Uganda National Institute of Public Health: Establishment and Experiences, 2013–2021

Since 2013, the Uganda National Institute of Public Health (UNIPH) has successfully collaborated with partners and secured donor funding as it works toward legal establishment as an autonomous entity eligible for government funding. Countries in Africa and beyond can learn from the process Uganda undertook to develop the UNIPH. Building the Uganda National Institute of Public Health (UNIPH) in stages, with collaboration between the Ministry of Health and other partners for financial and technical support, ensured a solid establishment of its key structures. As Uganda consolidates its public health functions by establishing the UNIPH through an Act of Parliament, smarter, faster, and more effective prevention, detection, and response to public health emergencies is already occurring in the country. Uganda is an ecological hot spot with porous borders that lies in several infectious disease transmission belts, making it prone to disease outbreaks. To prepare and respond to these public health threats and emergencies in a coordinated manner, Uganda established the Uganda National Institute of Public Health (UNIPH) in 2013. Using a step-by-step process, Uganda’s Ministry of Health (MOH) crafted a strategy with a vision, mission, goal, and strategic objectives, and identified value additions and key enablers for success. A regulatory impact assessment was then conducted to inform the drafting of principles of the bill for legislation on the Institute. Despite not yet attaining legal status, the UNIPH has already achieved faster, smarter, and more efficient and effective prevention, detection, and response to public health emergencies. Successes include a more coordinated multisectoral, disciplined, and organized response to emergencies; appropriate, timely, and complete information receipt and sharing; a functional national lab sample and results transportation network that has enabled detection and confirmation of public health events within 48 hours of alert; appropriate response to a confirmed public health event in 24–48 hours; and real-time surveillance of endemic- and epidemic-prone diseases. In this article, we document success stories, lessons learned, and challenges encountered during the unique staged process used to develop the components of the UNIPH. The creation of an integrated disease control center has proven to yield better collaboration and synergies between different arms of epidemic preparedness and response.