele Dionisio
Menstruation matters in resource-limited countries where poverty substantially impacts menstruation health management. In this connection, PEAH had the pleasure to interview Ugandan stakeholder Ms. Gloria Nirere currently involved as menstrual health management trainer at Kampala based WoMena NGO. Previously, Ms. Nirere long served in poorly equipped Ugandan contexts where she performed tasks concerning clinical research, community health, humanitarian assistance, and project management at local and national level
Interventions to Curb Covid-19 Spread in a Low-Income Country: Feasibility Challenges by Gertrude Masembe
A report here by a field engaged stakeholder about the challenges Uganda currently faces regarding the feasibility of interventions to curb nationwide Covid-19 spread
Increasing Uptake of Vasectomy as a Family Planning Method in Uganda by Amon Mulyowa
Men plus is a one-year project that started in February 2019 by Reach a Hand Uganda – RAHU in collaboration with Reproductive Health Uganda (RHU) which is aimed at increasing men’s involvement in Family Planning in Uganda through promoting access to and uptake of long-term and permanent Family Planning methods and services, through community outreaches, clinic-based interventions, group education sessions, online campaigns, and interpersonal communication between men in the different focus districts
Public Health or Poverty Alleviation? What are Mosquito Nets for? by Gertrude Masembe
A total of 21.5 and 27 million nets were distributed in Uganda in 2013/14 and 2017/18 respectively, and this yielded reduced malaria cases in the country. However, despite good government intentions, a number of Insecticide-Treated nets have not been used for their intended purpose and many are using them as fishing nets, wedding veils, ropes and for ant collection. It’s therefore important that government incorporates and ensures implementation of a proper malaria communication strategy
Development Cooperation: Concerns and Emerging Challenges by Michael Ssemakula
Challenging the ideological deficiency in the existing Aid narrative is essentially dependent on how we accord attention to the existing shifts in the interests of global economic power centers, and power imbalances rooted in imperialism- that is perpetuating the misdiagnosed fundamental dynamics of capitalism in the multilateral trading system that has quite often acted as a tandem to direct the route of trade
Two Goals with One Action: HIV/AIDS and Hunger (Health and Community Development) by Kiyini Jimedine
Zidan Benevolence International is a local community based organization that works to fight against pediatric HIV and AIDS, and operates in Buikwe district-Uganda Africa to provide HIV prevention, care and treatment services for women, children, and families. Zidan is trying to achieve two goals with one Action that is HIV/AIDS Virus and Hunger by connecting the link between Nutrition and HIV/Aids through Health and Community Development as our focus area.
Find out here an all-round, first-hand report of their much constructive, balanced and passionate field engagement
Patents in Pharmaceuticals: The Emerging Sharp Sword to the Fragile Health Systems in the 21st Century by Michael Ssemakula
Regional institutions mandated with the overall trusteeship of granting patents like African Region Intellectual Property Organization (ARIPO) responsible for the filing, administering, examining and granting of patents for 18 Contracting States of the Harare Protocol (ARIPO’s legal instrument on patents), and Organization Africaine de la Propriété Intellectuelle (OAPI) responsible for examining and granting of patents in the 16 Member States in West and Central Africa signatory to the Bangui Agreement, continue to apply insensitive practice of granting these patents which is parallel to WTO TRIPS flexibilities and pharmaceutical exemptions given to the Least Developed Countries (LDC) during this pharmaceutical transition period. Patents remain an emerging sharp sword to fragile and ever hemorrhaging health systems. This is looped in the weak implementation of TRIPS flexibilities in member state national patent laws, infamous practice of processing and granting pharmaceutical patents in LDCs by region institutions like ARIPO which has a direct implication on the member states’ access to affordable medicines, and development of a vigorous generic industry that can check the monopolies in the pharmaceutical sector to enhance availability of cheaper drugs
The Italian Investor Proposed USD 379.7 Million Lubowa Hospital Construction Project in Uganda: Disconnections and Disruptions in the Health Sector Expenditure Priorities by Michael Ssemakula and Denis Bukenya
Uganda needs only USD 9.6 million to put its Mulago national referral hospital to an internationally recommended standard, the proposed USD 379.7 million can construct five state-of-art cancer hospitals with 1000 bed capacity each. But why would the government instead opt for a USD 379.7 million deluxe hospital that has a bed capacity of only 264 which will benefit a handful?! Is this the best approach to set our line-of-preferences at the cost of other numerous districts without a single public hospital?
Turbulences in Uganda’s Global Aid Construct: Is the Contemporary Aid Effective Enough to Transform Uganda’s Health System to Achieve UHC? by Michael Ssemakula
At a time when to care about Uganda’s health system a model shift is required to be drawn for the coverage and effectiveness of aid to yield more productive results, this paper scrutinizes the changes, the form, and the applicability of external financing for health to Uganda and evaluates the level of influence of new alternatives available for health sector development
Galvanizing the Action to Protect and Promote the Rights of Mentally-Disabled Individuals in the Key Populations: a Pathway to Achieve Health for All by Denis Bukenya and Michael Ssemakula
Obsolete mental health legislation in Uganda has a number of deficiencies such as failure to differentiate voluntary and involuntary care, inadequate protection and promotion of the human rights of people with mental illness and the presence of slurring and stigmatizing language; and henceforth not in line with the draft mental health policy as well as current trends in mental health care
The Rhetoric In Achieving The Universal Health Coverage Under Public-Private Partnerships In Uganda by Denis Bukenya and Michael Ssemakula
UHC has remained in a shackled unachievable dream in Uganda due to the wave of liberalization and improper incorporation of the PPPs during the early 1990s into the health system with unclear regulations, objectives and conflicting interests.
The woe with the PPPs in Uganda is that the lack of proper laws that can regulate their work framework adds to the absence of a well streamlined policy in place that directs how these partnerships should be designed and controlled …at a time when… most of the decisions undertaken by the government consider less the public engagement concerns and rely more on the interests and choices of the private sector
Private Players in the Growth Paradox of Health Service Provision and Advancement in Uganda by Michael Ssemakula
This paper focuses on the role of private actors in the direct provision of health care in Uganda, through provision of health related goods and services such as research, treatments, human resources, and healthcare financing. It maintains that, while the health sector system of Uganda is predominantly covered by the private health care in its current state, this has mostly benefited the rich and middle class citizenry with higher disposable incomes who can afford the high charges on treatment. The paper also stresses that much as the private profit motivated forces hike fees on health care, this can also be worsened and perpetuated by the public entities
The Global Implications of the Gag Rule and its Manifestations on Reproductive Health Rights in Uganda by Denis Bukenya and Michael Ssemakula
This paper examines the adversative effects of the Mexico City Policy (or Global Gag Rule) and the overflow-stream of fears towards health that it has drawn to the health rights advocates and NGOs in Uganda. The paper dissects into issues surrounding the policy especially in regards to other health related services that have been deprived of the susceptible key populaces in the pretext of putting a stoppage to abortion linked services
Uganda: the Big Challenge of Maternal and Child Health by Pietro Dionisio
Uganda has made progress towards improving the health of children, newborns, adolescent boys and girls, women and men in the country. However, Uganda still ranks among the top 10 countries in the world with high maternal, newborn and child mortality rates. Many policies have been implemented over the last 20 years trying to improve maternal and child health. The related health indicators are progressing but there is still much to do
Falsified and Substandard Medicines: Threat to the SDGs – but Who’s Watching, Caring or Acting? by David Patterson
Falsified and Substandard (FS) medicines remain a largely hidden problem in many lower-and-middle income countries. Adding to law reform, a comprehensive response should include strengthening of capacity, accountability, collaboration and coordination of all concerned parties
The Untold Story about Counterfeit Medicines and Its Effects on the Right to Health in Uganda by Denis Bukenya and Michael Ssemakula
Uganda's National Drug Authority (NDA), a national body that presides over the oversight and authorization of sale and distribution of drugs, does not have a National Formulary (NF) to outlaw and disallow importation of counterfeit drugs. This paper raises many questions relevant to drug authorization in Uganda and calls for response to the unresolved answers: What does NDA use to guide and control the marketization and selling of imported drugs in Uganda in the nonexistence of a National Formulary? What does NDA use to make a taxonomy between unauthorized and authorized drugs for general public use?
Accessibility to Medicines in Uganda by Denis Bukenya and Michael Ssemakula
This paper examines the vast gap in access to essential drugs in Uganda and highlights the many circumstances of the drug stock-outs culminating into the high premiums on medicines hence frustrating access to medicines and many a time sprouting drug resistance illnesses
Understanding the Systems that Influence Distribution Channels for Drugs in Uganda for Better Inventory Procedures by Denis Bukenya
In his own words, the director of National Medical Stores (NMS) Mr. Moses Kamabare said “the stores are full of drugs to the point that I am asking my suppliers to hold future deliveries as I try to work out stocks from the system”. Reading the NMS Director’s statement and considering the regular drug stock-outs in the country makes one wonder who is fooling the other. This is an indicator that someone in the system is incompetent in managing their job of furnishing the correct data to the relevant authorities. This article intends to examine the pros and cons of the nature of the system that NMS uses in procuring the drugs for Ugandans to avoid stock outs
The Injurious TRIPS Relationship between Human Rights and Access to Medicine in Uganda by Denis Bukenya
The issue to ponder about is who is this TRIPS meant to protect? Is it protecting the LDCs or the Developed Countries? The views I am trapping out there imply that the Agreement intends to protect creativity and the manufacturers so that they can expand their potential and motivate them in research.
The least developed countries, Uganda inclusive need time to overcome the constraints preventing them from creating viable technological bases and Intellectual Property (IP) Laws.The IP Laws in Uganda are so muddled that they curtail the availability of affordable generic drugs in the country.
Uganda as a nation would use a good training to the officers of the law in the IP section and also there is a need for increased materials on IP to be circulated amongst the health rights activists and advocates
The Uganda’s “Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (Control) Act” and how it impacts on Public Health and Human Rights by Muhwezi Edward
The essence of the Uganda's Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (Control) Act (NDPSA) is to treat people who use and inject drugs (PWUIDs) as criminals who need to be locked up instead of viewing them as human being in need of assistance. The criminalisation of drug use has had the effect of limiting the range of medical intervention available and accessible to PWUIDs in both private and public facilities. There is no comprehensive facility for the provision of public health services to PWUIDs. There is also no treatment available within Uganda for people who are on drugs and need critical and urgent medical attention like opioid substitution therapy. And there is a direct link between the criminalisation of drug use and HIV/AIDS as well as mental health challenges
As a matter of life and death, governments in the LDC sector need to strive to ensure that they develop effective health policies including development of essential medicines lists in a bid to improve access to health care. Also they need to live up their individual and collective commitments and adopt a human rights based approach to access to all medicines, not only essential medicines
Synergizing Roles: Experiences of Civil Society Working Towards Promoting Local Generic Pharmaceutical Manufacturing in the EAC Region by Moses Mulumba
Due to a number of bottlenecks, the generic pharmaceutical manufacturers in the East African Community region produce at a cost disadvantage compared to their large-scale Asian counterparts. This article highlights some of the key areas where civil society has engaged and can still engage with local pharmaceutical industries to address these challenges