Enablers and barriers to multisectoral collaboration for health and SDG implementation in Uganda: a qualitative study among national-level stakeholders
4 affiliations
- 1Department of Global Public Health, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden
- 2Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Health, Stockholm, Sweden
- 3Department of Disease Control and Environmental Health, School of Public Health, Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda
- 4School of Public Health, Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda
Abstract
Introduction With 5 years remaining to the 2030 deadline, many low-income countries remain off track to achieve the sustainable development goals (SDGs), raising questions about their feasibility and contextual fit. In Uganda, progress is uneven and constrained by persistent health and development challenges and weak multisectoral collaboration. Understanding stakeholder views of the SDGs and multisectoral action is important for strengthening implementation in resource-constrained settings. This study explores stakeholder perspectives on the SDGs and multisectoral collaboration for health in Uganda, including perceived systemic enablers and barriers to implementation.Methods We conducted semi-structured qualitative interviews with 29 purposively selected health and non-health stakeholders who had participated in a national SDG Synergies workshop. Interviews were conducted in English between December 2021 and March 2022, audio-recorded, transcribed and analysed thematically using an inductive approach.Results Three themes emerged: (1) perceptions and contextual fit of the SDGs, combining optimism about their value as a development roadmap with concerns that they are overly ambitious and insufficiently localised; (2) health and cross-SDG determinants, positioning health as central to development while highlighting inequities linked to poverty, education, and weak sectoral integration; and (3) systemic enablers and constraints, where political commitment, policy alignment and emerging collaboration contrasted with fragmentation, siloed planning, donor-dependent financing, weak accountability and underused data.Conclusions Participants viewed the SDGs as a useful roadmap and accountability tool but insufficiently aligned with Uganda’s implementation realities. Strengthening implementation requires institutionalised coordination and shared accountability, decentralised and locally owned action, diversified domestic resource mobilisation and integrated monitoring and evidence-use mechanisms to translate national commitment into measurable local progress.
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BibTeX
@article{hellden2026enablers,
title = {{Enablers and barriers to multisectoral collaboration for health and SDG implementation in Uganda: a qualitative study among national-level stakeholders}},
author = {Daniel Helldén and Tobias Alfvén and Rawlance Ndejjo and Rhoda K Wanyenze and Irene Wanyana and Nina Viberg},
journal = {BMJ Public Health},
year = {2026},
month = nov,
doi = {10.1136/bmjph-2025-004870},
url = {https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjph-2025-004870},
note = {CC BY},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Enablers and barriers to multisectoral collaboration for health and SDG implementation in Uganda: a qualitative study among national-level stakeholders
AU - Daniel Helldén
AU - Tobias Alfvén
AU - Rawlance Ndejjo
AU - Rhoda K Wanyenze
AU - Irene Wanyana
AU - Nina Viberg
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/11/14
JO - BMJ Public Health
DO - 10.1136/bmjph-2025-004870
UR - https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjph-2025-004870
AB - Introduction With 5 years remaining to the 2030 deadline, many low-income countries remain off track to achieve the sustainable development goals (SDGs), raising questions about their feasibility and contextual fit. In Uganda, progress is uneven and constrained by persistent health and development challenges and weak multisectoral collaboration. Understanding stakeholder views of the SDGs and multisectoral action is important for strengthening implementation in resource-constrained settings. This study explores stakeholder perspectives on the SDGs and multisectoral collaboration for health in Uganda, including perceived systemic enablers and barriers to implementation.Methods We conducted semi-structured qualitative interviews with 29 purposively selected health and non-health stakeholders who had participated in a national SDG Synergies workshop. Interviews were conducted in English between December 2021 and March 2022, audio-recorded, transcribed and analysed thematically using an inductive approach.Results Three themes emerged: (1) perceptions and contextual fit of the SDGs, combining optimism about their value as a development roadmap with concerns that they are overly ambitious and insufficiently localised; (2) health and cross-SDG determinants, positioning health as central to development while highlighting inequities linked to poverty, education, and weak sectoral integration; and (3) systemic enablers and constraints, where political commitment, policy alignment and emerging collaboration contrasted with fragmentation, siloed planning, donor-dependent financing, weak accountability and underused data.Conclusions Participants viewed the SDGs as a useful roadmap and accountability tool but insufficiently aligned with Uganda’s implementation realities. Strengthening implementation requires institutionalised coordination and shared accountability, decentralised and locally owned action, diversified domestic resource mobilisation and integrated monitoring and evidence-use mechanisms to translate national commitment into measurable local progress.
SN - 2753-4294
ER -