Dr. Tonny Tumwesigye describes how the Uganda Protestant Medical Bureau (UPMB) works with community health workers to help provide family planning services in Uganda. Dr. Tumwesigye also explains how UPMB has engaged religious leaders of various faiths to be advocates for family planning.

1. Acts 1:7-8
Uganda Protestant Medical Bureau’s
Contributions to Family Planning
Dr. Tonny Tumwesigye
Executive Director
3 December 2013

2. UPMB Background
• Founded in 1957 as an NGO to manage mission hospital
grants & serve as liaison between the facilities & government
• Currently a network of 278 health facilities affiliated with
Protestant Churches
• Together with the Catholic, Muslim & Orthodox Medical
Bureaus - account for around 45% of health care service
delivery in Uganda
• Key Mandate as Technical Arm of the Protestant Churches :
– Institution Capacity Development
– Advocacy & Networking
– Coordination
– Patient Safety & Quality Assurance
– Reproductive Health & HIV/AIDS

3. Reproductive HealthPast Experience
FHI Funded Project
• To strengthen the capacity of
Ugandan health networks in
integrated maternal health & sexual
reproductive health services (SRH) in
rural communities
• Duration: 2002 - 04
• 10 districts facility & community based
• Focused on Sexual and Reproductive
Health (SRH) Information Education
and Communications (IEC) & service
provision, post-abortion care,
treatment of STIs, FP counseling &
provision of commodities
Funded by Big Lottery Fund
(BLF)/Interact World Wide-UK
• Reaching women & girls with
quality SRH education, counseling
& services
• Duration: 2006-09
• 10 Districts
• Facility & community- based

4. Strategic Project on Maternal &
Neonatal Health (MNH)
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Funded by Big Lottery Fund
Duration: 2009-13
31 health facilities in 20 districts
Facility and community-based
Use of Village Health Teams (VHTs) &
Community-Based Volunteers (CBVs)
• FP integration in nation-wide PMTCT roll out
• VHTs & CBVs are still active

5. Packard Foundation Funded FP Project
• Africa Christian Health Associations (ACHA) FP
Project
– 2013 – 2015
– Facility and community-based
– 2 health facilities in 2 districts-low uptake of FP
– Objective: To strengthen capacity of church-run
health facilities to develop & implement quality FP
programs on a larger scale, serving difficult to
reach clientele & improving rural health services

6. Packard Foundation Funded FP Project
• Capacity building of health workers & CBVscommunity based volunteers
• Strengthening community referrals for FP
services
• Community mobilization & sensitization
• Conduct integrated FP outreaches
• Development & printing of IEC materials

7. FP Integration
• A total 150 VHTs & CBVs trained in partnership
with FHI 360 to give commodities
• Through this network, more than 1000 clients
access FP services a month
• Integrates FP into HIV & postnatal clinics
• Family Planning Camps –
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Hard to reach facilities,
Communities mobilized,
Share critical knowledge & skills.
Tubal ligation being utilized

8. Parents receiving education in FP, nutrition
and general care after delivery

9. Lessons : FP Messaging
• Example of a message that works: “plan a
small manageable family for a better life”
• Be simple, clear & easy to understand
• Local language most preferred for
packaging information/messages
• Consistent messaging makes people
appreciate messages better
• Involvement of local political leaders &
community elders

10. Lessons: Working with
Religious Leaders
• Using religious leaders as agents of change
in Busoga-East Central Region around Lake
Victoria, rural to semi urban, high fertility
rate (about 8 percent), highly polygamous,
poor communities
• Good uptake of natural methods by religious
leaders
– Peer education a powerful tool for training
religious leaders on FP

11. Success story – Peer Education for
Religious Leaders of All Faiths

12. Lessons: Working with Men
• Husbands/men play a dominant role in
decision making regarding Reproductive
Health services
• Most available RH services are not male
friendly
• Addressing the RH care of couples would
increase male engagement in FP

13. Scale Up Strategies
• FP integration into existing RH services like
PMTCT & cancer screening
• Increased use of CBVs to increase access &
utilization for FP services at community level
• Use of religious leaders to promote & create
demand for services related to child spacing

14. Acts 1:7-8