Jane Ruth Aceng (born 11 May 1968) is a Ugandan pediatrician and politician. She is the Minister of Health in the Cabinet of Uganda. She was appointed to that position on 6 June 2016. Before that, from June 2011 until June 2016, she served as the Director General of Medical Services in the Ugandan Ministry of Health.
Aceng was born on 11 May 1968 in Atapara village, Oyam District. She attended Shimoni Demonstration Primary Schoo<nowiki/>l in Kampala, Uganda's capital city. She studied at Nabisunsa Girls Secondary School for both her Ordinary and Advanced Level education. She holds a Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery, a Master of Medicine in Pediatrics, and a Master of Public Health, all from the Makerere University College of Health Sciences. She also holds a Diploma in Health Systems Management awarded by the Galilee International Management Institute, in Israel.
Aceng spent her early childhood days in Lira (formally Lira City) living with her parents and two siblings in a small hut and she joined Amberland Primary School with around five years of age.She went upto primary three but since the father was a teacher, he got transfered to Kampala and Aceng completed her primary in Shimoni Demonstration School where her father enrolled her and other siblings in.Aceng's first choice was St.Katherine secondary school but her father denied her the chance and sent her to Nabisunsa Girlsâ School where she spent six years.
After sitting her exams, Aceng was the only girl who qualified for medical course at Makerere University after release of examinations.
Aceng met Ocero Andrew as classmates after joining Makerere University in 1987. Their relationship grew up and resulted into an intimate one after two years of campus (1989).And after completing their degree in 1993, they decided to marry each other.
After graduation, Aceng was posted together with her husband (by then), Ocero Andrew to Lacor Hospital for internship and they completed that in 1994 after a short time transfer to Mulago National Referral Hospital. Aceng and her soulmate denied initial posting to Kiryandongo Hospital but asked for transfer to Lira where she started everything from. And it was from Lira that Aceng received a warm welcome and by then Lira Referral had significantly low workers but since Aceng and her promising husband were young and energetic, they tried to filled up the gap and people of the land nicknamed them as "Otin"(meaning young) doctors.
Aceng began serving as a medical officer in the health ministry. At the time she was appointed Director General of Medical Services, she was serving as executive director of Lira Regional Referral Hospital.
In July 2020, Dr Jane Ruth Aceng declared her intentions to contest for the position of Women Representative for Lira District, in the 11th Parliament (2021 - 2026). She intends to run on the ruling National Resistance Movement political party ticket.
Aceng is a member of the board of directors of the Infectious Diseases Institute. She also served as a member of the board of Uganda National Medical Stores, the pharmaceutical procurement and distribution arm of the health ministry, from 2005 until 2016.
As early as 2014, three variables in the national health system began to converge to the level of a crisis.
As a consequence, the ministry of health has been pitted against the SHOs who are not compensated at all and the interns who are poorly and irregularly paid. In an attempt to conserve funds, Aceng as minister has accused some universities of graduating too many substandard doctors, although both the Uganda Medical and Dental Practitioners Council (UMDPC) and the East African Community Medical and Dental Practitioners Boards and Councils disagree with her. These are the statutory government agencies in the East African Community which are mandated to maintain the standard of medical and dental training and physician and dentist competency.
As of 2016, perhaps the most controversial of Aceng's proposals is the new requirement that interns take a new national examination, before the health ministry can assign them an internship slot. This has not gone well with the 2016/2017 intern class, prompting a lawsuit that is winding through the legal system.
Aceng has participated and published widely in the field of medicine and some of her works are outlined below;