There is a shortage and maldistribution of medically trained health professionals. These are important reasons why cost-effective MCH services are not available to over half the population of Uganda and progress towards the Millennium Development Goals for MCH is slow. Optimising the roles of less specialised health workers (?task shifting?) is one strategy to address the shortage and maldistribution of more specialised health professionals. However, the lack of an explicit policy limits the implementation and coordination of task shifting.