Project profile — Rwera Kintu Village Health Project

• Uganda (100.00%)

• Basic drinking water supply:
Basic drinking water supply (14031) (40.00%)
Basic sanitation (14032) (40.00%)
• Agriculture: Food crop production (31161) (20.00%)

• Gender equality (significant objective)
• Environmental sustainability (cross-cutting) (not targeted)
• Participatory development and good governance (significant objective)
• Trade development (not targeted)
• Biodiversity (not targeted)
• Climate change mitigation (not targeted)
• Climate Change Adaptation (not targeted)
• Urban issues (not targeted)
• Desertification (not targeted)
• Children's issues (significant objective)
• Youth Issues (significant objective)
• Indigenous Issues (significant objective)
• Disability (not targeted)
• ICT as a tool for development (significant objective)

This project aims to improve health and food security by providing access to potable water and training in health and agriculture. Key activities include creating an efficient rural water supply system that provides sufficient potable water for 15,360 beneficiaries in 14 poor rural settlements of Bugamba and Ndeija sub-counties in the Rwera-Kintu area of Mbarare District, Uganda. The project installs a model of rural water supply (gravity-flow supply system - GFS) which has been used successfully throughout the southwestern region. The GFS carries fresh potable water from productive hillside springs to strategically placed tap-stands located in the settlements. In addition, community development initiatives are conducted in health and sanitation, youth and community sensitization on HIV/AIDS issues and prevention, and environmental conservation practices. The project also convenes and trains groups of marginalized women (widows) and their children in collective decision-making towards the acquisition of land and inputs for household food production, providing skills transfer in production, nutrition, use of fuel-efficient stoves, and health and sanitation. The African Community Technical Service’s local partners are the Diocese of South Ankole, the Church of Uganda, Ruharo Mission Hospital, Healthy Child Uganda, the District Authority of Mbarara, the District Authority of Ntungamo, the National Water and Sewage Authority, and the Ugandan Ministries of Health and the Environment.

The expected intermediate outcomes for this project include: (1) increased access of clean water and local management of water sources by local communities ; (2) improved health for 31,200 villagers located in Mbarara and Ntungamo districts in South-Western Uganda; (3) increased use of Fuel-Efficient Stoves and other environmentally-friendly, agricultural best practices; (4) Improved food security for 360 land-poor widows with children by providing access to land through the creation of 30 informal agricultural cooperatives (i.e. “Mutual Benefit Societies”) as well as training in agricultural best practices and income generation activities.

Results achieved as of the end of the project (September 30, 2016) include: (1) construction of three Gravity Flow Supply-Systems (GFS), which draw water from pure, protected, hillside springs. The three GFS have given improved access to clean water to a total of 21,881 rural villagers, in 33 villages (exceeding the target for beneficiaries by 30% for number of villagers and by 21% for number of villages). The GFS also provided access to clean water to three health facilities and nine schools in the targeted villages; (2) 31,200 villagers located in 80 villages received training in Maternal, Newborn and Child Health (MNCH), health education, agriculture, agro-forestry and environmental protection; (3) 1,027 (599 female, 428 male) individuals in 263 villages were trained as members of 200 Village Health Teams (VHT) to educate their communities regarding health, nutrition and sanitation; (4) there has been an 18.6% reduction in the incidence of waterborne and other preventable diseases in the targeted villages; (5) 73% of the population (an increase of 33% from the baseline) is able to afford two meals per day and 57%of the population (57%) have the nutritional knowledge and resources to have a balanced composition of meals; (6) there has been a 30% increase in the number of children under five reaching or exceeding their target height-to-weight ratios; and (7) there has been a 10% decrease in the rates of HIV/AIDS. These results have contributed to improved health and food security in the project communities of Mbarare District in Uganda.

• Proactive disclosure