The Uganda Ministry of Health (MOH) recently held a Midterm Review of the 2005–2010 Health Sector Strategic Plan to discuss progress and address unmet goals.

Voices from the Capacity Project

Meshack Ndolo has a story to tell about an important aspect of Kenya’s national response to HIV. This is a story about the successful process of working within the government—in an innovative way—to achieve significant results.

First, a look back. It’s 1989, and Meshack Ndolo of Kisumu is worried. He’s working at the Ministry of Health while teaching at Kenya Medical Training College, and he sees the increasing spread of HIV. Since the country’s first case was reported in 1984, more and more Kenyans have been dying. But Ndolo finds that only a handful of people seem to know the basic facts and how to protect themselves. Around that time, “I developed an interest in information on HIV/AIDS.”

Throughout the 1990s, HIV prevalence rose at alarming rates. In 2000, the Kenyan government established the National AIDS Control Council (NACC) to coordinate the multisectoral response. But while many government agencies and partners were working hard to address what had become a pandemic, there remained serious gaps and unmet needs.