Image Credit Left – USAID U.S. Agency for International Development
This strand of the ReBUILD research project explored the link between governance and aid effectiveness in strengthening post-conflict health systems in northern Uganda. It sought to generate information about the relationships across different agencies implementing three selected health programmes including maternal health services, HIV treatment services and workforce support. Much of the work can be accessed here.
ReBUILD’s research in Uganda was led by Makerere University’s School of Public Health and School of Women and Gender Studies.
About US$ 1.3 billion was pledged towards health system reconstruction in Northern Uganda by a multitude of both state and non-state actors. Governance in Uganda was decentralised to local governments in 1997 and so power was devolved to local government units. However, the prolonged period of conflict affected the capacity of the local governments in northern Uganda to perform expected functions such as the coordination of many actors in the post-conflict period. The implications of this included duplication of actions and dysfunctional relationships among the health system actors and eventually sub-optimal effectiveness of health system responses. As a result, capacity development of institutions is a priority in the process of rebuilding health systems.
This research contributed to ReBUILD’s overview materials on health systems’ ‘institutions’ in conflict and crisis-affected settings, and on health systems in the humanitarian-development interface, as well as specific publications.
ReBUILD’s resources relating to aid effectiveness can be accessed . Key pieces relating to aid effectiveness and governance include:
There’s more on the backgrounds to and outputs from each of ReBUILD’s research themes here: