ESSENTIEL sees joining the ESN as a militant act based on the values and concerns that we share with the ESN, such as the importance of raising awareness about social protection, the autonomy and responsibility borne by partners in their action, based on the expression of their needs, priorities and means of implementation. It is also a strategic act: becoming part of a network to increase our efficiency, exchanging and benefitting from each others’ experiences.And it means being able to contribute with others to the development of policies for access to health for all. The mutual society based approach makes it possible to move towards this goal while respecting the autonomy of all concerned, in both the North and the South.
From Pierre-Yves TREHIN, President of ESSENTIEL
ESSENTIEL is a1901-law French association, created in 1992 (under the name Nantes-Guinée), on the initiative of the central works council of the Loire Atlantique and Ville de Nantes mutual insurance societies. Our aim is to strive for a more just and solidarity-based world in which everyone can enjoy good health and maintain their own well-being and that of their families thanks to access to health and safety measures and quality health care. 
The association aims through its activities to:
- Support « health » projects that benefit the population, particularly the most vulnerable
- Promote an approach whereby a network of different agents work together on health issues within a given territory
- Develop operational partnerships in the countries in which it takes action
- Strengthen and support local agents in order to promote the local management of health projects.
The principal areas of action are:
- Organising a solidarity-based system and insurance mechanisms to facilitate access to health care
- Risk prevention and the promotion of health
- Activities to provide health care for the benefit of users.
ESSENTIEL’s mission is to promote the population’s access to good health from the perspective of a comprehensive vision of health, remaining faithful to the founding values that brought its members together (individual members and legal entities such as the CHU of Nantes, the city of Nantes, Harmonie Mutuelle, the works council of Harmonie Soins et Service.) These values are, principally:
- Solidarity and democracy, the foundations of the mutual society movement
- Respect for the autonomy of each and every person, and their responsibility
- Reciprocity and balance among partners.
In Guinea for example, for many years ESSENTIEL has supported partners to help them develop access to universal health cover. Its action is firmly based on the dynamics of the local communities that ESSENTIAL supports. It entails the creation of mutual health insurance societies and the development of networks. Faced with a generalised absence of social protection, ESSENTIEL’s action aims not only to improve health through the development of social protection by means of mutual societies but also through support to agents in civil society to give them more weight and strengthen their role in the definition of public health and social protection policies.
ESSENTIEL sees joining the ESN as a militant act based on the values and concerns that we share with the ESN, such as the importance of raising awareness about social protection, the autonomy and responsibility borne by partners in their action, based on the expression of their needs, priorities and means of implementation.
It is also a strategic act: becoming part of a network to increase our efficiency, exchanging and benefitting from each others’ experiences.
And it means being able to contribute with others to the development of policies for access to health for all. The mutual society based approach makes it possible to move towards this goal while respecting the autonomy of all concerned, in both the North and the South. »
Pierre-Yves TREHIN, President of ESSENTIEL
