Under a newly bilateral partnership, Uganda is expected to receive $1.7 billion, as announced in December 2025, as part of the America First Global Health Strategy. This is the first of its kind and is a notable shift in the Foreign Aid Strategy USA as the US decides to stop working with international multilateral organizations and directly with governments, as Uganda is expected to take a bigger share of the financial burden of the health costs and take the lead on the health-related issues in the country. After Rwanda and Kenya, Uganda is the 3rd country from Africa to sign this partnership.
Uganda – The most noteworthy recipient of U.S. funding
Out of all three countries, Uganda is the most noteworthy in terms of the health diplomacy that the USA is trying to undertake.
Ambitious commitments
- The most ambitious part of this entire commitment is the overall health, focusing on the following criteria:
- Infectious diseases: HIV/Aids, TB, Malaria, and Polio Outbreaks
- Maternal and infant mortality
- Workforce and epidemiology: Surveillance, digitization, and the Health System overall, which is digitized, like an e-Health record.
The US aim in directly funding Uganda is to strengthen the national health systems and infrastructure. In turn, the USA expects Uganda to meet the health systems for tier 1 countries.
Ensuring Uganda’s financial sustainability in the long-term
The objectives of this model have been to ensure the country’s financial, long-term sustainability, transfer the country’s health programs to self-dependence over time, and address the model’s core objectives of sustainability.
The provision of aid has been implemented more quickly, as some have noted a reduction in the aid ministry’s diplomatic staff and the USAID office closures.
Uganda’s funding will focus on:
- Strengthening health systems: The distribution of these funds provides Uganda with the unique opportunity to strengthen essential health system components – surveillance of diseases, health workforce, data management, and logistics, across all health institutes in the country.
- Transferring foreign funded systems: The primary challenge is the alien foreign-funded systems and the external personnel integrated into the locally managed systems, and adapting to the increased domestic program finance and control.
- Privacy of data governance: From Foreign Data and the Privacy of Data, the cross-border Data Privacy and Protection is of great concern, as it is in similar arrangements in the case of Kenya, where the courts prohibited the dissemination of Medical and Epidemiological Data in a case.
- Geopolitical socioeconomic implications: Uganda must also factor in the possible consequences of the deepened U.S. co-operation, in view of the increased attention from the Western Powers on partnerships dealing with Data Governance or Geo-Political Alignment.
What does the U.S. gain from the health funding?
Uganda’s agreement is part of a continental rollout of the US Health funding, following agreements with Kenya and Rwanda. Under this US system, the countries are supposed to co-fund, strengthen government systems, and account for progress on health self-reliance.
The funding is meant to flow through US goods and services, securing US industrial exports and influence. This high-stakes Agreement has the potential to be of great significance in shaping Uganda’s Health Ecosystem.
With USD 1.7 billion from the US and USD 500 million from Uganda, it opens the door to Health Services with stronger Health Surveillance, better Outbreak Response, and Access to Treatment of a Priority Disease. Achievement hinges on determining the equilibrium point of foreign investment and national ownership having strong data protection protocols, merging aid-based staff, and having control and protection of any foreign-funded technologies permanently placed within Ugandan borders. If successful, this U.S.–Uganda partnership would not only provide potential immediate health improvements but would also set the stage for the first truly sustainable, bilateral aid relationship on the continent.
