Project Description

The ICOBI Community Health Plan for ALL is a community health strengthening project
targeting households with individuals in organized groups of people already involved in
financial saving activities like Savings and Credit Cooperatives (SACCOs), Village Savings
and Lending Associations (VSLAs), Saving and Internal Lending Community (SILC groups)
and other informal Micro Finance Institutions (MFIs). The overall goal is to contribute to the
increased access and affordability of health care services of up to 1,200 households (families –
with up to 4,000 potential beneficiaries) in rural and semi‐urban communities of Sheema,
Rukungiri, Jinja and Wakiso Districts respectively through strengthening of community savings
groups with promotion and provision of community health insurance (CHI). It is designed to
increase household savings for health by reaching specifically individuals that save through
economic empowerment groups described above, and other organized but informal groups
existing in the communities like burial groups etc. Working with at least 10 such organized
financial groups per district, ICOBI will advocate for and assist the group members secure up to
30% of their regular savings for health. Technical capacity and systems will be built to
facilitate pooling of these health savings (financial resources) to allow for sharing of health risks
and medical liabilities at low premiums, thereby reducing catastrophic health expenses and
improved access to quality affordable healthcare close to most community members. By the
end of the project year, we anticipate that at least 4,000 individuals in Sheema, Rukungiri,
Jinja and Wakiso Districts respectively will have increased access to and utilization of
affordable health services (curative and preventive with coverage from at least 10 established
community health insurance schemes) making them healthier, more productive hence
prosperous in all dimensions of human development.