AIM organised on 22-23 January 2019 in Lomé its international conference “Investing on Mutuals for the XXIst century”. The conference gathered more than 200 African and European mutualists. The purpose of the conference was to send a strong message regarding what is needed to expand social protection in Africa.
The program of the conference consisted during the first day in high-level discussion on key themes for mutuals to contribute to the success of universal health coverage and social protection policies (commitment to rely on mutual benefit societies to develop universal health coverage, compulsory membership, delegation of management), in order to bring the voice of the mutualists to the political decision-makers.
The second day culminated in the discussion and in the adoption of the Lomé Platform. The Platform is the result of a consultation process conducted by the mutualist movement. The Lomé Platform contains three calls.
- In terms of political calls, the Platform ask for the reinforcement and the implementation of regulations that guarantee the institutional, technical, financial and functional sustainability of mutuals.
- The Platform also calls for the implementation of compulsory affiliation to universal healthcare coverage for the whole of the population.
- Lastly, it recommends that the organisation of universal healthcare coverage is trusted to mutuals by way of management delegation.
The Platforms addresses in this context international, regional and national players and entrusts them with the task of conducting and implementing these calls. It also falls upon the mutualist movement to monitor the advancement towards the fulfilment of these goals.
You can find the report on the conference here (in French).
This article was originally written and published by the Association Internationale de la Mutualité.
