Search

Uganda established a National Action Plan for Health Security in 2019, following a Joint External Evaluation (JEE) of International Health Regulations (2005) capacities in 2017. The action plan enhanced national health security awareness, but implementation efforts were affected by limited funding, excess of activities, and challenges related to monitoring and evaluation. To improve implementation, Uganda conducted a multisectoral health security self-assessment in 2021 using the second edition of the JEE tool and developed a 1-year operational plan. From 2017 to 2021, Uganda's composite ReadyScore improved by 20%, with improvement in 13 of the 19 technical areas. Indicator scores showing limited capacity declined from 30% to 20%, and indicators with no capacity declined from 10% to 2%. More indicators had developed (47% vs 40%), demonstrated (29% vs 20%), and sustained (2% vs 0%) capacities in 2021 compared with 2017. Using the self-assessment JEE scores, 72 specific activities from the International Health Regulations (2005) benchmarks tool were selected for inclusion in a 1-year operational plan (2021-2022). In contrast to the 264 broad activities in the 5-year national action plan, the operational plan prioritized a small number of activities to enable sectors to focus limited resources on implementation. While certain capacities improved before and during implementation of the action plan, countries may benefit from using short-term operational planning to develop realistic and actionable health security plans to improve health security capacities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Uganda is currently implementing the Global Health Security Agenda (GHSA), aiming at accelerating compliance to the International Health Regulations (IHR) (2005). To assess progress toward compliance, a Joint External Evaluation (JEE) was conducted by the World Health Organization (WHO). Based on this evaluation, we present the process and lessons learned. Uganda's methodological approach to the JEE followed the WHO recommendations, including conducting a whole-of-government in-country self-assessment prior to the final assessment, using the same tool at both assessments, and generating consensus scores during the final assessment. The in-country self-assessment process began on March 24, 2017, with a multisectoral representation of 203 subject matter experts from 81 institutions. The final assessment was conducted between June 26 and 30, 2017, by 15 external evaluators. Discrepancies between the in-country and final scores occurred in 27 of 50 indicators. Prioritized gaps from the JEE formed the basis of the National Action Plan for Health Security. We learned 4 major lessons from this process: subject matter experts should be adequately oriented on the scoring requirements of the JEE tool; whole-of-government representation should be ensured during the entire JEE process; equitable multisectoral implementation of IHR activities must be ensured; and over-reliance on external support is a threat to sustainability of GHSA gains. To assess progress toward compliance with IHR (2005), a Joint External Evaluation (JEE) was conducted by WHO. Uganda's methodological approach to the JEE followed the WHO recommendations, including conducting a whole-of-government in-country self-assessment prior to the final assessment, using the same tool at both assessments, and generating consensus scores during the final assessment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]