35 research outputs found
The village health team strategy is a 'Most Innovative Community Practice' award winner: the experience OFA village volunteer programme in Yumbe District, Uganda
No full textCommunity participation in health has been an elusive concept since the
days of the Alma Ata Declaration. Many faltering steps have been taken
towards genuine community participation only to be retraced because the
programmes were either ill-conceived or derailed by the loss of the
spirit of voluntarism. In Yumbe District of north-western Uganda,
Village Health Teams (VHT) have been established in line with the
national strategy for community involvement in health. The Yumbe VHT
programme has won an award for innovative support to strengthening
decentralisation. This paper reviews aspects of the programme outlining
its successes and challenges. Its success has been mainly due to
integration of pre-existing volunteer cadres, intersectoral approach to
the monitoring of the teams and involvement of the community in the
selection of the top-up team members. Its challenges include the
relatively young age of the majority of the volunteers and the likely
loss of financial support for the activities of the volunteers. The
paper concludes that the VHT programme is a delicate venture requiring
both programme support through intersectoral inputs to the Community
Action Plans developed by communities and sociological approaches to
educate the communities to support the VHT for its sustainability
Theme two: Managing health information - The curse of league tables: How Uganda missed the point
No full textThis paper examines the criteria used by the Ministry of Health to
determine the performance of the different districts as presented in
the annual National Health Sector Performance Report. Using the winner
of the 2004/2005, it attempts to analyze the health situation in the
district and challenges the reliability of using HSSP input, process
and output indicators as a measure of sector performance. The paper
proposes that outcome indicators, like health status indicators, are a
better measure of sector performance and should be the ones used for
rating district performance. It also suggests that process indicators
be used for technical forums and not political forums like the National
Health Assembly. It ends with a cautionary remark on the likely
misinterpretation of process indicators by the general public in
districts with poor health status
Coordinating Health Care During Humanitarian Emergency: Experience From Pader District, Northern Uganda
No full textCoordination of humanitarian assistance has been a subject of concern
for several decades. The humanitarian reforms initiated by United
Nations following UN General Assembly resolution 46/182 and the
subsequent reforms that introduced the Cluster Approach to humanitarian
assistance offers some opportunities for improved coordination. The
main challenges to these reforms remain their acceptance among the
humanitarian community, mainly NGOs, and donor faith in providing
funding through the structures. We conclude that offering a
comprehensive package to coordination encompassing joint humanitarian
planning, policy, financing and monitoring of interventions is a step
towards holistically addressing the needs of the crisis-affected
people. There is also need for the UN to intensify dissemination of the
humanitarian reforms to key stakeholders to improve their acceptance in
the field
The village health team strategy is a 'Most Innovative Community Practice' award winner: the experience OFA village volunteer programme in Yumbe District, Uganda
No full textCommunity participation in health has been an elusive concept since the
days of the Alma Ata Declaration. Many faltering steps have been taken
towards genuine community participation only to be retraced because the
programmes were either ill-conceived or derailed by the loss of the
spirit of voluntarism. In Yumbe District of north-western Uganda,
Village Health Teams (VHT) have been established in line with the
national strategy for community involvement in health. The Yumbe VHT
programme has won an award for innovative support to strengthening
decentralisation. This paper reviews aspects of the programme outlining
its successes and challenges. Its success has been mainly due to
integration of pre-existing volunteer cadres, intersectoral approach to
the monitoring of the teams and involvement of the community in the
selection of the top-up team members. Its challenges include the
relatively young age of the majority of the volunteers and the likely
loss of financial support for the activities of the volunteers. The
paper concludes that the VHT programme is a delicate venture requiring
both programme support through intersectoral inputs to the Community
Action Plans developed by communities and sociological approaches to
educate the communities to support the VHT for its sustainability
THE HEALTH SITUATION AT AWER INTERNALLY DISPLACED PERSONS' CAMP - GULU DISTRICT, UGANDA
No full textUganda's close to 2 decades long conflict has led to a humiliating
humanitarian situation in the IDP camps created by the government. A
senior UN official, Jan Egeland described the humanitarian situation as
'the worst in the world'. An assessment of the public health situation
was done in one of the IDP camps (Awer camp) some 15 km West of Gulu
town on the Gulu Adjumani highway from 28th may - 18th June 2004. The
findings suggested that the sphere standards for humanitarian
interventions were not being adhered to by the humanitarian agencies
for all the most basic necessities such as water and sanitation, food,
shelter, and health services
Theme two: Managing health information - The curse of league tables: How Uganda missed the point
No full textThis paper examines the criteria used by the Ministry of Health to
determine the performance of the different districts as presented in
the annual National Health Sector Performance Report. Using the winner
of the 2004/2005, it attempts to analyze the health situation in the
district and challenges the reliability of using HSSP input, process
and output indicators as a measure of sector performance. The paper
proposes that outcome indicators, like health status indicators, are a
better measure of sector performance and should be the ones used for
rating district performance. It also suggests that process indicators
be used for technical forums and not political forums like the National
Health Assembly. It ends with a cautionary remark on the likely
misinterpretation of process indicators by the general public in
districts with poor health status
Coordinating Health Care During Humanitarian Emergency: Experience From Pader District, Northern Uganda
No full textCoordination of humanitarian assistance has been a subject of concern
for several decades. The humanitarian reforms initiated by United
Nations following UN General Assembly resolution 46/182 and the
subsequent reforms that introduced the Cluster Approach to humanitarian
assistance offers some opportunities for improved coordination. The
main challenges to these reforms remain their acceptance among the
humanitarian community, mainly NGOs, and donor faith in providing
funding through the structures. We conclude that offering a
comprehensive package to coordination encompassing joint humanitarian
planning, policy, financing and monitoring of interventions is a step
towards holistically addressing the needs of the crisis-affected
people. There is also need for the UN to intensify dissemination of the
humanitarian reforms to key stakeholders to improve their acceptance in
the field
Emergence and Evolution of Endogenous Water Institutions in an African River Basin: Local Water Governance and State Intervention in the Pangani River Basin, Tanzania
No full textWater management challenges in basins of Sub-Saharan Africa and in other parts of the world are increasing due to rapid urbanisation, poverty and food insecurity, energy demands, and climate change. Nearly half of the world population live in cities, and this is estimated to reach two-thirds of the world's population by the year 2050. The need to improve water services in cities poses new challenges to river basin management. Water transfer from other sectors to cities is an obvious way of reallocating the uses and users of the available water but this may have far reaching upstream-downstream consequences in a catchment. In addition there is an increasing trend in rural poverty, hunger, and food insecurity in Sub-Saharan Africa. To reduce and/or reverse the increasing trend of rural poverty and generate employment requires substantial investment in irrigated agriculture in Sub-Saharan Africa. However, transforming Sub-Saharan Africa's agriculture also implies intervention in water control as lack of access to reliable water supply is one of the major limitation to crop production. Coupled with the above problems are the rising global food and energy prices which have attracted foreign investment in agricultural land in Sub-Saharan Africa. Foreign direct investment in agriculture in Sub-Saharan Africa is likely to increase agricultural water use and this could lead to further enhancement of an already stressed water situation.Water ManagementCivil Engineering and Geoscience
Public Procurement in Developing Countries: Objectives, Principles and Required Professional Skills
No full textOver the last fifteen (15) years, developing countries have continued to reform their public procurement in an attempt to increase competition, transparency, accountability and value for money. However, the significance of these reforms is not fully appreciated and compliance appears to be inconsistent since the reforms are treated as guidance for optimal implementation rather than a requirement tied to the provision of funding. Therefore, this paper is based on the literature review and the author experience in public sector procurement. The paper is organized in the following manner; it begins with detailed description of public procurement then discusses the procurement objectives and principles. The author also shares very pertinent professional skills required from the procurement stakeholders so as to impact the procurement process. The author concludes that, achieving best procurement practice depends widely on leadership and competence of the procurement stakeholders in the organization. As a result, procurement officers should understand all the procurement objectives and principles since it all encompasses the concepts of efficiency and effective procurement, transparency, accountability, competitiveness, confidentiality, non-discrimination and fairness. Keywords: Public Procurement, Procurement Systems, Procurement Objectives, Principles and Professionalis
The Science of Public Procurement and Administration. International Public Procurement Conference
No full textThis paper reviewed Benon C. Basheka book’s chapter on the Science of Public Procurement and Administration published by International Public Procurement Conference in 2013. The objective of the review was to expand on the origin of procurement, highlight the areas that make public procurement discipline to be an art or science and make recommendations for policy makers and researchers. The author found that public procurement is still at its infant stage with little known theory though it has a close relationship with public administration. Although public procurement has existed from the time man started trade, procurement was chaotic and disorganized since there was nothing unethical or illegal about receiving kickbacks from contractors. The author also found that, procurement had no regulations until 1792 when US Congress passed procurement legislation. The major procurement between 300 B.C-3000 B.C was construction of roads, bridges, railway networks and supplies of foodstuffs, army uniforms and fighting equipments. The study also reveals procurement as a blend of art and science because it is both a theoretical field and an area of practice. The theoretical field (art) is concerned with the teaching or academic study while the practice (science) deals with the day to day activities of procuring and disposing entities. The author, therefore recommends scholars to conduct empirical studies among procurement researchers, lecturers and practitioners in relation to the field procurement should belong to so as to have consensus on procurement field/discipline as it was done with procurement meaning. Finally, since there is no consensus between public and private procurement agenda; it means procurement is not a pure science but it is an art and science
