Health Action AIDS

Advocacy Partnerships in Africa

UGANDA

About PHR's Work in Uganda

PHR's partner in Uganda, the Action Group for Health, Human Rights, and HIV/AIDS (AGHA), has mobilized a network of over 600 doctors, nurses, pharmacists, researchers, students and social scientists to advocate for improved AIDS response and better health rights. With support from PHR, AGHA spearheads three major campaigns to improve Uganda's AIDS and health rights response:

• Anti-Stigma Campaign: To combat stigma in health settings, AGHA has trained a Stigma Task Force of more than 50 health workers who have reached hundreds of health workers and community members with messages on how to stop stigma. 
• The Health Rights Leadership Campaign coordinates outreach and training to health workers, health students, the general public and the media on health and human rights in order to change the paradigm of medicine and health to one that embraces human rights.
• AGHA's Health Funding Campaign aims to increase the health budget to at least 15 per cent of the national budget. The campaign also works  to promote efficient use of health care funds and to ensure that all the needed infrastructure and human resources are in place for a functioning health care system in Uganda. AGHA has engaged key members of Parliament and Uganda's Health and finance ministries on these issues, and it has raised awareness of budget shortfalls through the media and petitions to policy makers. As part of this campaign, AGHA has also launched an innovative project in three rural districts of Uganda called the Drug Stock Out Survey. The project tracks stock levels for drugs and equipment as well as staffing levels in rural clinics. AGHA will present the initial results to policy makers in the summer of 2007 to highlight gaps in the health system and discuss possible solutions and steps for action.

AGHA's Inspiring Results