Silent killer: 30% adult population in Uganda hypertensive but do not know

Kampala, 16 April 2013:World Health Organisation Uganda: Press Release

By Benjamin Sensansi

Uganda formally commemorated World Health Day 2013 with a national function held in Budaka district, Eastern Uganda. The commemoration under the theme “High Blood Pressure: A silent
killer” was presided over by the Minister of Health Dr Christine Ondoa.

In her speech Dr Ondoa revealed that in Uganda it is estimated that about 30% of the adult population have High Blood Pressure (HBP) and that 80% of these people do know that they have the problem. In addition, 80% of smokers who report to Mulago National Referral hospital have HBP and 50% to 60% of Out Patient Department patients (OPD) at the same hospital come because of HBP complications.

Dr Ondoa attributed the worrying HBP situation in the country mainly to four factors namely: inappropriate diet; physical inactivity; tobacco use and; harmful use of alcohol. She therefore advised Ugandans to adopt positive lifestyles that address those factors. She also advised Ugandans to regularly check their blood pressure and other conditions especially in the Regional Referral Hospitals that have been lately equipped to handle such investigations.

The Director General of Health Services Dr Jane Ruth Aceng underscored the importance of regular medical checkups and appealed to Uganda to have blood pressure checked at least once every year. She pointed out that HBP can be prevented by modifying lifestyles and even treated with medicines if detected early enough.

According to Dr Aceng, the Ministry of Health is contributing to the prevention, control and treatment of Non"communicable Diseases through strengthening of the health system, training of health workers, surveillance and monitoring. The Ministry is also providing palliative care in collaboration with partners
and the private sector.

Dr Solomon Fisseha the Officer in Charge at the WHO Country Office reported that hypertension is a silent killer that can affect anyone noting that one in three adults worldwide has raised blood pressure. The condition causes about 50% of all deaths from stroke and heart disease.

Most of the people affected by high blood pressure are often not even aware of the disease and its complications. Dr Fisseha pointed out that the rapid increase in non" communicable diseases has serious implications for socio"economic development in developing countries. This is because the
early death or disability due to HBP results into loss of income, diminished workforce, and increased health care spending for families, communities and the country.

He therefore appealed to government and all stakeholders to recognize access to essential
medicines for HBP and other NCDs as a fundamental human right that must be availed to all people who need them.

He urged everyone to eat healthy foods, reduce salt intake, avoid tobacco use and harmful use of alcohol, control their body weight, and above all, regularly check your blood pressure. He appealed to the ministry of health as well as health professionals to give utmost importance to early detection and treatment of high blood pressure and prevention of its complications, and to implement standardized guidelines for hypertension management in primary health care settings.   

For more information please contact Benjamin Sensasi, Health Promotion Advisor, WHO Country Office Tel 

256-41-335500 Email: sensasib@ug.afro.who.int 

Museveni Speech at Inauguration of Kenya's Uhuru Kenyatta

By

H.E. Yoweri Kaguta Museveni

President of the Republic of Uganda

INAUGURATION OF H.E. UHURU KENYATTA,

KENYA’S PRESIDENT-ELECT

NAIROBI      -        9^TH APRIL 2013

Your Excellency President Uhuru Kenyatta,

Your Excellency President Mwai Kibaki,

Your Excellency President Daniel Arap Moi,

Your Excellencies, the Heads of State and government,

Distinguished Ladies and gentlemen.


On behalf of the people of Uganda, the people of East Africa, the COMESA Regional trade group and the ICGLR, I congratulate President Uhuru Kenyatta, Vice President William Ruto, the Jubilee Coalition and all the people of Kenya, on their victory in the Match 4, 2013 presidential and general elections. The people of Uganda congratulate you all, especially for holding peaceful elections.

Allow me also to thank the Rt. Hon. Raila Odinga and Vice President Kalonzo Musyoka, together with the other Presidential Candidates who participated in this election, although they did not win, in the end. In reality, however, they too won because they enriched the process by offering clear options out of which the 14 million voters in Kenya could choose from. In particular, I would like to salute, Rt. Hon. Raila Odinga and Vice president Kalonzo Musyoka for the statesman-like manner in which they handled the election outcome. They took their grievances to court and accepted the verdict although this was not favourable to them.

I must also congratulate the Jubilee Coalition for being magnanimous and not provocative as they celebrated their victory. This is democracy – Democracy by completion. We also must salute the Kenyan Media for exhibiting a high standard of professional integrity and maturity throughout the exercise. This maturity exhibited by different actors in this Kenyan electoral process, is a source of pride for all the Africans. I congratulate all of you!

President Uhuru Kenyatta, the people of Kenya have given you the mantle of leadership at a time when great opportunities exist for the East African Region. There is total peace and harmony in the entire Region and, as you know, that was not always so. By concerted actions and sacrifice, we are together forcing all chauvinistic and wrong ideologies to retreat from our Region, especially in Somalia. This will mean full peace and focus on programmes that ensure real prosperity for East Africans, the people of Somalia and the people of South Sudan.

Our Region has also discovered substantial quantities of oil and natural gas. All the member countries of the EAC have varying levels and amounts of deposits of these natural resources. Uganda, in particular, discovered oil in 2006, but has not been able to start the extraction process owing to a battle our country has had with oil companies. Some of them had the usual stereotype impression about Africa, of being unable to understand our needs and let alone develop our resources in a correct manner. We rejected those schemes and are now about to conclude an oil and gas extraction plan that will be equitable to Uganda and the oil companies. Time has come, therefore, for our Region to coordinate policies that will optimize the use of our natural resources and make efficient use of their exploitation for the transformation of our communities.

As you all know, African nations have been struggling, begging and borrowing from external sources, to develop infrastructure that allows them a steady path to industrialization. On account of this coordinated effort and unity of purpose, we will meaningfully exploit our resources which God has given us, add value to them and fully grow our economies to maturity and begin an irreversible break from poverty. This will be the true independence that African nations fought for.

East Africa is not about oil alone. It is also about first and foremost, trade and the exchange of goods and services – utilizing the integrated market of East Africa. These newly discovered natural resources, therefore, are only catalysts to enable us move quickly and develop other sectors; sectors that are more durable and sustainable than minerals including oil and gas.

Among the areas that must be aggressively developed is the trade within and outside the Region for Africa; so that the oil and gas found does not divert us, important as it may be. Our inexhaustible source of wealth is in agriculture, industry, services and the human resource that consumes what is produced and in turn produces items of trade. We need to improve the atmosphere for the East African producers (the business people) by completing the economic integration of East Africa. East Africa intra-trade, for example, stands at a paltry of 13% of all total trade volumes. The European Union (EU) and the North American trading blocks on the contrary, stand at 60% and 48% respectively. Removing infrastructural barriers (using our discovered natural resources) and tackling production capacity constraints (skilling our labour force), therefore, will enhance productivity at household and enterprise levels, end poverty and make Africa much stronger. We should also remove completely the phenomenon of non-tariff barriers such as numerous weigh bridges, police road blocks, delays at border crossings, etc.

in the scriptures, there is the Lord’s Prayer, which teaches us: “thou shall not lead us into temptation but deliver us from evil”. By remaining weak and fragmented, Africa tempts the greedy to try and dominate her. Africa has a duty to stop tempting others. Africa must integrate and strengthen herself. An integrated market makes it easier for companies to make a profit because they have more buyers.

This is my own opinion now. Before I was speaking on behalf of the people of East Africa, the COMESA regional trade group and ICGLR…this is my opinion. Furthermore, I want to salute the Kenyan voters on one other issue – the rejection of the blackmail by the International Criminal Court (ICC) and those who seek to abuse this institution for their own agenda. I was one of those that supported the ICC because I abhor impunity. However, the usual opinionated and arrogant actors using their careless analysis have distorted the purpose of that institution. They are now using it to install leaders of their choice in Africa and eliminate the ones they do not like. What happened here in 2007 was regrettable and must be condemned. A legalistic process, especially an external one, however, cannot address those events. Events of this nature first and most importantly, need an ideological solution by discerning why they happened. Why did inter community violence occur? Was it for genuine or false reasons? Even if you assume they were genuine reasons as a hypothetical argument, why should villagers attack one another? Would the villagers have been responsible for whatever mistakes that would have occurred? Instead of a thorough and thoughtful process, we have individuals engaged in legal gymnastics!

In Uganda’s case, between 1966 and 1986, we lost about 800,000 persons killed by the leaders who were in charge of the country. How did we handle that sad history? Have you ever heard us asking ICC or the UN to come and help us deal with that sad chapter of our history? We only referred Joseph Kony of LRA to ICC because he was operating outside Uganda. Otherwise, we would have handled him ourselves. Equally, Kenyan actors are the ones best qualified to sit and delve into their history in order to discover the ideological stimuli the Kenyan society needs.

I, therefore, use this opportunity to salute the Kenyan voters again, rejecting that blackmail and upholding the sovereignty of the Kenyan people. The people of Kenya extended hospitality to Ugandans when they had to run out of their country because of criminal rule in Uganda. I thank the people of Kenya and their leaders for this.

Finally, I salute His Excellency Mwai Kibaki with whom I worked so closely and who has served Kenya for the last 50 years in political leadership. He also contributed to the struggle for Uganda’s independence when he was a lecturer and student at Makerere University in the 1950s and 60s. May his retirement be enjoyable.

………………………………………………………………………

On a lighter note, a Member of Parliament from West Pokot was given to me as courtesy. The People of West Pokot used to steal my cattle. I urge President Uhuru to stop them from stealing my cattle. (added as he was concluding speech).

Thank you very much.

Nairobi, Kenya                       -           9^th April, 2013.

Why some African students study Science

By Esther Nakkazi
Many African children excelling at school dream of becoming poets, historians, musicians, after all it would be a double bonus, they would be following their passions and earning better than most African scientists peanuts pay.

But once parents and teachers gauge their potential, they influence their decisions and encourage them to become scientists. 

So, some African scientists, it is argued, excelled academically at school early but rather than choose their own careers, their parents and teachers influenced their choice gravitating them towards learning science to get into prestigious careers that would make the parents proud.

At the science festival organized by the BBC at Makerere University, in Kampala, Uganda, from Sunday 24 to Thursday 28th March 2013 one of the memory lanes we walked was back to the science classes at school.

After Uganda’s own Allan Kasujja’s Newsday programme, in the morning, later on a Monday afternoon we had the ‘World Have your say’ live programme by Ros Atkins to explore the perceptions of science at school and the audience views differed.

The audience had prominent scientists, Africa’s role model scientists like Professor Tejinder Verdee, a physicist from CERN. Dr. Ashitey Trebi-Ollennu, a Ghanaian working with NASA, Professor Justin Jonas, from The Square Kilometre Array and other prominent scientists from Uganda. Also school children studying science were at hand to give an account of science at school today.

Most girls and women in the audience described science classes as boring, male dominated and not getting enough support from science teachers.

“When I applied for sciences, they told me girls are not capable of studying science well. They asked me if I have the capacity to learn it but I stuck to my choice,” said Esther Namaganda, a student from Kiira primary school at the BBC science festival.

“Right from day one, I did not understand anything in science and I tried to explain to my guardian who retorted that my parents (dead) both doctors were good at science and so must I. My consistent bad grades eventually made her leave me alone,” said a lady attending the BBC Science festival at Makerere University.

Other students attending the BBC festival held in a big tent erected in freedom square at Makerere, cited lack of enough time to study science, which is very practical as well as schools lacking the equipment, which de-motivates them.

Teachers defended their advice to students saying many students already have a biased mind that science is difficult, so once they detect such attitudes they discourage the students and advise them to study the arts.

But there is also another problem, which is exaggerated by the media. In Uganda, and some Africa countries, once the national examinations are released, the media rushes to publicize the schools and students that have excelled.

The academic fete in the media is closely followed by the public and influences the choice of schools by students, but also these learning institutions get better bargaining power, sometimes increasing fees with popularity.

“The pressure for schools to perform makes teachers persuade only students that excel to study science, “ said Gideon, a science teacher from Kabaale. “If you let the poor performing students in too, the overall school performance is affected and the media dwells on it.”

The scientists encouraged a shift of perception of science in schools and to refer to role Africa science models to change the tide.

Ends.

East Africa Freight Forwarders Deadline

By Esther Nakkazi

As a freight forwarder and logistics officer, operating in East Africa, you need to be trained and a holder of the East Africa Customs Freight forwarding Practicing Certificate before end of this year or you will not operate.

The certificate is a regional program aimed at professionalizing the customs clearing and freight forwarding industry, which will become a mandatory requirement for practicing in all East African countries by end of 2013.

It is industry based and was developed after a needs analysis was done. It has been running since 2012 and targets people who are already practicing, therefore it has based on any country education grading system for entry.

Patrick Mathenge, the executive Director, Federation of East African Freight Forwarders Association says they hope to train 4,500 clearing agents in two years.

“In the future we want self-regulation. We are accrediting so wherever people go in the region, and they have a certificate, they can be employed,” said Mathenge.

Currently, high logistical costs and low levels of service provision characterize the East African region. According to a June 2010 study on the ‘Analytical Comparative Transport Cost study along the Northern Corridor region’ logistics currently account for about 42 percent of the total cost of importing, while costs associated with delays represent 23percent of the total import process cost.

“It is against this backdrop that we have decided to make the Certificate programme a pre-condition for licensing clearing agents in the region to ensure that the industry is professionalized to operate efficiently and cost effectively,” said Mathew Bizimana, the president of FEAFFA.

“We are not competing at all regionally or otherwise if the clearing and forwarding agents are not playing their role,” Silas Kanamugire, the Director of Trade Facilitation at Trade Mark East Africa (TMEA).

FEAFFA is a federation of national freight forwarders Associations with 3,000 companies, enhancing professionalism in clearing and forwarding. One of the objectives for training in this certificate to reduce the cost and time involved in conveying goods across East African corridors by raising the professional standard of clearing and forwarding agents.

“If you are employing someone who is not trained it takes them 3 days to make an entry for a declaration, but with the trained it is just an hour. You avoid storage charges,” Jennifer K. Mwijukye, the Managing Director of Unifreight Cargo Handling.

An extra delay in storage at an Internal Container Depot (ICD) can cost $300 per day. Delays are attributed to so many factors but most importantly knowledge and technical skills are to blame.
Kanamugire said ‘ it is to enhance trade within the region by identifying and supporting programs directly that impact the reduction of transport and related costs along the key corridors in East Africa.

Through TMEA financial support, FEAFFA and the country Revenue authorities are expanding the delivery capacity of the training facilities within the five EAC member states to get the desired critical mass of 4500 trained agents in the region by 2013.

“We need to train in this course because when you harmonise the law and regulations then you also need to harmonise the training so that you have a fairly standard product from the region,” said Richard Kamajugo, Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) commissioner for customs.

Kamajugo said with this certificate the logistics officers should be able to apply and work anywhere n the region since they will be at the same level.

“When you have no standards, everybody moves in different directions and that confuses the customers. If this is enforced it keeps order and reduces time wastage.”

Recent research by TMEA has documented that trained customs agents make less errors in lodging customs errors entries and therefore are able to clear cargo faster.

“The EACFFPC programme has so far been successful in reducing delays related to cargo clearance and transit and therefore increasing the region’s potential for trade; that is why it continues to merit our support,” said Kanamugire.

“We had a unique background here in Uganda. Anybody would wake up and just become a clearing agent. As an employer, I have benefited directly from better professionalism, improvement of service delivery and I feel that I am getting value for money from the employees who are trained under this course,” said Mwijukye.

The regional training programme was developed by the FEAFFA in collaboration with the East Africa Revenue Authorities and support from Trade Mark East Africa.

The programme is being implemented regionally under the stewardship of the Curriculum Implementation Committee (CIC), a joint committee of the Forwarders Association, which is made up of national freight forwarders Associations and Revenue Authorities.

ends

FROM PAPER TO MIKE- RESEARCH ON UGANDA MEDIA

Executive Summary

This study was premised on the assumption that the media is an important stakeholder in health systems research. The media can potentially influence public attitudes through its role of sensitization and publicity and is the public’s most significant source of information. In Uganda there is currently wide media coverage of health issues in newspapers and on the radios. Despite this growing interest by the media to cover health few systematic studies have been conducted in Uganda on media coverage of the health system in general and of health systems research in particular. Those conducted have focused almost exclusively on the print media and on coverage of specific diseases such as TB, HIV/AIDS, and Malaria. Of the studies reviewed none focused specifically on how the media could influence policy and civil society engagement with health through it’s reporting on health systems research findings. While the few studies conducted expressed concerns regarding the depth of the information and its sources, none paid particular attention to the reporters behind the stories in terms of their background training and orientation or the journey through which articles/programs on health go through in order to get into the press or onto radio. Furthermore, hardly any documentation exists on the mechanisms through which health issues are prioritized by the media.

This study explored media coverage of health systems in general and of health systems research in particular by the Ugandan media.  More specifically the study:

1.     Analyzed health system issues and research covered by the print and radio in Uganda

2.     Determined the extent to which media articles and radio programs were informed by health systems research 

3.     Analyzed the mechanisms through which newspaper articles and radio programs were prioritized

4.     Established the backgrounds of the reporters, producers and program hosts that covered health stories and programs

5.     Recommends ways and means through which media coverage of health systems and health systems research can be strengthened

A mixed approach that combined both qualitative and quantitative data collection methods was adopted for this study. Two main data collection methods were used: content analysis and in-depth interviews. A content analysis was conducted of newspaper articles and radio programs that focus on health system issues. Four newspapers and four radio stations were included in the study. The four newspapers were New Vision, Monitor, Bukedde and the Weekly Observer. A total of 101 newspapers were reviewed during the period. The four radio stations included in the study namely Radio Simba, NBS, Radio West and MEGA FM covered the four regions of the country. A total number of 72 radio programs were reviewed. In-depth interviews were conducted with 19 journalists and 3 researchers.

Findings

The study found that while there was wide coverage by the media of health system issues in general there was very little coverage of health systems research. None of the articles published during March 2010 were based on health systems research in Uganda and the few that were informed by health systems research, most of it was conducted elsewhere other than Uganda.

The majority of health system articles were on disease prevention and health promotion; these were also the better researched articles. Those on the formal health services were more of critics of what was happening in the formal health services in the country and the majority were not informed by health systems research.

Other elements of the health systems such as use of medication, home care for the sick, actions of traditional healers and other health enhancing interventions did not receive much coverage by the media.

There was evidence that a lot of community members were interviewed for different health articles, and their voices filtered through most of the articles but in most cases they were interviewed for their opinions rather than as key informants.

Among the main sources of information for the health system articles were the internet, policy makers and policy documents, politicians and others. Conspicuously missing were health systems researchers and research reports on health systems in Uganda.

The coverage of health systems on the radio was largely determined by the sponsors of the health programs, in the print media the coverage was determined by the editors of the papers. This raises question as to how possible it is in these circumstances to get a more even distribution of articles and programs that cover the entire health system. Radio programs aired during March were skewed towards disease prevention and even then the diseases were mainly HIV/AIDS and malaria.     

The majority of journalists interviewed did not have specialized training in health reporting and given the conditions under which they were employed there was no motivation for them to specialize.

The relationship between health researchers and journalists was strained by the mistrust that existed between the two and this undermined the interaction between the two and the flow of information.

The research noted that there were several ongoing efforts on either side to try and address the trained relationship as well as efforts to strengthen media coverage of health research

Recommendations  

Both the media and the health researchers need to work on their attitudes towards each other. The media in the past has portrayed researchers as exploitative and as using people as guinea pigs. Health researchers on their part have had a dismissive attitude towards the media. Both these attitudes need to be addressed if their working relationship is to be strengthened

Makerere University and other media training Universities in Uganda need to have tailored modules in health communication. The modules that currently exist are not within the country and are at graduate level. So there is need to develop modules in this area.

The media seem to lack staff that has the interest to cover health research. For example they have staffs that frequently cover issues relating to the environment.  There is need therefore to build a pool of media people interested in health research and to build capacity and interest among health researchers in communicating their research to the public.   

Health researchers need to recognize the media as an important stakeholder in the research enterprise and therefore to budget for their engagement in the research process and to organize more face to face interactions between the journalists and health researchers.

Health researchers also need to understand research dissemination as going beyond the publication of their findings in scientific journals and presenting papers at conferences, to include the informing of the public of these findings and ensuring their utilization. 

More needs to be done in terms of building relationships with the media and in building researchers’ capacities in engaging with the media. Health researchers need to engage editors, program producers and journalists in order to persuade them to devote more time to health programs and space in newspapers for discussions of research issues. For example in the west, they have weekly columns on health research, the media devote, time, space and resources for discussion of health research.

Researchers are busy and in most cases they do not have the time to devote to writing up their research in a way that it can be easily communicated to the public. To do this they would need compensation for their time.

Those that fund research devote a lot of funds to the research process but in most cases do not include any funds for communicating the research findings to the public. If this was done it would improve the links between the media and researchers as well as media reporting of health research. If those that fund research made it a condition that any research that they fund, should include a budget line for the researchers’ engagement with the media during the research and on completion of the research, researchers would go the extra mile to engage with the media and the media personnel would also engage with the health research because there would be some facilitation for their engagement with the researchers. Those that fund research therefore can influence how researchers view public engagement through the media and also the involvement of the media during the research design, implementation and dissemination. 

The Journey to Publication and Production

This research explored the journey of the health articles to publication. According to the journalists interviewed 3/11 reported that they were assigned stories by their editors, the rest generated their own story ideas from their daily experiences and from attending events such as conferences and workshops on health issues and celebrations of days like World Water Day or World TB Day. The journalists reported that they normally gave priority to health issues that affected the majority of the readers and those making news headlines at the time. One responded that they normally paid attention to what other papers were reporting and picked health ideas from those.

According to the journalists when they found a tip or story idea, they submitted it to their editor at their weekly editorial meetings. Together with the rest of the reporters, such story ideas were discussed and enriched with the input of the other team members. The editor then decided whether the story idea should be pursued further, modified or rejected. None of the print media has a health features’ editor dedicated to reporting on health exclusively. Once the story idea was accepted, the reporter then proceeded to carry out research on it and submit it once again to the editor. The editor could decide to alter the story by emphasizing an angle different from that in the original story. In some cases, due to limited space, editors summarized the stories and only published what they deem to be the salient features of the story. The editors also chose the section where to publish the health story.

With regard to the electronic media the majority of the health programs were sponsored by NGOs and the sponsors determined the topic for discussion and the content to be broadcast. For health programs that were broadcast on radio and not sponsored, the presenters have the responsibility to identify health experts who they invite to the studios to discuss different health issues. While this gave them leeway to determine the topics which they considered to be priority to the listeners, it also had its own challenges. For example one of the presenters explained that while some health professionals willingly came into the studios for the programs when invited others expected a transport refund at the very minimal and this was not budgeted for by the station. An interview with the Director of Uganda Radio Network revealed that they now have an arrangement where they come up with health issues which are well researched by the team at URN and a report is produced. Once the report is ready it is disseminated to partner radio stations to broadcast. This reduces on the need for the different radio stations to source out their own health stories. 

Challenges Faced in Getting Health Stories into the Media

Challenges faced in getting health stories into the media were explored from the perspective of the journalists and from that of the researchers. According to the journalists interviewed it is difficult to specialize in health reporting for several reasons; one is that if you are a freelance journalist you are paid according to the number of articles accepted for publication. So the more articles one can get published the better, Attempting to specialize in these kinds of circumstances would not be very wise.

Journalist reported that they often experienced problems in accessing information especially in government institutions that they needed to include in their articles. They highlighted statistical information as a case in point. Furthermore they argued that very few of them can break down the medical language and health issues into articles that are reader friendly for the public so in the end they opt to writing articles on events which are simpler to write. Journalists also reported that sometimes, due to other competing stories, the health stories submitted for publication ended up being summarized by the editor and their original story is distorted. In other cases, due to pressure to publish other competing stories, articles on health are either dropped or placed on non-prime pages that do not command much readership. They also reported that some media houses make unrealistic demand on the journalists and they end up having insufficient time to research and enrich their stories. Other journalists reported that lack of necessary training on reporting health was a hindrance to their reporting on health.

A Knight International Journalism Fellow who has been very instrumental in training journalists in health reporting observed that journalists faced several challenges. The emphasis on marketing and sales by the management of the media houses influenced coverage of health in the media. He also noted that journalists are paid very little for their stories so they tend to lay more emphasis on the quantity of stories other than on the quality. He observed that:

Journalists love events and workshops because stories from there are simpler to report, compared to the time it takes to get to know a researcher before writing a story about their research.

He also observed that health research is difficult because it is slow, individual studies may not add up to a big story and there is need to get the basic facts right. This is time consuming especially if one factors in the time it takes to read a scientific research report and understand it. He noted that as always there is mistrust between scientists and the media and that this poor relationships between researchers and journalists exists because of misinterpretations and misrepresentation. Since most health researchers’ use scientific jargon when writing up their research this tends to repels journalists from reporting on research issues.

An interview with a senior health researcher shed some light from the researcher’s perspective as to what the challenges were from a researcher’s perspective. He noted that researchers do not go the extra mile to disseminate their research findings beyond the scientific community through conferences, scientific journals and books. This had to do with their attitudes towards the media. He noted that some researchers think that people will not understand their work. Secondly he noted that

As researchers we do not use the media enough and in some cases we brush it off i.e. we do not have the time to deal with the media and this to some extent is due to the lack of realization and recognition of the media as a key stakeholder in the research enterprise. If we did we would be inviting them more to participate in research discussions

He also noted that researchers do not budget for activities that make use of media coverage in research. If they did they would be working more closely with the media in disseminating their research findings. Other barriers were historical. He cited cases where the media coverage of health research was unfavorable and as a result researchers have become more protective about their work, scientific language was also perceived as barrier in that if health research is to be communicated effectively to the public simpler language has to be used. This required time and commitment on the part of researchers in order for them to simplify their work in order for it to be communicated to the public.

Efforts for Strengthening Media Coverage of Health Research

Other ongoing initiatives to strengthen media coverage of health research in particular include efforts by the College of Health Sciences to set up a communication unit. A Communication Strategy has already been developed. The School of Public Health has already launched its own communication strategy and is involved in the training of journalists in health reporting. The idea is to promote ways in which the College can relate with the media and the public in general to ensure information flow to the media and the public At a recent workshop, the Deputy Principal of the College of Health Sciences lauded the increased training of journalists in health issues that has reduced the antagonism between the health professionals and health reporters, thus increasing media coverage in health sector as well as accuracy in health reporting.

 

An attempt has been made by the College of Health Sciences through the Uganda Health Communication Alliance to identify and work with journalists and reporters interested in health matters to help support research communication, most of those identified in the past were more interested in reporting on health in general than on health research.

Other efforts reported were a project known as Sustaining Use of Research Evidence in Africa (SURE) whose objective is to promote the use of research in policy making. The project is training health researchers and policy makers on how to present research evidence in a way that is attractive to policy makers and how to communicate effectively.  Another effort is the Regional East African Community Health (REACH) which is designed to link health researchers with policy-makers and other vital research-users the media being one of them. This initiative trains researchers, policy makers and members from the media in the East African Region in an attempt to bridge the realms of health research, policy and practice. Welcome Trust awarded a grant to the Makerere University College of Health Sciences in 2008 to engage the public in health research. As part of this grant researchers are trained on how to work with the media and the media is also trained on how to work with researchers. 

CONCLUSIONS

The study found that while there was wide coverage by the media of health system issues in general there was very little coverage of health systems research. None of the articles published during March 2010 were based on health systems research in Uganda and the few that were informed by health systems research, most of it was conducted elsewhere other than Uganda.

The majority of health system articles were on disease prevention and health promotion; these were also the better-researched articles. Those on the formal health services were more of critics of what was happening in the formal health services in the country and the majority were not informed by health systems research.

Other elements of the health systems such as use of medication, home care for the sick, actions of traditional healers and other health enhancing interventions did not receive much coverage by the media.

There was evidence that a lot of community members were interviewed for different health articles, and their voices filtered through most of the articles but in most cases they were interviewed for their opinions rather than as key informants.

Among the main sources of information for the health system articles were the Internet, policy makers and policy documents, politicians and others. Conspicuously missing were health systems researchers and research reports on health systems in Uganda.

The coverage of health systems on the radio was largely determined by the sponsors of the health programs, in the print media the coverage was determined by the editors of the papers. This raises question as to how possible it is in these circumstances to get a more even distribution of articles and programs that cover the entire health system. Radio programs aired during March were skewed towards disease prevention and even then the diseases were mainly HIV/AIDS and malaria.     

The majority of journalists interviewed did not have specialized training in health reporting and given the conditions under which they were employed there was no motivation for them to specialize.

The relationship between health researchers and journalists was strained by the mistrust that existed between the two and this undermined the interaction between the two and the flow of information.

The research noted that there were several ongoing efforts on either side to try and address the strained relationship as well as efforts to strengthen media coverage of health research

RECOMMENDATIONS

Both the media and the health researchers need to work on their attitudes towards each other. The media in the past has portrayed researchers as exploitative and as using people as guinea pigs. Health researchers on their part have had a dismissive attitude towards the media. Both these attitudes need to be addressed if their working relationship is to be strengthened

Makerere University and other media training Universities in Uganda need to have tailored modules in health communication. The modules that currently exist are not within the country and are at graduate level. So there is need to develop modules in this area.

The media seem to lack staff that has the interest to cover health research. For example they have staff that frequently cover issues relating to the environment.  There is need therefore to build a pool of media people interested in health research and to build capacity and interest among health researchers in communicating their research to the public.   

Health researchers need to recognize the media as an important stakeholder in the research enterprise and therefore to budget for their engagement in the research process and to organize more face to face interactions between the journalists and health researchers.

Health researchers also need to understand research dissemination as going beyond the publication of their findings in scientific journals and presenting papers at conferences, to include the informing of the public of these findings and ensuring their utilization. 

More needs to be done in terms of building relationships with the media and in building researchers’ capacities in engaging with the media. Health researchers need to engage editors, program producers and journalists in order to persuade them to devote more time to health programs and space in newspapers for discussions of research issues. For example in the west, they have weekly columns on health research, the media devote, time, space and resources for discussion of health research.

Researchers are busy and in most cases they do not have the time to devote to writing up their research in a way that it can be easily communicated to the public. To do this they would need compensation for their time.

Those that fund research devote a lot of funds to the research process but in most cases do not include any funds for communicating the research findings to the public. If this was done it would improve the links between the media and researchers as well as media reporting of health research. If those that fund research made it a condition that any research that they fund, should include a budget line for the researchers’ engagement with the media during the research and on completion of the research, researchers would go the extra mile to engage with the media and the media personnel would also engage with the health research because there would be some facilitation for their engagement with the researchers. Those that fund research therefore can influence how researchers view public engagement through the media and also the involvement of the media during the research design, implementation and dissemination.

Investigators:

Anne Ruhweza Katahoire (Principal investigator)

Associate Professor and Director,

Child Health and Development Centre (CHDC),

Makerere University

E-mail address: akatahoire@chdc.mak.ac.ug;

Telephone number: +256-414-541684/530325

Esther Nakkazi,
Science Reporter, Researcher, Trainer Uganda, EastAfrica;

Freelance journalist based at The EastAfrican newspaper.
E-mail address: nakkazie@yahoo.com, estanakkazi@gmail.com

Doris Kwesiga

Researcher,

Child Health and Development Centre (CHDC),

Makerere University

E-mail address: dknnkwesiga@gmail.com; dkwesiga@chdc.mak.ac.ug

Hannington Muyenje

Project Manager,

BBC World Service Trust,

Kampala, Uganda

E-mail address: hannington.muyenje@bbcwst.net

Susan Ajambo

Researcher,

Child Health and Development Centre (CHDC),

Makerere University

E-mail address: susanajambo@yahoo.com

MUSEVENI SPEECH ON 27 ANNIVERSARY OF NRM

Fellow Country men and Country women. I greet you and salute you on this 27th Anniversary of the NRM’s Liberation of Kampala on the 26th of January, 1986. 

The final attack on Kampala started on the 24th of January, 1986, when our Forces crossed the Busega swamp and spent the night at Rubaga. The following day the 25th of January, our Forces fought the whole day and only entered the sprawling Lubiri barracks at night fall. The following day, the 26th of January, our Forces started assaulting Kampala Central through Bakuli, Kampala Road up to Radio Uganda. This was the 1st Battalion, led by the late Fred Mugisha. Meanwhile, the 11th Battalion, under the late Chefe Ali, was assaulting Nakulabye, Makerere, Wandegeya and Summit View. 

The 7th Battalion, under Matayo Kyaligonza and the late Stanley Muhangi, was assaulting Makindye barracks while the 5th Battalion, under Ahmed Kashillingi and the late China was blocking Entebbe Road, at Kisubi. I held the 3rd Battalion under the late Patrick Lumumba in reserve, at Bulange (Republic House). The 13th Battalion, under Ivan Koreta, was blocking Gulu Road at Matugga. 

The Task Force, under the late Jet Mwebaze, operated in the area of Bwaise and was supposed to cross and block Mukono Road but they did not achieve this. Meanwhile, the 19th Battalion, under the late Peter Kerim, the 15th Battalion, under Samson Mande and the 9th Battalion, under Julius Chihanda were on the Hoima-Masindi axis. I held the 21st Battalion, under the late Benon Tumukunde, at Kasese because I afraid of the possible Mobutu’s intervention from that side. Salim Saleh coordinated the attack on Kampala while Tinyefuuza coordinated the attack on the Hoima axis.

Radio Uganda and the Summit View were captured by about 1500 hours on the afternoon of the 26th but Makindye held on up to about 1900 hours. Meanwhile, at around 1400 hours, a worrying situation developed on Entebbe Road, when a large Force from Entebbe broke through the 5th Battalion at Kisubi and was approaching Kampala from the rear. 

I had to dispatch the 3rd Battalion, under Salim Saleh and the late Lumumba to block this force at Najjanankumbi. I, therefore, remained without a Reserve. By 1900 hours, however, good news from all around came in ─ Makindye barracks had been captured and the 900 force at Zana from Entebbe had also surrendered. The following day, the 27th of January, 1986, I made a broadcast on Radio Uganda, announcing the victory.

When I call these forces Battalions, our young commanders to today should not think that they were the same size of our present Battalions of 760 officers and men. None of these Battalions was less than 1,500 officers and men. In fact 19th Battalion was 1,900 officers and men. We had arranged this in order to economize on the Command. The few good Commanders we had would each command many companies (A, B, C, D, E, F, K, etc). Therefore, the Liberation Battalions would accomplish bigger tasks than the standard Battalions.

Since that time, Uganda has moved a great distance. The economy, which was 3.5 trillion shillings is now 50 trillion shillings (about US$ 20 billion). This means that the economy has expanded in size 14 times since 1986. Income per person which was US$ 264 in 1986, is now US$ 580 per person in spite of the population growing 2.3 times from 14 million people to 34 million people. If the population had grown at a slower rate, Uganda would already be a middle-income country. I do not, however, regret the growth of our population. It is a great resource in itself. 

We have struggled to educate this bigger population and we are succeeding. As you, for instance, saw just recently, about 565,663 of our young people sat for Primary Leaving Education (P.L.E.) last year. How many of our children sat for P.L.E. in 1986? The figure was 150,000!! The children in the secondary schools were only 123,479 students 1986. The figure is now 1.23 million students. These are big achievements. In 1986, the share of industry in GDP was only 9.9% while services’ contribution to GDP was only 36.1%. The relevant figures are now 26.8% and 44.8%, respectively. 

The total export of goods and services in 1986, was only US$ 411 million in 1986 and this was because of the high coffee prices of that time; otherwise, the figures went as low as about US$ 260 million in 1988 and it further fell to US$ 177 million in 1990 because of the fall in the world coffee prices. Last year our export earnings were US$ 4.5 billion. Non-coffee exports of goods went from almost zero to US$ 1.7 billion last year. 

The International Reserves grew from US$ 16 million in 1986 to US$ 2.9 billion in December, 2012. Government tax revenue collections went from five billion shillings in 1986 to 6.6 trillion shillings last financial year. Private investment increased from 5.2% of GDP in 1986 to 19% of GDP in 2012. Remittances from Ugandans living abroad went from almost zero to US$ 879 million last financial year 2011/12. Therefore, if you add the remittances from to the export earnings of goods and services, the total inflows are US$ 5.4 billion. Inflation was 240% in 1986 but is now 5.5% 

However, the economy could have grown much faster if it was not for some ideological confusion on the part of some of the actors that we are, sometimes, forced to work with. The first problem was the delay in the modernizing our Army, after we had reduced it from 100,000 to 50,000 officers and men. Some quarters took the views that we should spend less on the smaller army. We, therefore, ended up with an under-equipped and smaller Army. This made our people in the North to suffer under Kony and the cattle rustlers of Karamoja for much longer than was necessary. 

When the Army was reduced in 1991, we should have straight away adequately equipped it. It was not until 2001 that we took the decision to cut 23% from all the other ministries in order to start properly equipping the smaller Army ― a delay of 10 years. The moment we did that, that was the end of Kony terrorism and the cattle rustling in Karamoja. ADF terrorists are still in Congo. However, if they dare cross the border, they know what happened to them last time in 2006 ― 100 of them entered Semliki valley, only 13 of them went back to Congo. This delay in equipping the Army properly was an unnecessary mistake that cost us development time.

The other problem has been the mistake of delaying industrial projects ― rehabilitation of Kilembe mines , expansion of Lugazi sugar works, the implementation of the Amuru sugar project, the Dairy Corporation expansion and modernization, the Tororo Fertilizer factory, the Muko (Kabale) iron-ore processing project, the delay of the Bujagali hydropower project etc., etc. The delays are caused by the need for compensation, arguments about land rights, arguments about the environment issues, internal political sabotage, etc. I do not have time to deal with each of these arguments here. 

However, delays of these projects affects the tempo of the growth and transformation of the economy. Most importantly, it affects the job creation for the youth. The development-minded people must resist sabotage to the future of our children. What Africa lacks most, starting with Uganda, both in the past and today, are factories. We were colonized because of lack of factories. We are still lagging behind other continents because of lack of factories, not because of lack of clans, lack of forests, etc. We have had plenty of these in the past. Why did we remain backward?

Another cause of delays of industrial projects are either corrupt or indifferent officials. Muko iron–ore project has been delayed because incapable people were given concessions. Why do you give a concession to somebody who has no financial capacity to implement the project? Kilembe Mines here, is delayed because of mis-applied procedures. Kilembe Mines is not a procurement issue. It is an investment issue. Kalangala is now booming because we successfully resisted these misguided and quite often selfish schemes. The Palm oil project has been successfully implemented.

Soon, I am going to address Parliament, on the issue of corruption and criminality. The NRM, from the bush days and from the very inception, apart from our patriotic and Pan-Africanist orientation, was motivated by the fight against criminality and corruption such as extrajudicial killings, raping of women, bribes, embezzlement, poaching of animals, etc. We stopped extra-judicial killings by soldiers and other security staff, we stopped the poaching of animals in the National Parks, we stopped illegal roadblocks by soldiers, etc. 

Why does somebody imagine that we cannot end embezzlement and bribery? The recent successes in breaking into the rackets of suspected thieves is just a tip of the iceberg of what the NRM will do to reduce or even eliminate corruption. Who broke into the suspected rackets of mega thieves in the office of the Prime Minister (OPM), the Ministry of Public Service, the Ministry of Finance, the Bank of Uganda (BOU), the Ministry of Heath, etc.? It is the NRM sympathizers and the Police ― the young police officers whom we deliberately recruited to build the capacity of that institution. Who insisted on recruiting university graduates of high integrity into the Police? It is the NRM and some of its precursors such as the UNLF in 1979. 

Before that time, the Police and the Army were the preserve of the uneducated or the semi-educated. Could those have coped with the high level fraud that you are witnessing today? We are going to win the battle against bribery and embezzlement as we won the other battles. The only inconveniences we have in the fight against corruption, criminality, terrorism and political indiscipline is the practice of giving bail to the suspects indiscriminately. I am going to propose an amendment to the relevant laws in this respect. 

In order to improve Service Delivery and accelerate the industrialization of our country, there are two factors we must deal with ― pay the Scientists well as well as paying the Judges well and, eventually, pay all the Public Servants well. When the money is, however, still scarce, let us start with the Scientists and the Judges – so that both our Scientific innovators and our Judges are comfortable. One group to push the economy and the other one to administer justice fairly. The next clusters of public servants to deal with on the issue of salaries will be the teachers, the health workers, the army and the other security personnel.

The Ugandans say: “Kamwe kamwe nigwo muganda” – ‘one by one makes a bundle’, “akwata empola atuuka wala” – ‘the one who makes modest efforts, in the end covers a long distance’.

I congratulate all of you on the 27th Anniversary.

President's Repentance Prayer for his Nation's Sins repeated at Watoto Church

Yesterday, I was in church at Watoto Childrens’ church central. 

I signed the nations’ declaration prepared by our church that commits us, as citizens of Uganda, after 50 years to doing better. It was a covenant with God. 

I also got to know about this prayer that President Museveni said for this nation. It is more or less history but good to know that an African president actually did say a prayer of repentance for his nation.

Here is the prayer Museveni said at the National Jubilee Prayers in Namboole on 18th October 2012.

“Father God in heaven, today we stand here as Ugandans, to thank you for Uganda. We are proud that we are Ugandans and Africans. We thank you for all your goodness to us. 

I stand here today to close the evil past and especially in the last 50 years of our national leadership history and at the threshold of a new dispensation in the life of this nation. I stand here on my own behalf and on behalf of my predecessors to repent. 

We ask for your forgiveness. We confess these sins, which have greatly hampered our national cohesion and delayed our political, social and economic transformation.

We confess sins of idolatry and witchcraft, which are rampant in our land. We confess sins of shedding innocent blood, sins of political hypocrisy, dishonesty, intrigue and betrayal. 

Forgive us of sins of pride, tribalism and sectarianism; sins of laziness, indifference and irresponsibility; sins of corruption and bribery that have eroded our national resources; sins of sexual immorality, drunkenness and debauchery; sins of unforgiveness, bitterness, hatred and revenge; sins of injustice, oppression and exploitation; sins of rebellion, insubordination, strife and conflict. 

These sins and many others have characterized our past leadership, especially the last 50 years of our history. Lord forgive us and give us a new beginning. Give us a heart to love you, to fear you and to seek you. Take away from us all the above sins. 

We pray for national unity. Unite us as Ugandans and eliminate all forms of conflict, sectarianism and tribalism. Help us to see that we are all your children, children of the same Father. Help us to love and respect one another and to appreciate unity in diversity.

We pray for prosperity and transformation. Deliver us from ignorance, poverty and disease. As leaders, give us wisdom to help lead our people into political, social and economic transformation.

We want to dedicate this nation to you so that you will be our God and guide. We want Uganda to be known as a nation that fears God and as a nation whose foundations are firmly rooted in righteousness and justice to fulfill what the Bible says in Psalm 33:12: Blessed is the nation, whose God is the Lord. A people you have chosen as your own. 

I renounce all the evil foundations and covenants that were laid in idolatry and witchcraft. I renounce all the satanic influence on this nation. And, I hereby, covenant Uganda to you, to walk in your ways and experience all your blessings forever.

I pray for all these in the name of the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen," prayed Museveni.