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Project: NTU-Mak Partnership – Strengthening health systems: Community Health Workers in Uganda

Overview

For over 12 years, the School of Social Sciences at Nottingham Trent University (NTU) has had a formal partnership with the School of Public Health at Makerere University, Uganda. This collaboration has recently expanded to include other disciplines at both universities including nursing, microbiology, veterinary, as well as environmental and agricultural sciences. The focus of this partnership is on training, community service, research and capacity building in Uganda and UK. The partnership between the 2 universities has worked under 3 Memoranda of Understanding, the current one running from 2018 to 2023 and Makerere University is now a NTU Strategic Partner.

Methodological approaches

The model of the partnership is centred on: Mobility, Knowledge Exchange and Social Enterprise and Impact. The partnership through this model has strengthened community health in Wakiso District, Uganda using a health systems approach. The major health systems building blocks targeted by the project at community level are:

  • health workforce (through enhancing the capacity of community health workers (CHWs) and their supervisors who are mainly nurses).
  • health information systems (through supporting the completeness and timely submission of data from CHWs
  • access to essential medicines (through enhancing timely delivery of drugs and other commodities to CHWs
  • health service delivery (through improving performance of CHWs in relation to quality of care, respective care, and timely referral of patients) and governance and leadership (through supporting the supervision and coordination of community health).

Through the partnership weak health systems components in the community has been strengthened. The main outcome of the project is the continual better functioning community health system through improved performance of the CHWs. The partnership has also been involved in the ERASMUS International Credit Mobility which has led to students’ placements, joint PhD completion, international conference attendance including exchange of students including staff and non academic staff (e.g., Community Health Workers) between the two universities.

Impact

Impact Case Study Health & Wellbeing C20 Widening Access to Healthcare for Underserved Populations in Uganda through new Community Health Worker Training Programmes

Team members

  • Professor Linda Gibson NTU-MAK Partnership Lead (UK)
  • Dr David Musoke NTU-MAK Partnership Lead (Uganda)
  • Mr Michael Brown Research Associate (NTU)
  • Ms Grace Biyinzika Lubega Research Associate (Makerere)