Introduction: Calls for a renewed focus on HIV prevention in Uganda and beyond are rife because the epidemic is out of control and the current response appears not to be well aligned to the populations most at risk. One factor explaining this is the inadequacy of the current approach to resource allocation. The aim of this study was to determine the contextual issues affecting priority-setting for HIV/AIDS in Uganda; develop a means of evaluating good priority-setting for the Uganda; and develop a pragmatic approach to priority-setting that will improve HIV resource allocation in the future.

Methods: The study was conducted in four phases. The first phase identified local stakeholders, contextual issues, decision-makers objectives that the framework should address and the criteria that the priority-setting framework should be cognizant of. The second phase included the development of a checklist of weighted criteria from the findings above for assessing existing frameworks for suitability for adoption or adaptation for the Ugandan context. The third phase was used to assess selected frameworks using the checklist and the fourth phase will test the framework in a pilot study. Throughout this process, primary data was audio-taped and recorded in a journal, transcribed in English and imported into Nvivo 8 for analysis. Grounded theory was used to analyse the data alongside the collection of data in order to generate themes and concepts that arise from the studies. A weighted summation model was used to weight the criteria and score the frameworks.