IJHSR

International Journal of Health Sciences and Research

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Review Article

Year: 2019 | Month: April | Volume: 9 | Issue: 4 | Pages: 242-249

Challenges in the Implementation and Enforcement of Environmental Health and Public Health Law by Environmental Health Workers in Uganda: A Systematic Review

Ilukor Geresom

School of Hygiene-Mbale, Ministry of Education and Sports, P.O Box 221, Mbale, Uganda

ABSTRACT

Introduction: Environmental health and Public health law is critical for the promotion, preservation and protection of Public health in general in Uganda and all countries of the world. A number of challenges act as bottlenecks to the implementation and the enforcement of Environmental health and Public health law in Uganda.
Objectives: This review sought assess key features and sources, institutional enforcement mechanisms and challenges of environmental health and public health law in Uganda,
Materials and Methods: A systematic review of literature was conducted on empirical studies and legal documents on the key law features and sources, institutional enforcement mechanisms, and the contextual challenges affecting the implementation of environmental health and public health law in Uganda. Eligible studies were identified through searches of seven health and social sciences databases, websites of relevant organisations, the British Library database, and manual searches of academic journals. Relevant findings were extracted using a uniform data extraction tool and synthesized by narrative review.
Results: Findings showed that the sources of environmental health and Public health law were majorly Principal laws, subsidiary laws and international agreements, and the key challenges encountered in the enforcement were poor institutional framework; outdated laws; inadequate legal technical expertise; inadequate institutional support and interference by political actors.
Recommendations: The author recommends that government and other stakeholders should implement programmes for capacity building; review of outdated laws; formulation of regulations, and legal and policy surveillance.

Key words: Challenges; implementation, enforcement, environmental health, public health law; Environmental health workers, systematic review, Uganda

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