For too many families in Uganda, every month is a struggle to survive. There may be just enough money today to put food on the table and clothe the children, but if something goes wrong—an unexpected illness, the loss of a job, a natural disaster—then a family can suddenly find itself unable to cope. One of USAID’s main goals in Uganda is to promote resilience. That means improving a household’s ability to withstand, mitigate, and recover from unexpected shocks.

Identifying opportunities to improve global health requires innovation and creative thinking. In developing countries like Uganda, the COVID-19 pandemic is impacting the already-strained health system. Access to primary health care remains difficult for many people, and quality of care is inconsistent, with limited drugs, supplies and human resources. The referral system is weak and patients often delay seeking necessary secondary or tertiary care due to the high costs involved. Additionally, evidence-based management of logistics is not consistently followed and facility-based quality improvement initiatives, while they exist, have not been institutionalized uniformly.