Overview

The Health Initiatives in the Private Sector (HIPS) project, a three-year project funded by USAID, works with the Ugandan business community to ensure access to vital health services for company employees, their dependents and the surrounding community. Led by Emerging Markets Group (EMG), the project provides technical assistance to design and implement comprehensive workplace health programs that maximize accessibility to HIV/AIDS, TB and malaria prevention and treatment services. The project also imparts reproductive health and family planning (RH/FP) knowledge. CCP provides technical expertise, partnership brokering and a small grants program to facilitate expanded and improved service delivery, especially to underserved populations and those living in the conflict zones of northern Uganda.

Accomplishments

• The HIPS “Good Life at Work ”Communication Strategy, developed in collaboration with the AFFORD Health Marketing Initiative, promotes simple steps one can do every day to keep healthy and save some money, thus improving the quality of life for employees, their dependants, and community members through daily health practices and decisions. The strategy adopts a highly targeted approach to health messaging by segmenting the audience into direct employees, casual laborers, and outgrowers, and emphasizing the communication channels most relevant to each.
• Training and certifying company employees as HIPS Peer Educators provides an opportunity for co-workers to learn about health issues from someone they know and trust, builds the health education capacity of the company, and serves to boost company morale. HIPS’ peer education trainings make health topics exciting through games and friendly competition. The PE training curriculum’s flexible design allows trainings to be organized in order to meet companies’ scheduling needs.
• HIPS “Good Life at Work” health fairs offer a comprehensive and interactive way to inform community members about health issues; demonstrate products; answer questions and clarify misconceptions; and practice needed skills through the use of individual tents devoted to specific health areas.
• HIPS has successfully built the capacity of the Federation of Uganda Employers (FUE) and the Uganda Manufacturers Association (UMA). A mid-year management review demonstrated that both FUE and UMA have increased their skills and knowledge in health workplace program development, are on track with their workplans, and are generating income from their health workplace services.