Our Vision
A premier Centre of excellence in conducting multidisciplinary policy relevant research and research training
Our Mission
To generate high quality population-based information for better health and policy formulation in Uganda and beyond”.
The Makerere University Centre for Health and Population Research (MUCHAP) has continued to strengthen its role as a leading institution in population health research, particularly through its work at the Iganga-Mayuge Health and Demographic Surveillance Site (IMHDSS). Monitoring over 101,000 individuals across 65 villages, MUCHAP has completed the 23rd census update and conducted ground-breaking research, including studies on neonatal mortality, mental health, and climate change. These initiatives underscore MUCHAP's commitment to generating actionable insights for public health interventions and policy.
Despite significant achievements, the Centre faces challenges that include gaps in resource mobilization, stakeholder engagement, governance, operational capacity, and technological adoption. Resource constraints limit the expansion of key research areas like mental health and climate change. Stakeholder engagement requires scaling to enhance knowledge co-creation and policy translation, while operational limitations affect efficiency and scalability.
MUCHAP's strategic priorities moving forward include addressing these gaps through infrastructure investments, expanding research in emerging health areas, integrating digital solutions for data management, and fostering robust community engagement. The Centre also plans to broaden its funding base by establishing partnerships with local and international stakeholders to ensure sustainability. By addressing these challenges and leveraging its existing strengths, MUCHAP is well-positioned to continue its trajectory as a Centre of Excellence, delivering impactful research and advancing health outcomes across Uganda and beyond.
Our Background
In 2005, the Makerere University longitudinal cohort research platform conducted her baseline census capturing demographic events and special epidemiologic investigations. The Iganga Mayuge HDSS as is commonly known is a largely rural community-based epidemiological research and research training. Community members call us DASASA. In 2015, the University administration approved the formation of Makerere University Center for Health and Population Research (MUCHAP) – a semi-autonomous organ of Makerere University to manage all the operations of this population cohort.
This has tremendously eased doing research by reducing on the usually long processes like recruitment, procurement and other regulatory approvals. The goal is to provide longitudinal population-based social, economic and health data through monitoring important health indicators and population changes that facilitates evidence-based decision-making locally, nationally, and internationally.
The key objective is to register and monitor health and demographic events (births, deaths, migration) in a population and serve as a resource of information for decision making, providing an environment for several community-based projects in single/multi-disciplinary research & research training.
Specific objectives are;
- to provide unique, essential, household level information individually tailored for policy, planning and research needs;
- to provide a platform for training in applied field research and practical health, agro-social economic and demographic survey methods to students, staff and researchers;
- to provide a platform for high quality household survey data for operational field trials that measures interventions including but not limited to, monitoring trends in communicable and non-communicable diseases, clinical and vaccine trials and other surveillance activities.
The 23rd update round of census data collection was conducted between May and September 2023. It updated the longitudinal demographic events of births, deaths, migrations and pregnancies. This was followed by the periodic collection of household socioeconomic status data in June-July 2024. Multiple research projects have been implemented, including new and on-going studies, trainings, and workshops. Community-engagement activities are conducted, and several collaborators and learners have visited the research site in Iganga to learn and share.
The Iganga Mayuge demographic surveillance area covers 65 villages distributed in Iganga and Mayuge districts in Eastern Uganda. It covers a population of about 101,449 individuals, resident in 17,500 households. It is located in Eastern Uganda; about 120 kilometers east of Kampala the capital city Kampala along the Uganda–Kenya highway. The population has an average household size of 5 individuals and it is predominantly rural with subsistence agriculture as the main occupation. Sex distribution is almost equal with 51% Female. The population is largely young with more than 60% of it below 15 years.
