Uganda National Association of Community and Occupational Health ( UNACOH)

Context

Uganda National Association of Community and Occupational Health (UNACOH) was formed in 1987. It brings together health professionals and any other individuals and organisations interested or active in the improvement of health in Uganda. It was registered as a Non-Governmental Organisation in 1991. UNACOH enjoys a membership of about 1,000 persons from all over the country but by October 2005 had 21 established District Branches: Bugiri, Iganga, Jinja, Kabarole, Kampala, Bundibugyo, Kasese, Kayunga, Kyenjojo, Masaka, Masindi, Mayuge, Mbale, Mbarara, Mpigi, Mukono, Pallisa, Rakai, Rukungiri, Sembabule, Wakiso. UNACOH is involved in following:

• Conducting health research 
  
• Organising public health lectures and scientific conferences 
  
• Project planning and implementation 
  
• Health policy advocacy 
  
• Organise health consultative meetings
  

Website:
www.unacoh.org

Area of Work:
Africa

Contact Person:
Dr.D.K.Sekimpi

Approaches to implementing community monitoring/ accountability

As one of our core values, the organisation has three accountants who have got different sectors to handle for transparency of the various project resources.

Lesson & Results

• Tobacco control 
  
• Alcohol control 
  
• Safer use of pesticides by farmers 
  
• Trained Village Health Teams among others. 
  

Lesson learnt is mainly that once you start where people are, involve them in all stages of the project i.e. planning to implementation, monitoring and evaluation, it is always a success. Another lesson was that behaviour change takes time.