Jane Ruth Aceng the Minister of Health has noted that the Uganda Health Ministry needs strong multi-sectoral partnerships to make health everybody’s business.
According to Aceng, since the Ministry of Health can’t tackle the main threats to health alone, partnerships will continue to grow as new players enter the health arena and as it becomes accepted that significant health days can only be achieved with the participation of sectors other than health.
“The Health sector is a broad sector, our efforts and successes are primarily hinged on our strong collaborations and partnerships which have led to equipped health systems, innovations, strong health workforce amongst others” Aceng explained.
The Minister made these remarks on the official opening of the Heroes in Health Awards (HIHA) in Kampala on Friday.
The HIHA awards that were introduced in 2020 seek to recognize individuals and institutions that are making extraordinary contributions to the Health sector in Uganda and this year, the awards will highlight how organizations, institutions, and individuals are employing an eco-system approach of partnerships to mobilize collective action and investment for health systems and health workforce transformation.
Held under the theme “Strategic Multi-sectoral Partnerships to Transform the Health System and Workforce”, The HIHA 2023 will also showcase how health sector partners leverage innovative partnership models to transform the health system and also to recognize the Heroes that are actively working through collaborations to change the face of Uganda’s Health sector.
Similar to the past years, this year’s edition will have over 20 categories across the country that will include the Lifetime Achievement Award, Media Excellence in Health, Doctor of the Year, Pharmacist of the Year, Award of Excellence in Palliative Care, Health care Leadership Award, Student Innovation award amongst others and nominations can only be submitted through hihaawards.com/nomination-form starting today till October 1st.
The Minister also appealed to the public to nominate their preferred health workers before the deadline but she highlighted that for nominees to emerge as winners there should be demonstrated evidence of extended expertise and skills, dedication to service plus client satisfaction.
In his submissions, Dr. Henry Mwebesa the Director General of Health Services who wants the HIHA information disseminated to urban centers noted that in the first year of these awards, they received about 5,000 nominations and the number has since been growing which is a significant achievement.
“Last year we got 11,000 nominations, I would encourage that we get more nominations for HIHA, we also need more nominations from the community, I want this time to also get nominations from Kanungu, Karenga, and Kotido” he highlighted.
The 2023 HIHA edition is sponsored by NMS, NDA, CEHURD, Uganda, UCC, JMS MHS, and WHO amongst others.
