World Health Day 2025: 'Healthy beginnings, hopeful futures'

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OPINION

By H.E Hugues Chantry

As we celebrate World Health Day, I am happy to add my voice to those of the Regional Director of the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Ministry of Health of Uganda, to seek your attention for the health of Ugandan mothers and newborn children.

“Healthy beginnings, hopeful futures” is the title of a year-long campaign on maternal and newborn health, by WHO, the Ministry of Health, Belgium and several other development partners, in which we aim to raise awareness on preventable maternal and newborn death and the need to prioritize women’s long-term health and well-being.

The title of the campaign says it all: a healthy start of life for newborn children and mothers is key for a healthy life. Belgium and many other European Union Member States, as well as international organizations, have been supporting Uganda towards strengthening the health system for several years. Over the past decade, Belgium has invested more than €53m (about sh212b) in Uganda’s health system, in addition to €20.4m for social protection programmes.

During the many years of fruitful collaboration between Belgium and Uganda on health, we have witnessed improvements, but many challenges remain though: maternal and newborn mortality remain high. As stated by WHO, Uganda’s maternal mortality ratio (MMR) stands at 189 per 100,000 live births, with a 1 in 66 lifetime risk of maternal death. Neonatal mortality rate (NMR) has decreased from 27 to 22 per 1,000 live births but remains above the SDG target of 12 per 1,000 live births. At the same time, the budget for primary health care is projected to decline from sh1.124 trillion in 2024/25 to sh1.059 trillion in 2025/26, a decline of 6%.

Through the course of its interventions in Uganda, Enabel, the Belgian development organization, has identified three kinds of delays faced by Ugandans seeking health care. The first delay occurs when deciding to seek care or not, due to different reasons (financial implications, previous bad experience with health care, etc).

The second delay happens when people need to effectively reach the appropriate medical facilities (cost of transportation, geographical distance, etc), and the third delay happens at the health centers themselves because receiving adequate health care in poorly equipped and staffed facilities is difficult. In such circumstances, too many Ugandan mothers cannot deliver in health facilities.

The question is obvious: how can these delays be tackled, especially for mothers and newborns? Building on that question, Belgium launched its WeCare Project in 2023. It is a 5-year comprehensive health intervention programme with a budget of €16m (sh64b) executed by Enabel. The project aims at improving maternal health by empowering communities in tackling the first delay; enhancing quality and access to primary health care to address the second; and for the third, promoting participatory health governance and service delivery, in particular at Health Centers IV.

Though the support to primary health care centers is essential, Belgium wanted to do more. Thus, together with the Ministries of Health and Education, Enabel has also been implementing the project WeTrain4Health, to improve the training programme of nursing and midwifery students in three health training institutions. Indeed, the current students of these health training institutions are the nurses and midwives who will help in delivering babies tomorrow.

Belgium further provides funding to multilateral organizations working on health issues in Uganda, such as WHO, UNAIDS, UNFPA and public health initiatives of the African Union, as well as Belgian non-governmental actors such as the Belgian Red Cross and Humanity & Inclusion.

As you can see, Belgium finds health care crucial, in particular when it comes to the health of Uganda’s mothers and newborn children. But my country will always stay humble in its interventions as we are perfectly aware of the fact that the systemic challenges, as the lack of adequate financing or the high absenteeism in health facilities can only be tackled by Ugandans themselves. And this truism will become even more flagrant, as many traditional donors are now scaling down their interventions.

During the coming year, the campaign “Healthy Beginnings, Hopeful Futures” will showcase efforts of Belgium, WHO and other partners to support the Ugandan government to ensure access to high-quality care for women and babies.

Let us work together to make sure Ugandan children can start life with healthy beginnings and hopeful futures.

The writer is the Ambassador of Belgium