The Uganda Bureau of Statistics (UBOS) has revealed that the withdrawal of the Shs 7 billion support by the US government to the Uganda Demographic Health Survey (UDHS) 2022 activities, has had no significant impact.
The UDHS programme is undertaken after every five years. UBOS implemented a similar programme in 2016. The survey provides indicators on maternal and child mortality, nutrition, malaria and HIV prevalence among other key health-related data.
However, the US government one of the key financial contributors pulled out of UDHS 2022, creating speculations on the impact and quality of the Survey, since it will have a deficit of Shs 7 billion.
In response, UBOS stated that the Shs 7 billion was meant for technical support mainly for employees of ICF Macro and printing services.
The statistics body revealed that the government has already provided support towards the programme by over 90% of the financial requirements. “In addition, UNICEF and UNFPA maintained their financial contribution towards the undertaking of the UDHS activities.”
The body further explained that UDHS has been implemented in Uganda since 1988, and over the years it has developed sufficient technical capacity to fully implement UDHS up to dissemination.
“The technical support which was terminated, however, does not jeopardise the result of UDHS.”
“In this regard, the Bureau would like to assure all stakeholders including the development partners of quality UDHS results. In fact, the 7th UDHS is in the final stages towards publication. When published, we appeal to all stakeholders to make good of the indicators derived from UDHS for policy formulation, programme implementation and monitoring development performance in the health sector,” the body said asserting that its full cordial relationship and continued cooperation with the US Government on all matters in regard to statistics development processes, have not been affected.