SPEED Uganda - Advancing Universal Health Coverage (UHC) in Uganda: Highlights of the Contributions of the SPEED Project.

Advancing Universal Health Coverage (UHC) in Uganda: Highlights of the Contributions of the SPEED Project.

Since its launch in 2015, the Supporting Policy Engagement for Evidence-based Decisions (SPEED) for UHC in Uganda Project boasts of several achievements. In this article, we highlight some outstanding contributions towards Uganda’s aspirations for UHC.

Development of UHC Roadmap for Uganda

Since 2015, the SPEED project has been working to contribute to the advancement of UHC in Uganda. Last year, the Ministry of Health commissioned the development of a roadmap for the implementation of UHC-related strategies in Uganda. This task was given to the SPEED team led by its Director, Prof Freddie Ssengooba. The process of developing the UHC roadmap followed other accomplishments of the project. These include the development of a UHC research Agenda, the conduction of a UHC Situation Analysis and development of a Presidential Economic Council (PEC) Policy paper on UHC. These activities did not only identify gaps and challenges, but they also proposed the policy actions and interventions towards accelerating the achievement of UHC. Central to the recommendations was the importance of a multisectoral approach and development of a UHC roadmap that was later alone commissioned to the Project.

Agenda-setting symposia on UHC

In 2015, 2017 and 2019, the SPEED project organized symposia on key issues pertinent to UHC in Uganda and Low- and Middle-Income Countries respectively national systems developments, health financing and multisectoral action/partnerships. The three symposia brought together more than 500 delegates from different parts of the world and facilatated shared learning for UHC advancement.

Preparation and Launch of a ground-breaking Book on UHC in Uganda

The 3^rd May of 2018 was a historic day in the health sector in Uganda. A book on Universal Health Coverage (UHC) was launched at the Serena Hotel in Kampala. The launch ceremony was graced by then Minister of State for Primary Healthcare, Honourable Sarah Opendi and Mr. Thomas Tiedemann, Acting Head of Cooperation at the EU Delegation in Uganda. This 20-chapter book titled “Universal Health Coverage in Uganda- Looking Back and Forward to Speed up the Progress”, captures the status of UHC readiness and generates policy advice, cognisant of the health sector developments in the last 10 to 15 years.

SPEED contributes to policy debate on malaria reduction in Uganda

SPEED identified the prevention of malaria, the leading cause of death in Uganda as a priority area for advocacy and engagement of partners and policymakers with evidence to support policymaking. The project advocated for national scale up of  indoor residual spraying (IRS). Srategies adopted included collecting of experiences from communities in Northern Uganda where IRS has been implemented and packing the evidence for optimal impact. Stakeholder voices and experiences packaged in video clips and evidence briefs extracted from a costing paper on IRS were used to engage with partners and policymakers at different levels. SPEED joined a wider partnership including the Uganda Parliamentary Forum on Malaria to step up the tempo and engage the President of Uganda. Ultimately, on 5^th April 2018, the President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni launched the Mass Action Against Malaria (MAAM) Campaign and announced a budget of USD 10 Million for IRS.

The Policy Implementation Barometer (PIB)

Two rounds of the PIB survey were successfully conducted over the 5 year period. The PIB as an innovative tool in the region focuses on examining aspects of policy implementation beyond normal monitoring and evaluation assessments.  Several spin-off products and activities like short studies are being developed. Through both local and international engagements, the PIB idea has been widely disseminated. The PIB protocol was published in the Archives of Public Health for wider dissemination. Students at  Makerere University School of Public Heealth (MakSPH) and one student from the Institutue of Tropical Medicine, Antwerp used the PIB approach during their research projects. The South African government, WHO Afro Region and Bangladesh have considered adopting the PIB.

Broad media engagements and influence

Other achievements include participation in atleast 70 international scientific fora and over 200 requests, invitations and responses for UHC at national level. The project has produced  several dissemination products including more than 100 Newspaper articles, 62 Blogs,  16 Reports, 27 Policy Briefs, 7 Journal articles, and 32 Videos. The project also runs a functional webiste and active social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

Overall, SPEED has ensured demonstrable progress towards its goals thereby contributing towards the UHC and national development objectives. More about our work can be accessed on the project website: http://speed.musph.ac.ug/