Ugandan woman speaking on a panel

USAID/Uganda Maternal Child Health and Nutrition (MCHN) Activity

Project dates: 2020-2025

Client type: U.S. Government

Key topics: Health, Learning and Capacity Strengthening, Technical Assistance

Related Country(ies): Uganda

Region: Sub-Saharan Africa


EnCompass is working with FHI 360 and Ugandan government partners as a partner on the USAID Uganda Maternal Child Health and Nutrition (MCHN) Activity. The MCHN Activity’s purpose is to strengthen government performance in implementing strategies to improve maternal, newborn, and child health and nutrition outcomes in Uganda. The focus is on facilitating government-led leadership and enhancing the sustainability of Uganda’s multisectoral coordination efforts, while applying a holistic approach to accelerating gains in outcomes for maternal health, child health, and nutrition.

EnCompass’ team members have completed an in-depth gender, youth, and social inclusion analysis to identify gaps, opportunities, and practices in access to and use of maternal and child health and nutrition services by marginalized and underserved populations—women and girls, youth, individuals with disabilities, low-income groups, certain ethnic and religious groups, and orphans and vulnerable children. The analysis looks at key gender, youth, and inclusive development opportunities and constraints to address within the MCHN Activity’s portfolio and recommends how the Activity can achieve greater inclusive development in the implementation of existing strategies to improve maternal and child health and nutrition outcomes.

The COVID-19 pandemic took center stage as this activity was starting up. EnCompass’ team members pivoted rapidly, along with their colleagues, to support the government and NGO community in responding to the crisis. On the gender and social inclusion side, this included supporting the development health-related information, guidelines for the health and education ministries, and materials for adolescents and youth, as well as awareness-raising efforts related to gender-based violence prevention and response and access to health services during COVID-19-related lockdowns. On the leadership and governance side, this meant shifting co-creation workshops with key stakeholders to inform the Leadership at All Levels Program to a fully virtual setting.

Between August and October 2020, the EnCompass team will deliver several co-creation workshops with key MCHN stakeholders from the public and private sectors. These workshops will inform the development of key competencies for the Leadership at All Levels Program, which will be rolled out in the second year of the project year. This program will empower participants to apply leadership and governance skills to strengthen MCHN linkages and outcomes.

Photo: Launch of the Ugandan National Action Plan for Health Security by U.S. Mission Uganda, licensed under CC BY 2.0.

Courtney Carr

Written by

Communications Specialist

Courtney Carr is EnCompass’ Communications Specialist, supporting the internal and external messaging and communications initiatives. She brings her knowledge and skills in writing, social media, video production, event planning and television news and radio production to the position. Before joining EnCompass, Ms. Carr worked at Community Science as a business development coordinator. She received her BA in Broadcast Journalism at Pennsylvania State University and holds a MA in Strategic Communication from American University.

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