Uganda

From 2020 through 2022, we worked with the Government of Uganda through the Ministry of Health to increase the capacity of community and frontline health workers to deliver high-quality primary health services and reduce the preventable disease burden in rural communities, with a focus on COVID-19 prevention and response. After two years of partnering with the Ministry of Health to upskill health workers and respond to the COVID-19 pandemic, we have made the strategic decision to wind down our operations in Uganda as of June 2022.

Country Snapshot

Uganda has made significant progress reducing maternal mortality and under-five mortality. However, challenges remain tied to the availability, accessibility, and affordability of essential health services. This contributes to 75% of Uganda’s preventable disease burden. With a population of approximately 43 million people, Uganda faces a significant health worker shortage to address these challenges. The COVID-19 pandemic has placed an additional strain on the health workforce.

Rural Population

76%

Child Mortality

46 per 1,000 live births

Maternal Mortality

375 per 100,000 live births

Basic Vaccine Coverage

55%

HIV Prevalence

5.8%

Health Worker Coverage

0.2 doctors per 1,000 people

*Source: The World Bank Group, World Bank Open Data, www.data.worldbank.org; Uganda Demographic and Health Survey, 2016, https://dhsprogram.com/pubs/pdf/FR333/FR333.pdf

Our Prior Work

From 2020 through 2022, we worked with the Government of Uganda through the Ministry of Health to increase the capacity of community and frontline health workers to deliver high-quality primary health services and reduce the preventable disease burden in rural communities, with a focus on COVID-19 prevention and response. Responding to the pressing needs COVID-19 presented, Last Mile Health and the Ministry of Health launched a capacity-building app to upskill Uganda’s health workforce, with a 98% satisfaction rate with course content on COVID-19 vaccinations. We also supported the distribution of 347,671 personal protective equipment (PPE) units to 3,418 community health workers and 69 health facilities across two districts.

We supported the Uganda Ministry of Health to:

LEVERAGE FRONTLINE HEALTH WORKERS IN THE COVID-19 RESPONSE

We supported the Ministry of Health to train over 3,000 master trainers and supervisors through a multi-day virtual training focused on COVID-19 vaccine administration. These trainers in turn trained 5,000 frontline health workers and district leaders across 146 districts. In addition, we distributed personal protective equipment to 3,418 community and frontline health workers and 69 health facilities across two rural districts.

TRAIN HEALTH LEADERS

Through our Community Health Academy, we provided blended learning opportunities for health leaders to grow their expertise to effectively manage community health systems.

DESIGN & LAUNCH DIGITAL TOOLS FOR THE COMMUNITY HEALTH WORKFORCE

We supported the Ministry of Health to design and launch the Capacity Building App to equip community and frontline health workers with up-to-date training and education materials on safely responding to COVID-19. We collected and analyzed user data from the app to inform content development, aligned with the Ministry’s priority to leverage digital tools to improve health worker training across the country during the pandemic.