Introduction: Developing countries including Uganda continue to experience high
mortality among children less than five years of age due to preventable causes. It is
known that up to 90% of these deaths could be prevented through meticulous
implementation of low cost affordable interventions such as breastfeeding, however
poor implementation of these interventions have hampered their effectiveness at
reducing child mortality. In Uganda exclusive breastfeeding (EBF) rate currently stands
at 62%; which falls short of the 90% rate estimated as needed for maximal impact on
reducing child mortality.
Northern Uganda ; a region recovering from several years of armed conflict which
destroyed health infrastructure, requires intensified efforts to promote EBF to curb the
high child mortality which has even been found to be higher than the national average.
This study was therefore initiated to identify appropriate strategies that can be used to
promote EBF in rural northern Uganda in order to help reduce the high child mortality.
Methods: This study used secondary data to explore strategies that can be applied to
the context of northern Uganda to promote EBF by drawing on research and programs
conducted in other parts of Uganda and other developing countries. Main sources of
data used included specialised databases such as Popline, Global health, Cochrane
library and PubMed , Websites of targeted organisations specifically WHO, UNICEF
and WABA as well as Google scholar search engine. Other sources were documents
from Uganda MOH, University of Leeds library books and the author’s experiences,
where it was deemed appropriate. A conceptual framework for problem analysis and a
tool for appraising strategies was used.