Expectations of clients, insurers, and providers: a qualitative responsiveness assessment among private health insurance sector in Kampala-Uganda.

Background: There is less attention to assessing how health services meet the expectations of private health insurance (PHI) actors, clients, insurers, and providers in developing countries. Interdependently, the expectations of each actor are stipulated during contract negotiations (duties, obligations, and privileges) in a PHI arrangement. Complementary service roles performed by each actor significantly contribute to achieving their expectations.

Demands for Intersectoral Actions to Meet Health Challenges in East and Southern Africa and Methods for Their Evaluation.

Objectives: Focusing on the East, Central, and Southern African region, this study examines both regional and country-level initiatives aimed at promoting multisectoral collaboration to improve population health and the methods for their economic evaluation.

Methods: We explored the interventions that necessitate cooperation among policymakers from diverse sectors and the mechanisms that facilitate effective collaboration and coordination across these sectors. To gain insights into the demand for multisectoral collaboration in the East, Central, and Southern African region, we presented 3 country briefs, highlighting policy areas and initiatives that have successfully incorporated health-promoting actions from outside the health sector in Zimbabwe, Uganda, and Malawi.

Health technology assessment (HTA) readiness in Uganda: stakeholder's perceptions on the potential application of HTA to support national universal health coverage efforts.

Introduction: Health technology assessment (HTA) is an area that remains less implemented in low- and lower middle-income countries. The aim of the study is to understand the perceptions of stakeholders in Uganda toward HTA and its role in decision making, in order to inform its potential implementation in the country.

Methods: The study takes a cross-sectional mixed methods approach, utilizing an adapted version of the International Decision Support Initiative questionnaire with both semi-structured and open-ended questions.

Supporting the revision of the health benefits package in Uganda: A constrained optimisation approach.

This study demonstrates how the linear constrained optimization approach can be used to design a health benefits package (HBP) which maximises the net disability adjusted life years (DALYs) averted given the health system constraints faced by a country, and how the approach can help assess the marginal value of relaxing health system constraints. In the analysis performed for Uganda, 45 interventions were included in the HBP in the base scenario, resulting in a total of 26.7 million net DALYs averted.

The right of access to healthcare: an analysis of how legal and institutional frameworks constrain or facilitate access to healthcare for residents in border areas in the East African Community.

Background: Despite many countries working hard to attain Universal Health Coverage (UHC) and the Health-related Sustainable Development Goals, access to healthcare services has remained a challenge for communities residing along national borders in the East Africa Community (EAC). Unlike the communities in the interior, those along national borders are more likely to face access barriers and exclusion due to low health investments and inter-state rules for non-citizens. This study explored the legal and institutional frameworks that facilitate or constrain access to healthcare services for communities residing along the national borders in EAC.

Not for us, without us: examining horizontal coordination between the Ministry of Health and other sectors to advance health goals in Uganda.

The Ministry or Department of Health (M/DoH) is the mandated government agency for health in all countries. However, achieving good health and wellbeing requires the health sector to coordinate with other sectors such as the environment, agriculture and education. Little is known about the coordination relationship between MoH and other sectors to advance health and development goals in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs).

The Government Budget: An Overlooked Vehicle for Advancing Strategic Health Purchasing.

The most effective way to finance universal health coverage (UHC) is through compulsory prepaid funds that flow through the government budget. Public funds-including on-budget donor resources-allow for pooling and allocation of resources to providers in a way that aligns with population health needs. This is particularly important for low-income settings with fiscal constraints.

Strategic Purchasing Arrangements in Uganda and Their Implications for Universal Health Coverage.

Several purchasing arrangements coexist in Uganda, creating opportunities for synergy but also leading to conflicting incentives and inefficiencies in resource allocation and purchasing functions. This paper analyzes the key health care purchasing functions in Uganda and the implications of the various purchasing arrangements for universal health coverage (UHC). The data for this paper were collected through a document review and stakeholder dialogue.

What are the tools available for the job? Coordination instruments at Uganda's national government level and their implications for multisectoral action for health.

Managing sectoral interdependences requires functional tools that facilitate coordinated multisectoral efforts. The pursuit of multisectoral action for health is intrinsically linked to broader efforts in many governments to achieve greater internal coordination. This research explores the nature of coordination instruments for multisectoral action at the national level in Uganda and the complexities of how these tools play out in implementation.

Beyond "Lack of Political Will": Elaborating Political Economy Concepts to Advance "Thinking and Working Politically" Comment on "Health Coverage and Financial Protection in Uganda: A Political Economy Perspective".

Political economy analysis (PEA) has been advanced as critical to understanding the political dimensions of policy change processes. However, political economy (PE) is not a theory on its own but draws on several concepts. Nannini et al, in concert with other scholars, emphasise that politics is characterised by conflict, contestation and negotiation over interests, ideas and power as various agents attempt to influence their context.

Primary care provider notions on instituting community-based geriatric support in Uganda.

Background: Understanding of the most economical and sustainable models of providing geriatric care to Africa's rising ageing population is critical. In Uganda, the number of old adults (60 years and above) continues to rise against absence of policies and guidelines, and models for providing care to this critical population. Our study explored public primary health care provider views on how best community-based geriatric support (CBGS) could be instituted as an adaptable model for delivering geriatric care in Uganda's resource-limited primary public health care settings.

'Writing budgets for meetings and teas?': a multitheoretical analysis of intragovernmental coordination for multisectoral action for health in Uganda.

Introduction: Coordination across policy domains and among government agencies is considered critical for addressing complex challenges such as inequities, urbanisation and climate change. However, the factors influencing coordination among government entities in low-income and middle-income countries are not well known. Although theory building is well suited to explain complex social phenomena, theory-based health policy and systems studies are limited.

Experiences of seeking healthcare across the border: lessons to inform upstream policies and system developments on cross-border health in East Africa.

Objectives: This study explored the experiences of accessing care across the border in East Africa.

Participants: From February to June 2018, a cross-sectional study using qualitative and quantitative methods was conducted among 279 household adults residing along selected national border sites of Uganda, Kenya and Rwanda and had accessed care from the opposite side of the border 5 years prior to this study.

Setting: Access to HIV treatment, maternal delivery and childhood immunisation services was explored.

Research for universal health coverage: setting priorities for policy and systems research in Uganda.

Background: There is international consensus on the need for countries to work towards achieving universal health coverage (UHC) whereby the population is given access to all appropriate promotive, preventive, curative and rehabilitative services at affordable cost. The World Health Organisation (2013) urges all countries to undertake research to customise UHC within national development agendas.

Objective: To describe the process used to prioritise UHC within the health systems research and development agenda in Uganda.

Momentum for policy change: alternative explanations for the increased interest in results-based financing in Uganda.

Background: Results-based financing initiatives have been implemented in many countries as stand-alone projects but with little integration into national health systems. Results-based financing became more prominent in Uganda's health policy agenda in 2014-2015 in the context of the policy imperative to finance universal health coverage.

Objective: To explore plausible explanations for the increased policy interest in the scale-up of results-based financing in Uganda.

Does decentralization of health systems translate into decentralization of authority? A decision space analysis of Ugandan healthcare facilities.

Since the 1990s, following similar reforms to its general politico-administrative systems, Uganda has decentralized its public healthcare system by shifting decision-making power away from its central Ministry of Health and towards more distal administrative levels. Previous research has used decision space-the decision-making autonomy demonstrated by entities in an administrative hierarchy-to measure overall health system decentralization. This study aimed to determine how the decision-making autonomy reported by managers of Ugandan healthcare facilities (de facto decision space) differs from that which they are allocated by official policies (de jure decision space).

Multisectoral action for health in low-income and middle-income settings: how can insights from social science theories inform intragovernmental coordination efforts?

There is consensus in global health on the need for multisectoral action (MSA) to address many contemporary development challenges, but there is limited action. Examples of issues that require coordinated MSA include the determinants of health conditions such as nutrition (malnutrition and obesity) and chronic non-communicable diseases. Nutrition, tobacco control and such public health issues are regulated separately by health, trade and treasury ministries.

Fitting Health Financing Reforms to Context: Examining the Evolution of Results-Based Financing Models and the Slow National Scale-Up in Uganda (2003-2015).

: Results-based financing has been promoted as an innovative mechanism to improve the performance of health systems in achieving universal health coverage. Several results-based financing models were implemented in Uganda between 2003 and 2015 but with limited national scale-up.: This paper examines the evolution of results-based financing models and the reasons for the slow national adoption and implementation in Uganda.

(How) does RBF strengthen strategic purchasing of health care? Comparing the experience of Uganda, Zimbabwe and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Background: Results-Based Financing (RBF) has proliferated in health sectors of low and middle income countries, especially fragile and conflict-affected ones, and has been presented as a way of reforming and strengthening strategic purchasing. However, few studies have empirically examined how RBF impacts on health care purchasing in these settings. This article examines the effects of several RBF programmes on health care purchasing functions in three fragile and post-conflict settings: Uganda, Zimbabwe and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) over the past decade.

Government resource contributions to the private-not-for-profit sector in Uganda: evolution, adaptations and implications for universal health coverage.

Background: A case study was prepared examining government resource contributions (GRCs) to private-not-for-profit (PNFP) providers in Uganda. It focuses on Primary Health Care (PHC) grants to the largest non-profit provider network, the Uganda Catholic Medical Bureau (UCMB), from 1997 to 2015. The framework of complex adaptive systems was used to explain changes in resource contributions and the relationship between the Government and UCMB.

Governing multisectoral action for health in low- and middle-income countries.

Kumanan Rasanathan and colleagues argue that the potential of multisectoral collaboration for improving health remains untapped in many low- and middle-income countries.