Uganda is known to be a key player in digital health in Africa. The digital health ecosystem is coordinated by the Ugandan Ministry of Health. This coordination allows better allocation of resources, investments and alignment of interventions to the country policy, strategy and priority framework. However, the ecosystem is still facing tremendous challenges and tackling these challenges requires solid partnerships, collaboration, co-investment and co-creation.

The Ministry of Health has put in place an enabling environment and processes for various stakeholders to coordinate digital initiatives in this space through the Health Innovation, Information and Research Technical Working Group and the Uganda Health Informatics Association. Indeed, the government of Uganda strongly supports the use of technology to address some of the challenges at the bottom of the pyramid in healthcare services.

Coordination and Strategic Partnerships in the health sector

UNCDF has extensive experience in providing support in the digitalization of different use cases. Using a market system development approach, UNCDF plays a catalytic role as market facilitator for such initiatives that bring together the public and the private sector.

Through its strategy ‘Leaving No One Behind in the Digital Era’ , UNCDF supports the Ministry under two focus areas; first the digitalization of Village Health Teams (VHTs) and the VHTs financial inclusion model, and, second the digitalization of stock management for drugs and medical supplies at the lowest healthcare structure level (HCII&III). The work under these focus areas is conducted through a strategic partnership with BRAC Uganda, Medic Mobile, Medical Access Uganda Limited and Signalytic with funding from the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA).

UNCDF and partners are working closely with the Ministry of Health to contribute to the different Technical Working Groups and associations to align with the country’s needs and priorities. Following the National Information Technology Authority of Uganda (NITA-U) regulation, it is mandatory to align with the third National Development Plan (NDPIII) that mainstreams the use of digital solutions in Uganda. The alignment of all these policies, strategies and frameworks allow stakeholders to invest, support and provide a platform for visibility, where there is need, to avoid duplication of efforts.

Lessons Learned in the Digital Health Space

The implementation of the programme started with an inception study run by UNCDF Uganda.

This study provided a better understanding of the market situation and identified the existing constraints in the health sector. While these findings were not entirely new to the organization, they gave clarity on the areas that needed support. In particular the study highlighted the constraints in some areas that can be addressed with digital solutions.

The inception study was followed by a mapping of the ecosystem and the stakeholders, as well as a mapping of the digital solutions already in place. These findings led to a better collaboration with the Uganda Ministry of Health, NITA- U and other government bodies.

The studies and mapping exercises guided UNCDF in the definition of the projects. A Request for Applications (RFA) was released consequently to find partners for each of the projects. The first project aims at digitalizing the VHTs reporting and improving VHTs access to financial services in four districts in the West Nile and Lango sub-regions. The second project connected to the first will improve the stock management of essential drugs and medical supplies required by health workers to provide quality services.

" The district health teams are looking forward to using the digital data reporting system for their community health workers that is currently a pilot project supported by UNCDF. During one of district meetings, they mentioned that with a digital tool, they may now easily gather other relevant information from households like the poverty level, the number of disabled people, the types of crops if any grown by the households, tracking teenage pregnancies and home deliveries in communities, plus monitoring families headed by children in places near refugee settlements to mention but a few."

Sarah Nyafwono, BRAC Uganda, Project Coordinator

A market system development approach often leads to more investments by stakeholders. From the inception of the projects, we have seen an interest to align with our approach that led to a new consortium between Living Goods, BRAC, Medic Mobile and Data Kind. The consortium will advance the use of technology to assess the bottlenecks that block the achievement of health coverage in the Ugandan communities.

" Living Goods with the support of UNICEF, in partnership with BRAC, Medic Mobile, and Data Kind, have formed a consortium to pilot an innovative data collection system. The data collected by VHTs through digital devices will help analyze the needs of the community and inform the programming and planning processes. Data collected in the communities can contribute to delivering quality and effective healthcare services in rural Uganda .”

Inshaalah Franco, BRAC Uganda, Programme Director

The consortium provides an opportunity to improve the quality of service, motivation and performance of VHTs in Uganda using digital solutions.