THE REPUBLIC OF UGANDA

MINISTRY OF HEALTH

Statement from The Honourable Minister of Health

At the Launch of the Field Work for the Uganda
Population Impact Assessment 2020 (UPHIA 2020)
Ministry of Health, Headquarters

Thursday, 6th February, 2020

Kampala

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1.0 Protocol
The Deputy Chief of Mission of the United States of America Embassy
The Country Representative- World Health Organization
The Permanent Secretary- Ministry of health
The Representative of ICAP New York
The Director CDC, Uganda
The Mission Director USAID
The Director General Health Services, Ministry of Health
The Director General Uganda AIDS Commission
The Executive Director UBOS
The Country Director, ICAP Uganda
The Program Manager ACP/Principle Investigator MoH, UPHIA2020
All Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen

2.0 Welcome and Appreciation: I wish to welcome all of you to this Launch of
the Field Work for the Uganda Population Based HIV Impact Assessment
Survey 2020, (UPHIA2020). I wish to particularly welcome and appreciate the
Deputy Chief of Mission of the United States Government. I welcome Dr
David Hoos, the representative for ICAP at University of Columbia, New York,
who has travelled a long way from the United States to be with us at this launch.
I also warmly welcome the WHO Representative, the Director CDC Uganda,
and the entire team from the US Government who are supporting the Ministry
of Health to conduct these very important Surveys. I also welcome the other
stakeholders that are participating in the design and implementation of this
survey including- MoH, ICAP Uganda, CDC, USAID, WHO, UNAIDS, UBOS,
UVRI, and the Uganda AIDS Commission. You are all most welcome to the
launch of UPHIA 2020- a vital source of strategic information, that will
measure our progress and inform the future planning, and implementation of the
HIV response in Uganda.

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3.0 Purpose of the Event: We are gathered here to launch the Uganda
Population-based HIV Impact Assessment that will be conducted during the first
six months of 2020. As you already know, UPHIA 2020, is a national
population-based survey designed to provide national and regional estimates of
HIV Viral Load suppression, incidence, prevalence, and other programme
indicators of coverage, outcome and impact. This survey will build on the one
we conducted in 2016 and will provide important information to measure the
progress towards the global UNAIDS and the national HIV epidemic control
targets. It will provide empirical up-to-date data on the magnitude and dynamics
of HIV/AIDS and the impact of control programmes in order to inform strategic
planning of future HIV/AIDS services.

4.0 The HIV response: You will have been aware that Uganda has borne
disproportionate burdens of HIV and AIDS over the last 4 decades. Uganda’s
efforts in combating this epidemic has registered considerable progress,
bringing down the HIV prevalence rate from a peak of 18% in the 90s to 6%
now. New infections have declined in the last 5-6 years, from 100,000 in 2010
to 53,000, and AIDS related death have declined from 60,000 in 2010 to 23,000.
The achievements in the Uganda HIV and AIDS response has been a result of
collective efforts of the Health and AIDS Development Partners (PEPFAR,
Global Fund, the UN Family- WHO, UNAIDS, UNICEF, UNFPA; and other
bilateral and multilateral partners). We also appreciate the leadership and high
levels of political commitment from His Excellency the President of Uganda.

You will be aware that together, we are implementing a Fast track strategy for
HIV epidemic Control and ending AIDS in Uganda. The strategy is comprised
of combination HIV Prevention approaches in structural, behavioural and
biomedical interventions. These interventions include Abstinence Be Faithful
and Condom use; programs for social protection of Adolescent Girls and Young

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Women (AGYW); Safe Male Circumcision; Prevention of Mother To Child
Transmission; Pre-exposure Prophylaxis (PREP); and the scale up of ART. We
are focusing on the 95:95:95 targets in the testing, treatment and VLS cascade.

5.0 Justification for Population Surveys: To inform the implementation of the

national HIV response, the Ministry of Health and Partners are investing in
collecting high quality data to strengthen the planning, implementation and
evaluation of the response. We are collecting routine data on uptake of services
from health facilities through the DHIS2. We also collect annual sentinel
surveillance data from antenatal and STD clinics. Working with UNAIDS,
PEPFAR and WHO, we also conduct Mathematical Models to generate other
non-HIV prevalence estimates.

To compliment the routine data, we conduct periodic Population based surveys

that provide more representative national and regional level estimates of a range
of HIV indicators. These Surveys include the previous Uganda AIDS Indicators
Surveys of 2005 & 2011, and the Uganda Population Based Impact Assessment
Survey 2016 (UPHIA 2016). UPHIA 2020 is being conducted to update the
observations from the survey of 2016. The PHIA Surveys are for the first time
providing HIV program Impact assessment indicators such as HIV incidence
and Viral Load Suppression (VLS) which are the more sensitive markers of the
progress towards epidemic control.

6.0 Selection and Training as Field Workers: Now to the Field Workers; you
were selected and have been trained over a 2 month duration which has been an
opportunity to prepare you for the tasks of UPHIA 2020. Iam informed that you
have different categories of Field Workers. First, there are the Field
Interviewers who will conduct the household and Individual Interviews.
Secondly, there are Counsellors who will conduct pre and post testing

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counselling and return participant HIV results in the households. Counsellors
will also double as interviewers when their primary tasks in the households are
done. Thirdly, there are the Laboratory Field Workers; who will collect blood
specimens, conduct HIV tests and provide results to counsellors for their return
to survey participants. Fourthly, there are the Team Supervisors who will lead
the teams, locate the households selected for enumeration and allot households
to respective Interviewers. Finally, the drivers who will take the Field Workers
to the 318 clusters (villages) that have been sampled for UPHIA 2020. All of
you are one team whose objective is to collect high quality data that will assist
the Country to plan and provide better HIV services for the people of Uganda.

6.0 To the Field Workers: As Field Workers, you will be the frontline
personnel for the implementation of the survey. As the representatives of the
stakeholders implementing this survey- and particularly for the Ministry of
Health, we expect you to conduct yourselves with the highest level of
professionalism and discipline. We will expect you to interact with our people in
the districts, communities and households with respect. You will need to
establish good rapport with the village leaders and the households that will
participate in the survey. We call upon you to adhere to the agreed scientific
and ethical conduct to enable us collect good quality data. I ask you to take the
responsibility of your Field Work seriously if we are to succeed.

8.0 Appreciation: I would like to thank the US Government for financing the
survey through a Centres for Disease Control and Prevention grant to ICAP at
the University of Columbia, New York. I appreciate the ICAP Consortium based
at University of Columbia, New York and ICAP Uganda Country Office who
are handling the finances and providing technical assistance. ICAP has worked
out a financing mechanism through a third-party firm – ACLAIM Africa Ltd

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which has handled the preparatory work for UPHIA 2020 well. Iam sure
ACCLAIM will also facilitate the Field Work operations successfully.

I thank the technical working group comprised of technical officers from the
Ministry of Health, ICAP, Uganda Virus Research Institute, Uganda Bureaux of
Statistics, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), United States
Agency for International Development (USAID), World Health Organization
(WHO), UNAIDS, and the Uganda AIDS Commission (UAC) that has led the
technical design and planning of the survey, including development of the
survey protocol and obtaining relevant Institutional Review Board approvals.
The Technical Working Group agreed on the technical design and data to be
collected, organised the training of the Field Workers and has today facilitated
the launch of the Field Work operations smoothly. I thank them, and their chair-
Dr. Joshua Musinguzi, the Program Manager AIDS Control Program, together
with the technical teams from the respective agencies.

9.0 Launch: The results from the survey are expected at the end of this year. I
urge you all to work hard to adhere to the survey timelines. I urge all of you to
go out and collect the data in the agreed timelines. Its now my pleasure to
launch the Uganda Population Based HIV Impact Assessment Survey 2020.

I thank you all

For God and My Country

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