Dr. Churchill Tophill Bacwa
Board Chairman
Throughout my academic journey, I have been able to accumulate qualifications in the following areas (Cert Education 1993, Cert PPM 1997, Dip Educ 1999, BED 2002, MPH 2014 and a PhD (Public Health) in 2018.
Dr. Churchill Tophill Bacwa is an innovative thinker who has provided an avenue for innovation and research, to elevate nascent approaches proven to offer solutions to major global health challenges in different settings. He has instituted a think tank to feed into the policy arena and to create space for critical analysis of differentiated approaches appreciating that operational environments greatly influence the results pathway and health outcomes at all levels.
Dr. Bacwa is highly experienced strategic planner developer with a proven record to attract and mobilize resources. He has stakeholder management skills, policy development skills and the ability to translate policies into standard operating procedure (SOPs) and guidelines for implementation.
He builds winning teams through mentoring and coaching as well as promoting shared success principles. He has strong action planning skills that break down goals and objectives into time bound activities /actions with time responsibilities. He has experience from diverse areas and international exposure that is a great asset to the ministry.
He is a results-driven Public Health specialist with 18 years of experience and has a background in education which provides him a unique edge from other professionals in the field of Public Health. He has provided leadership in developing, implementing, and managing diverse, public health projects in population health, Nutrition, Agriculture, Gender equality and girl child education in the rural setting, Resource mobilization, healthcare systems strengthening, reproductive health, healthcare disparities, and healthcare financing in developed and under-resourced countries.
Dr. Churchill Tophill Bacwa is an innovative thinker who has provided an avenue for innovation and research, to elevate nascent approaches proven to offer solutions to major global health challenges in different settings. He has instituted a think tank to feed into the policy arena and to create space for critical analysis of differentiated approaches appreciating that operational environments greatly influence the results pathway and health outcomes at all levels.
Dr. Bacwa is highly experienced strategic planner developer with a proven record to attract and mobilize resources. He has stakeholder management skills, policy development skills and the ability to translate policies into standard operating procedure (SOPs) and guidelines for implementation.
He builds winning teams through mentoring and coaching as well as promoting shared success principles. He has strong action planning skills that break down goals and objectives into time bound activities /actions with time responsibilities. He has experience from diverse areas and international exposure that is a great asset to the ministry.
He is a results-driven Public Health specialist with 18 years of experience and has a background in education which provides him a unique edge from other professionals in the field of Public Health. He has provided leadership in developing, implementing, and managing diverse, public health projects in population health, Nutrition, Agriculture, Gender equality and girl child education in the rural setting, Resource mobilization, healthcare systems strengthening, reproductive health, healthcare disparities, and healthcare financing in developed and under-resourced countries.
- He has accelerated the process of the signing of the master agreement between Tree Global and the government of the Democratic Republic of Congo, the first of its kind in the global carbon markets to restore eight million hectares of degraded forests with the initial private sector financing commitment of up to USD 700 million. The partnership represents the first significant private sector carbon finance investment dedicated to the restoration of degraded ecosystem at scale.
- He has developed projects to accelerate ecosystem restoration and agricultural productivity in East Africa;
- He has established and facilitated relationships with key decision makers in host countries;
- He has facilitated discussions and information flow between Tree Global and the key decision makers
- He has advised on project design to ensure “win-win” outcomes between all stakeholders involved in the project, including farmers and communities
- He has assisted the key stakeholders and Tree Global to reach terms of agreement to enable project launch quickly and efficiently.
- He has provided strategic leadership ensuring organizational buy-in, commitment from members, external influence and oversight of the chief executive officer
- He has maintained MCIs integrity, focus to its mission, vision and strategic focus.
- He plans the Board’s annual schedule of meetings and agendas, in consultation with the Lead Director and Corporate Secretary and other directors as appropriate
- He coordinates with the Lead Director and the Corporate Secretary to ensure that the Board receives the appropriate quantity and quality of information in a timely manner to enable it to make informed decisions
- He chairs all meetings of the Board and ensure that meetings are conducted efficiently and effectively
- He calls special meetings, if necessary
- He facilitates full and candid Board discussions, ensure all directors express their views on key Board matters and assist the Board in achieving a consensus
- He has developed teamwork and a cohesive Board culture and facilitate formal and informal communication with and among directors
- He has helped to ensure that action items established by the Board are tracked and appropriate follow-up action is taken as necessary
- He has made recommendations to the Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee as to Committee membership and Committee Chairs, for approval by the Board
- He provided technical and strategic direction to both UNCCI members and internal teams on product functionality, design, and systems.
- He consistently updated members on emerging technologies and market trends and linked UNCCI and its members to business opportunities
- He conducted various technical trainings for secretariat staff, members of UNCCI and the board on system strengthening, access to funding for small business.
- He provided leadership to program managers and the institutions in shaping annual portfolio for day to day activities and linking up with donor support through proposal writing and constant engagement.
- He drove revenue growth through establishing relationships and presenting products and solutions to UNCCI members in the business sector across the country.
- He formulated and kept the UNCCI data management system updated: this is now the overall process of collection, entry, storage, quality assurance, analysis and reporting system that is used for information on planning and management.
- He designed and delivered gender awareness creation of trainings among the business community including orientation high level meetings.
He participated actively participated in UN related high level meetings.
He advocated for the voice of the neglected surgical patient at the UN seeking to build greater political priority for surgical, obstetric, trauma and anesthesia care.
He mobilized support for neglected surgical patients around the world to access and influence the global surgical space by engaging and building relationships with international organizations, governments, government representatives, private sector leaders and other key stakeholders in the global health community.
He participated in the monthly, quarterly and Annual UN meetings and other strategic planning sessions to contribute helping the UNs impact on improving global health care programs.
He participated in developing methods and systems that ensure core competencies are part of relevant health care curricula in the UN by promoting timely referral and effective utilization of the health care work force through task sharing.
He developed project proposals for resource mobilization for sufficient funding of AAID health programs.
He represented AAID in global health programs in Geneva UN Offices and Vienna UN Offices to support member states in devising strategies that enhance the skills of the health workforce.
He participated in foster multi-sectoral networks, partnerships, multidisciplinary policies and action plans for the UN to support member states in development of and implementation of policies and regulations.
He provided overall leadership to staff in the development and implementation of short and long-term plans, policies and activities.
He led the financial management of the organization including development and implementation of annual budgets assisted by the Finance Director.
He developed and monitored the accomplishment of annual work plans of the organization and preparation of annual reports.
He was responsible for recruiting and sustaining local, national and international partnerships and linkages with affiliate organizations.
He fundraised resources through grant proposals and liaised with partner agencies on fundraising and growing income to ensure organization sustainability.
He ensured consistent accountability to the Board of Directors through up-to-date information, reports and meetings.
He steered policy development through evidence-based dialogue and analysis.
He provided oversight for overall administration and operation of the organization including; custody of organization assets and resources, reviewing and evaluating results of the programmes and ensuring contractual obligations are fulfilled.
He developed country performance and impact profiles (PIP), for each Global Fund recipient country which feed into resource allocation decisions for the current cycle of the new funding model.
He reviewed and analysed epidemiological trends for the national disease programs based on published WHO and UNAIDS datasets.
He assessed country specific disease prevalence, incidence and mortality trends along with trends in coverage of programmatic interventions and financing.
He assessed data limitations and provided practical recommendations for investments in data systems that would generate the required information.
He consulted with the Tanzania Red Cross Society (TRCS) and wrote an awarded project proposal on long lasting insecticide treated nets (LLIN) hang up campaign. This was part of the national submission for Global fund new funding model application. The project is worth 4.5 million Dollars supported by Ministry of Health Tanzania under the Global Fund grant. It is currently being implemented in the Republic of Tanzania and Island of Zanzibar.
He developed the Tanzania Red Cross Society Monitoring and Evaluation plan.
He conducted an end of project evaluation for the Malaria USAID funded program implemented by Tanzania Red Cross Society on Long Lasting Insecticide Treated Nets (LLIN) Hang up Campaign Project in the Republic of Tanzania and Island of Zanzibar, June 2009-July 2013.
He developed a Maternal, neonatal and child health programme that will be implemented in Uganda’s rural areas for reduced maternal and child mortality contingent upon funding.
He designed a Nutrition programme for communities mainly focused on health promotion and disease control for African Health Development.
He developed an education programme targeting the rural poor in Uganda to increase access to quality education for improved literacy levels.
He led the Programmes division and spearheaded the development of the 5 Years Strategic plan which was then cascaded into district plans over the 56 districts in the country.
He secured USD 250,000 from the Netherlands based NGO TRIAS and USD 50,000 from the Agency for cooperation and Research in Development (ACORD) for the implementation of the HIV/AIDS program in all the 56 districts. This reflected a 50% increase in funding for the 2010-2011 fiscal year.
He developed the HIV/AIDS training Manuals, Home Based Care Program for People living with HIV for the farmers, and behavioral change communication tools for HIV/AIDS strategies for the district farmers organizations.
He developed successful marketing strategies and linkages with key relevant stakeholders that saw an increase in access to fair markets for farmers’ products in all the 56 districts.
He coordinated progress tracking through the grant management team and published the quarterly organizational progress magazine distributed to a wide range of stakeholders.
He developed a live, first of its kind, Database Management System for the farmers in Uganda which still enables the organization and indeed the government to date, to store biographic data for all farmers including enterprise and business, district, sub-county, parish, telephone number and language of correspondence for the first time.
He built capacity for the implementation of the weather index insurance policy for all the farmers in Uganda.
- He provided oversight of the Monitoring and Evaluation function of the organization in all the 56Districts in the country.
- He participated in national level impact assessment and program evaluation efforts.
- He ensured requisite M&E capacity at all levels through needs assessments, training and supportive supervision of the organizations implementing the HIV/AIDS program.He developed in consultation with UNIFFE partners and stakeholders the organization M&E plan; Oversaw the operationalization of the M&E plan including the development and dissemination of standard data collection toolsHe developed and rolled out an Access-based M&E database for storage and processing information; Built the necessary capacity for M&E for all implementing entities within the districts countrywide including routine monitoring visits for mentorship, data quality and feedback; Ensured adequate data collection, timely reporting and report processing for accountability to donors and national stakeholders including Government.
He managed the HIV/AIDS program implementation in the then 56 district farmers associations and provided overall management of the Global Fund activities in the organization.
He conducted sensitization seminars raising awareness on the HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria prevention, care and treatment.
He supported the district farmers association in report writing, submitting of monthly and quarterly accountabilities to the donors as well as development of monitoring and evaluation tools.
He organized and facilitated training workshops.
He reviewed the budgets and work plans of the district farmer’s organization ensuring that they meet the global fund criteria.
He facilitated grants management policy and procedures among the district farmer’s organizations who were beneficiaries of the global fund money.
He facilitated and coordinated the implementation process according to the organization goals.
He ensured that all districts implement HIVAIDS programs according to the policy guidelines e.g. financial policy, human resources policy and procurement policy.
He ensured that the monthly reports would be submitted to the National organization on time thus making the flow of information easy.
He set up performance appraisal for farmers at district level.
He ensured that financial accountabilities were submitted on time.
He set up advocacy tools using the media and community leaders for information dissemination on the three diseases TB, HIV/AIDS and Malaria prevention and treatment.
He reviewed and recommended over 400 sound HIV/AIDS proposals by community-based implementing organizations under the CHAI program. Provided programmatic technical assistance for the implementation of funded programs in the 11 CHAI program districts.
He spear-headed the Behavioral Change Communication approaches in mitigating the HIV/AIDs programs in the communities’ country wide.
He conducted pre-implementation on-sight capacity assessments for the successful organizations and developed customized capacity building programs.
He trained community leaders to implement CHAI programs using the Behavioral Change Communication strategy implementation.
He developed the behavioral change communication training materials for community leaders on HIV/AIDs prevention measures and control.
He worked with the implementing programs to develop and link the M&E component of grants to the overall CHAI – UACP M&E frame work;
He worked closely with UACP partners to operationalize the M&E plans for their district strategic plans.
He conducted quarterly monitoring and mentorship visits to the implementing organizations, contributed to the quarterly and annual reporting.
He coordinated the overall Red Cross program in Kamwenge, Kasese, Kabarole and Bundibugyo districts in Uganda that were under heavy insurgency due to the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) rebels’ activities.
He processed over 3000 families that were displaced due to the insurgency into refugee ‘scamps.
He provided logistical and material support to refugees in collaboration with the World Food Program.
He designed a successful education curriculum for primary school that was implemented in the refugee camp with schools, over 12,000 children enrolled.
He promoted Health educational programs and child care protection in the camps.
He developed simple monitoring and evaluation tools for tracking and recording the distribution of the materials supplied.
He ensured timely financial accountability.
He effectively performed the overall administration and management of three primary level schools in Western Uganda in succession over a period of 8 years. This placed over 14,000students under my responsibility during this period.
He guaranteed excellent performance of all my students which was evidenced by a consistent track record of full class first grade primary leaving finalists each year.
He collaboratively developed the primary level education curriculum under the Ministry of Education.
He ensured a high level of discipline for the students through life skills education programs
He implemented a successful parent- teacher association.
He implemented a performance-based appraisal system for staff including staff development.
He developed school policies and procedures and ensured implementation.
While serving as a consultant for various institutions, Dr. Bacwa delivered key results as follows
- As a consultant, Jan-April 2003, He designed training manuals on Home based Care and HIV/AIDS at work Places, Private Sector Foundation Uganda
- HIV/AIDS at the workplace; training manual and resources;
- Built capacity for home-based care; a manual for the trainer.
- As a consultant, August-September 2004, Proposal writing for Agro- Based Enterprises for local and faith-based Organizations, Uganda National Farmers’ Federation UNFFE
- Finalized the HIV/AIDS program proposal;
- Developed the pre-implementation training curriculum for farmers in the 56 districts;
- Facilitated the training at district and sub district level.
- Trainer, Dec, 2007, Training of District Leaders in HIV/AIDS Mainstreaming, Uganda AIDS Commission
- Developed the internal HIV/AIDS mainstreaming- workplace policy. This addresses approaches to handle issues of prevention, care, treatment and support as well as stigma and discrimination at the work place.
- Conducted the HIV/AIDS risk and vulnerability assessment which advised the development of the appropriate program response and approaches to external mainstreaming into the 56 district plans, programs and budgets.
While serving as a Researcher for various institutions, Dr. Bacwa delivered key results as follows
- He developed a research proposal focusing on improving nutritional status on communities through food fortification with a focus on Busoga region.
- He assessed, shifted the paradigm in early childhood development “Lessons from the Nutrition and Early Child Development project (NECDP) in Uganda 1998-2005”.
- He undertook assessment of the influence of social culture determinants on dietary practices and nutritional insufficiencies among children under five and women of child bearing age from Mbarara district, Western Region(On going).
- He assessed the quality of nutrition Services and pregnant women in Ntungamo District, Western Uganda 2016-2017
- He carried out an assessment of Health Services to improve Nutritional Management for Children and Pregnant Women, a case Study of Ntungamo District 2015.
- He conducted research on the, Characterization of patients enrolled on antiretroviral therapy who exhibit poor adherence through missing ARV doses, a case of the AIDS Support Organization (TASO) 2013-2014.
- He was a Lead consultant: End of project evaluation of Uganda Network on Law, Ethics and HIV/AIDS Civil Society Fund Capacity building project (March 2009- June 2009).
- He was a Team leader: HIV/AIDS Capacity Needs Assessment for AMICAAL Uganda Program in Nakawa Division, Kampala District, Mbarara and Mbale Municipalities June 2008- December 2008.
- He was researcher: Mid-term evaluation Mid Term evaluation of the OVC Program supported by Australian AID Nairobi under Christian Children Fund (CCF) February 2007 – April 2007.
- He was a researcher: Catholic Relief services; Evaluation of the OVC program supported by Catholic Relief Services, June 2007 – September 2007.
- He was a Research Associate: Evaluation of the Malaria project in Nakasongola District: Baseline
- He worked on a survey by AMREF to determine the capacity of Primary Schools to implement Malaria control and prevention practices. October 2007 – November 2007.
- He worked as a researcher: The effects of Universal Primary Education (UPE) on the Administration of Primary Schools, 2002.
- He served as a Team member: Lot Quality Assurance and Supervision for monitoring and evaluation of Community Program (LQAS) Survey of the World Bank Funded Project, July 2004.