In Uganda, AICS is heavily involved in the health sector, particularly in the Northern Regions and Karamoja, the poorest in the country and one of the African areas with the lowest development rates.
Among the main initiatives underway on the bilateral channel of the Italian Cooperation, the project "Support for the Ugandan National Strategic Health Plan and the plan for peace, reconstruction and development" (AID 9108), for a total amount of 12,500,000 euros . The program has allowed an expansion of the offer of basic health services in the regions of Karamoja and Acholi (Northern Uganda), favored the integration of the public and private non-profit sector into the national health framework and improved the quality of diagnostic services for tuberculosis (both centrally and peripherally). The main components already implemented include: a contribution to UNICEF dedicated to the expansion of maternal and child services; a contribution to the WHO for the fight against multi-resistant tuberculosis; and several minor initiatives managed directly by the Cooperation Office in Kampala.
The last component of the project, called Karamoja Infrastructure Development Program (KIDP I), entrusted to the Ugandan Government and financed and monitored by the Italian Cooperation, is still underway with a deadline set for December 2023, consisting of the construction of homes for healthcare personnel in all the districts of the Karamoja region, one of the most remote and least developed areas of the country.
In addition, the "Development of health infrastructure in Karamoja (KIDP phase II)" project is underway on the bilateral channel for an amount of 10 MUER financed through an aid credit. The initiative represents the continuation and completion of the AID 9108 intervention and intends to help improve essential health services by reducing gaps in the health sector in the Karamoja region. In particular, the initiative intervenes to improve health facilities through infrastructure investments and supply of equipment,
Still in the health sector, AICS supports the regional project "Creation of a health network in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda". The global COVID 19 emergency has made even more evident the weakness of the health systems in the country and therefore the importance of ensuring support to improve the quality of care, in particular maternal neonatal. Starting from the good practice of Neema Hospital, a strategic partner in the health sector in Kenya for many years (the first AICS funding dates back to 2009), the project idea of enhancing all the other Italian excellence operating in the health sector matured in 2021. The Agency's action was therefore oriented towards the creation of a network in the Kenya-Tanzania-Uganda region of public and private non-profit health facilities accredited by national health systems.
The Program, approved in December 2021, had its official start on July 1, 2022 after the signing of the agreement with the Meyer hospital in Florence, an institute of excellence in the management of health systems in developing countries and training of personal. The initiative involves the ministries of health of the three states.