Stakeholder engagement and resilience of health and sanitation projects in Uganda: insights from a qualitative study

Purpose This study aims to explore how stakeholder engagement enhances the resilience of health and sanitation projects in Uganda. It examines how inclusive participation, transparency and communication, trust and collaboration and stakeholder commitment and support contribute to project resilience. Design/methodology/approach Data were collected through semi-structured interviews with 21 purposively selected participants from health and sanitation projects in the central region of Uganda. Data were analysed thematically using NVivo 14. Findings Results reveal that stakeholder engagement is a key driver of project resilience. Inclusive participation and transparency foster adaptability; shared decision-making and collaboration strengthen shock absorption capacity; while communication, trust and commitment create redundancy by pooling diverse resources and expertise. Together, these processes build a social infrastructure that enables projects to withstand, recover from and adapt to disruptions in resource-constrained environments. Practical implications The findings highlight the need for policymakers, development partners and project managers to institutionalise participatory mechanisms, transparent communication channels and cross-sector partnerships in project design and implementation. Embedding stakeholder engagement as a resilience-building strategy can improve continuity and sustainability of health and sanitation services across Uganda. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first empirical study in Uganda to explicitly link stakeholder engagement with project resilience in the health and sanitation domain. By integrating stakeholder and resilience theories, it advances a novel framework that conceptualises engagement as both a relational and structural mechanism for enhancing adaptability, continuity and redundancy in development projects.