Uganda is finalising a new 10-year health financing strategy aimed at increasing domestic funding for healthcare and reducing the sector’s reliance on foreign assistance, Ministry of Health officials said Thursday.
The Uganda Health Financing Strategy (UHFS), which will run from 2026 to 2036, is being developed following the expiry of the previous strategy that covered 2015/16 to 2024/25.
Officials told Parliament’s Health Committee and local and international health partners during a consultative meeting in Kampala that the new strategy would prioritise domestic resource mobilisation, efficient use of funds and stronger accountability while protecting vulnerable households from catastrophic healthcare costs.
‘We want to increase domestic financing of health care because the external funding is crippling, so we want to look inwards and look for money to help our people who can’t access health care because of poverty. We don’t want to see people sell off their properties to access health care,’ Dr Ali Walimbwa, a health planner at the Ministry of Health, said.
He said the strategy would guide the sector in mobilising resources while addressing leakages, including corruption, through stronger accountability mechanisms.
‘The strategy will guide the health sector to mobilise resources to fund health services but also ensure that it closes the loopholes which take this fund like corruption through a strong accountability mechanism. We want the little resources we get to benefit everyone in terms of service delivery,’ he said.
Prof Elizabeth Ekirapa, the lead consultant overseeing the formulation of the strategy, said it covers domestic and external revenue mobilisation, resource utilisation and accountability.
She said Uganda loses billions of dollars each year to preventable diseases, arguing that greater investment in prevention could reduce both deaths and healthcare costs.
Ekirapa said the country spends about Shs16.4 trillion treating non-communicable diseases, while prevention would require about Shs1.5 trillion.
She said the investment in prevention could avert about 92,000 deaths annually while generating economic returns.
‘We need $128m (Shs483.4 billion) on immunisation but we only get $85 million (Shs321 billion) indicating a gap of $42 million (Shs158 billion) yet if fully funded we would close the 25 million cases of vaccination bring a return on investment because every one dollar (Shs3800) invested in immunisation, we bring back $9 (Approx. Shs34000),’ she said.
Ekirapa also said Uganda had lost about $6.2 billion (about Shs23.4 trillion) to preventable diseases, some of which could have been avoided through interventions such as immunisation.
She urged Parliament to increase health funding, saying the health budget has risen from Shs2.7 trillion in 2016 to Shs5.23 trillion but remains below the government’s 15 percent commitment.
‘As Members of Parliament we would like to implore you to advocate for the increase in the health budget because although it has almost doubled from the Shs2.7 trillion in 2016 to the current Shs5.23 trillion, it is still below the mark of 15 percent of the national budget as it was committed by the government,’ she said.
Push for national health insurance
Health financing advocates also urged the 12th Parliament to revive efforts to establish a National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), which they say would create a collective pool of funds to finance healthcare.
Henry Magala, the Country Program Director at AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF), called on MPs to pass the National Health Insurance Bill, saying the scheme would help vulnerable Ugandans access healthcare without selling assets to meet medical costs.
‘I implore MPs in the 12th Parliament to consider this Bill, pass it because the previous Parliament passed it, but the President rejected it and referred it back so if we are to see a collective pool of funding to health that benefits everyone, this scheme is key,’ he said.
The proposed NHIS is designed to pool contributions to provide affordable personal healthcare services to Ugandans based on their health needs.
Dr Kate Samula, AHF Deputy Bureau Chief for Africa, said Uganda was facing a changing global health financing environment as donor assistance becomes more constrained and unpredictable while countries face growing debt and fiscal pressures.
‘For Uganda, this makes domestic resource mobilisation, efficiency in public spending and the protection of health investments increasingly important. Parliament has a critical role in this transition,’ she said.
She said Parliament’s role extended beyond approving health budgets to shaping taxation, debt management, public financial management and other fiscal policies that determine the resources available to the health sector.
‘Beyond approving budgets, Parliament helps shape the fiscal choices that determine whether health receives adequate and sustainable financing. Through legislation, budget allocation, oversight and engagement on taxation, debt and public financial management, Parliament can help create and protect the fiscal space needed to advance Uganda’s health priorities,’ she said.
Ekirapa said the new strategy was intended to ensure access to healthcare regardless of income or social status and urged stakeholders to fully fund and implement it.
Dr Rude Mande, chairperson of Parliament’s Health Committee, pledged to advocate for increased health funding and push for passage of the National Health Insurance Bill.
He said the measures were necessary to ensure Uganda’s health financing system responds to the needs faced by the population.