Interview with David Mutekanga, GARP-Uganda Principal Investigator

Molly Miller-Petrie: Can you tell us a bit about the Uganda National Academy of Sciences?

David Mutekanga: The Uganda National Academy of Sciences (UNAS) is the secretariat for GARP-Uganda, where the working group is a standing committee. Like science academies around the world, UNAS is a membership academy, and we now have 62 fellows. We organize committees on specific topics to provide evidence-based advice to the government and society on pressing issues. UNAS was founded in 2000 and expanded rapidly when the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) began providing support and capacity building in 2005 through the Africa Science Academy Development Initiative (ASADI) project, organized by the US National Academies Institute of Medicine.

MMP: What are some of the key projects UNAS has worked on and is currently engaged in?

DM: One of UNAS’ flagship projects was an analysis of the national immunization program, which was failing. Coverage rates of routine childhood vaccines had fallen from over 80 percent to 52 percent, with frequent stock outs. UNAS recommendations were implemented and vaccination rates have risen to over 96 percent. We are also currently involved with issues related to malaria vaccine introduction, HIV/AIDS, biotechnology and climate change.

UNAS hosted the 10^th Annual Meeting of African Science Academies in November 2014, where we launched Mindset Shifts for Ownership of our Continent’s Development Agenda, a UNAS report to set the scene for developments beyond 2015. The report has ignited a series of activities across Africa led by African Science Academies on how African governments should own and lead on new Sustainable Development Goals to succeed the Millennium Development Goals. UNAS is also creating a Private Public Partnership Program in this regard.

UNAS is also the secretariat for GARP-Uganda, where the working group is a standing committee. It’s an ideal project for UNAS:  the goal is to understand the science and explain it to the policy makers, then connect with all sectors to where we have a collaborative and ongoing strategy. This is a long-term commitment.  Antibiotic resistance is going to be an issue for decades to come, and UNAS will be there. We’ve got a very capable coordinator in James Lakony, who runs the project day-to-day. Prior to joining us, James worked with the National Tuberculosis Reference Laboratory in Kampala on the national roll-out of GeneXpert Rif diagnostics and with Medicins sans Frontieres.

We started in early 2014, with a dynamic and diverse working group. Something new for GARP, as I understand it, is that we hired a consultant to prepare the situation analysis and that has turned out very well.  The working group reviewed the draft and met to discuss it.  In fairly short order, it will be finalized and officially launched this spring. We have already started to meet with collaborators toward developing a national strategy to address antibiotic access and resistance.

MMP: Have you involved the Ministry of Health in GARP discussions?

DM:  UNAS has good ongoing relations with the Ministry, so introducing GARP has not been difficult. In fact, a GARP-Uganda delegation, led by myself and the working group chair, Professor Denis Byarugaba, recently met with Prof. Anthony Mbonye, the Director of Clinical and Community Services in the Ministry of Health, to discuss GARP and the country’s antibiotic resistance situation.

The director told us that the timing is really great for GARP. The Ministry of Health recognizes that antibiotic resistance is an important issue that has not yet been unwrapped, and here we are unwrapping it. The Ministry knows that resistance is an important and serious issue but they don’t have information on it. When we told them we had already completed the situation analysis, that we were planning to design a national strategy for antibiotic resistance, they were excited. The Ministry has told us this is something they want to support, that it should have been done years ago. It’s very exciting.

MMP: What role do you see UNAS and GARP playing in fostering regional collaboration on antibiotic resistance?

DM: Our borders are porous on all sides. The problem of resistance is not just ours, and regional cooperation will be critical. A strategy put in place in Uganda will not be effective if our neighbors do not do the same. East Africa must work together on this issue.

GARP-Uganda plans to launch our situation analysis and immediately begin work on a national strategy through the working group, collaborating with all stakeholders. We are also looking forward to convening neighboring countries in East Africa to create a regional antibiotic resistance strategy in the next phase of GARP.

Find out more: The work of GARP-Uganda was recently featured in The Observer and on WBS-TV.