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APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing

Recorded presentation

Elizabeth A. Rowley, MIA, MHS, International Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, 615 N. Wolfe Street, E8636, Baltimore, MD 21205, 443-287-4842, erowley@jhsph.edu

Uganda can be characterized as a stable country with pockets of conflict that negatively impact security, drain resources, and undermine health and other service delivery. In the northern districts of Gulu, Kitgum, and Pader, twenty years of fighting between the Lord's Resistance Army and government forces have led to the displacement of 90% of the population into IDP camps. Uganda lacks an effective, national level service delivery response mechanism for conflict-affected populations. Due to the slow-moving nature of the emergency in the north and the myriad external stakeholders on the ground, a patchwork of services across IDP camps has evolved. There is no single unifying implementation plan for emergency health service delivery in individual northern districts or the region. Heightened difficulties in recruiting and retaining staff, maintaining structures, and ensuring consistent equipment and drug supplies have severely challenged effective health service delivery. The result has been extremely high excess mortality and morbidity from preventable and treatable diseases, and the population's diminished confidence in the government's capacity to address their needs. This presentation reviews the evolution of the health crisis in northern Uganda, describes the challenges in creating a unified plan to address it, and offers recommendations on ways in which donor funding can support effective health programs through harmonization with government plans, long-term coordination and capacity-building at the district level, and support to community-level initiatives with the aim of strengthening crisis preparedness and emergency response.

Learning Objectives:

• Name 1 key lesson for those providing health services in conflict-affected countries

Keywords: War, International Health

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Not Answered

Handout (.ppt format, 398.0 kb)

Recorded presentation