From 1 to 3 June 2016, the ESN took part in the International Association of Mutual Benefit Societies General Assembly in The Hague, The Netherlands. On the programme: regional commissions from Africa, the Middle East, Europe and Latin America, as well as a specific talk on preventive health.
Exchanges took place between health mutuals from the Democratic Republic of Congo and Burkina Faso. A meeting with a customs mutual from Burkina Faso (MAADO) provided additional contextual details about AMU (Action for a Unified World) and the organisation of the mutualist movement in the country, as well as the possibility of pursuing an experience exchange which could potentially be useful for our project, given that MAADO was created in 2015 and is facing the same issues as the educators’ mutual.
In addition, a meeting with Colombian mutualists was an opportunity to review the ESN/AMA project in Colombia. A law was passed in May 2016 which provides a legal and financial framework for solidarity education and the social and solidarity economy.
(*) The International Association of Mutual Benefit Societies, founded in 1950, brings together 44 autonomous health insurance and social protection organisms from 32 countries. They share a belief in access to healthcare based on solidarity and reject any selection in terms of the adherent’s state of health*. The key French member organisations are the National Federation for French Mutual Societies (FNMF) and the Agricultural Social Mutual Society (MSA). AIM members provide social cover for more than 155 million people in total, whether by participating in the management of obligatory health insurance or by offering voluntary cover.
