The Health Workforce for the 21st Century (HW21) project, funded by the Health Resources and Services Administration, supports country programs in accelerating progress towards addressing key human resources for health (HRH) systems barriers to achieving their 95-95-95 goals (i.e., 95% of people living with HIV knowing their HIV status, 95% of people who know their status on treatment, and 95% of people on treatment with suppressed viral loads). In Uganda, Jhpiego is providing technical and implementation assistance to the Government of Uganda, HRSA and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to reach the health workforce with expert knowledge and skills that will enable providers to counsel and enroll more men and women into care, properly provide antiretroviral therapy and maintain clients in care. Utilizing a customized technology platform for learning will also enable rapid transmission of real-time best practices to reach more health workers than would be possible with traditional in-person methodologies, thus building a critical mass of trained health workers that will enable Uganda to realize its 95-95-95 goals.

The Challenge Initiative (TCI), funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Institute for Population and Reproductive Health, focuses on scaling up proven family planning (FP) high-impact solutions under Tupange for Better Cities. Jhpiego is the implementing partner responsible for leading TCI’s East Africa Accelerator Hub. In collaboration with TCI headquarters in Baltimore, Jhpiego provides technical assistance to local governments in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda as they implement interventions for family planning and adolescent sexual and reproductive health to increase access to modern contraception for urban poor women. For more information, visit the the TCI website.

Jhpiego, in collaboration with the Johns Hopkins University and Ugandan Ministry of Health, is supporting the development of an integrated mental health system serving people living with HIV (PLHIV) at increased risk of treatment disruption, as well as health care workers providing services to PLHIV in Uganda. Currently, there is only one such approach designed for youth and adults that has been tested in multiple low-and middle-income countries (LMICs): the Common Elements Treatment Approach. This approach is a lay provider-delivered, evidence-based system of care that has been found, through five randomized controlled trials in LMICs, to be clinically effective in reducing a range of mental and behavioral health problems including depression, anxiety, trauma, violence, functional impairment, unhealthy alcohol use and risky behaviors. This project is funded through the Health Resources and Services Administration with American Rescue Plan Act funds designated for the COVID Health Workforce for HIV and Chronic Disease Service Delivery (COVID HW21) global initiative.

With funding from the Health Resources and Services Administration through the University of Washington, Jhpiego is providing technical assistance and support through learning exchanges between HRSA-funded providers in the United States and selected HIV clinics in Uganda.