Publications

The Road to 2016: Voters must elect leaders who will defeat the leading cause of preventable death and disease in Uganda.
The Constitution of the Republic of Uganda provides for all people to enjoy equal rights and opportunities, have access to health services, clean and safe water and education, among many other essential services. But most political leaders ignored health—they treat it as an insignificant issue. Health is considered ‘consumptive’—subtracting funds from the national budget and not contributing to national security, economic development or the betterment of Ugandan people. This inaccurate conceptualization has contributed to Uganda’s persistently negative health trends. Health is essential to building productive communities. Incumbents and aspirants in the 2016 general elections must support a new approach, where all political parties and all candidates give health the focus it urgently requires. Without this commitment by our would-be leaders, health will continue to deteriorate. Without improved access to essential, life-saving health services, suffering and preventable death of Ugandans will increase. In order to guide candidates and political parties on how to respond to Uganda’s national crisis of preventable death and disease, civil society organisations, following extensive consultation with a range of partners, have developed a 2016 election platform. If implemented by political leaders, this platform will achieve ambitious progress in treating, preventing, and ultimately ending the major causes of disease and death in Uganda. We call on all political parties and candidates to publicly adopt and support this platform and to include these targets in their own manifestos: all candidates and all parties in the 2016 general elections must prioritize health. Our lives and livelihoods are at stake.