Project Results in the Buyende District, Uganda

June 20, 2019

Advancing Partners & Communities (APC) supports programs that strive to improve the overall health of communities. From July 2014 to October 2017, the USAID-funded APC project, which is implemented in Uganda by FHI 360, worked to decrease unintended and mistimed pregnancies by expanding access to and use of voluntary family planning (FP) services. Since October 2017, APC Uganda has focused on two key objectives:

  1. Strengthening country leadership and coordination for FP programs.
  2. Creating a framework to transform social norms that increase demand for and use of modern contraception.
Christian Family Life Education Trainers and some of the youth they have engaged with sharing their experiences with CFLE.
Christian Family Life Education Trainers (CFLE) and some of the youth they have engaged with sharing their experiences with CFLE. Photo source: Leigh Wynne/FHI 360.

Since May 2018, APC has been implementing activities in three sub-counties of Buyende District. Interventions have included community-based family planning; teaching cultural leaders about the role of improved parenting and school attendance in preventing teen pregnancy; convincing faith-based institutions to endorse and promote FP uptake; and making grants to local organizations. Related achievements include:

  • Trained 30 village health team members to provide short-acting FP methods including injectable contraceptives.
  • Supported the district to develop resources to enumerate the negative effects of high fertility on development. Formed a district-based multi-sectoral FP working group that has persuaded various district departments to allocate FP budget lines.
  • Trained 15 Christian Family Life Education master trainers, who in turn trained 107 young people to educate their peers on pregnancy prevention1. APC helped Busoga Kingdom leaders conduct 120 dialogues on how improved parenting helps prevent early marriage and teenage pregnancy.
  • Developed a collaborative charter that indicates district tasks to reduce teenage pregnancy rate.

1 In partnership with congregations and youth leaders selected by Uganda Protestant Medical Bureau (UPMB), APC Uganda introduced religious leaders in the Buyende and Kyegegwa Districts to the CFLE curriculum through the Family Life Education: Teaching Adults to Communicate with Youth from a Christian Perspective.