Article 5.3 implementation in Uganda and the challenge of whole-of-government accountability

Uganda’s Tobacco Control Act 2015 includes comprehensive coverage of international guidelines for Article 5.3 of the WHO FCTC, but significant implementation challenges persist. This paper demonstrates the intrinsic challenges of developing whole-of-government approaches, highlighting considerable uncertainty and ambiguity among decision makers in Uganda about tobacco control governance and points to the potential for the national coordinating mechanism to help reconcile competing expectations and demonstrate the importance of Article 5.3 beyond health actors.