In 2020, Uganda began the process of developing a national self-care guideline for sexual and reproductive health and rights. The guideline was based on the World Health Organization (WHO)’s guideline on self-care, released in June 2019 and revised in 2022.

Uganda’s process to develop and test this guideline, led by the Ministry of Health, an expert panel, and a national consultant from Samasha Medical Foundation, was effective in creating a policy tailored to the Ugandan context. The innovative approach also included pilot testing the draft guideline at the subnational level to inform revisions before national launch and scale-up.

Under USAID’s PROPEL Health project, PRB partnered with Samasha Medical Foundation to create a how-to guide based on this work. “Localizing WHO Guidelines on Self-Care: A Practical Guide From Uganda” documents Uganda’s approach and illuminates a five-phase guideline development process that may be helpful for other countries looking to nationalize the WHO guideline. For each phase, the guide shares the purpose and objectives, Uganda’s experience, lessons learned, and suggested activities and tools.