Under the leadership of Dr Hon Nicholas Kamara, parliamentarians have formed a new cross-party group to advocate for diabetes within Uganda.
He becomes the first Chair of the group comprised of members from 5 different political groups in the Ugandan Parliament. They have agreed to come together under a non-communicable disease (NCD) umbrella to develop a Parliamentary Advocacy Strategy.
The group’s administrator, Lilian Nsubunga reports that the agreed strategy has seven key aims. There are:
1. To champion NCD prevention and control through sensitization and awareness creation to the population
2. To advocate for more funding and equitable distribution of resources to cater for NCDs
3. To ensure a supportive legal environment for the prevention and control of NCDs
4. To advocate for mainstreaming of NCD prevention and control interventions in different Ministries, departments and agencies.
5. To advocate for strengthening of NCD prevention and control in Primary Health Care
6. To strengthen the capacity of the forum to carry out its mandate (Including mobilizing resources and implementing activities)
7. To strengthen collaboration and partnership at sub national, national and Global levels
Forum members have gone ahead to hold a conversation with US agencies where they persuaded the Minister of Health to have NCDs integrated into the PEPFAR* Country Operating Plan.
*PEPFAR is the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief. It engages in a planning process to create a Country Operational Plan (COP) for each major country that receives funding.
Advocacy Action: Can you team up with others cross-party if you haven’t already? Do you need help to set up a group? Priorities will always be different according to country circumstances, but the Advocacy Strategy adopted by the Uganda Forum would be a useful guide for others.
Can We Help You Form a Group? If you can persuade a few colleagues to join PDGN – it’s free and only takes a couple of minutes to fill in a form on-line at www.pdgn.co.uk – we can liaise with you to arrange an on-line meeting and put you in touch with someone who can help you get your group off the ground.