Edito

Access to healthcare, a right to be defended

In the 1820s, Belgian workers established the first forms of mutual health insurance. Together, they organised themselves to provide financial support to their injured or sick colleagues and prevent their families from falling into poverty. Gradually, the state began to support this organised solidarity. But it was a long struggle. It was not until 1945 that health insurance was made compulsory for all Belgians, making the mutualist system truly viable.

This brief history reminds us that access to healthcare is a right that has been hard won in Belgium. Today, this right remains inaccessible to the vast majority of Africans (around 80%). There are health insurance systems, often linked to a profession or intended for civil servants in the formal sector. But for those who depend on the informal sector, such as farmers, saleswomen, craftswomen, etc., there is nothing.

Nothing. It means exorbitant healthcare costs, debt to pay bills, no support in the event of catastrophic medical expenses, leading families into extreme poverty and a fragile healthcare system due to lack of funding.

Solidarity is therefore organised, among other things, around community health mutuals, to which members contribute in order to access quality healthcare, thereby reducing the risk of debt in the event of illness. These mutuals are based on participatory management and risk pooling.

Every day, our teams, mutual insurance companies and their unions work tirelessly to keep this system alive, with the aim of expanding it and providing protection for the entire population. For 20 years, the Mutualités Libres have been working alongside us, putting their expertise at the service of this cause.

It is not just a matter of making healthcare affordable; together with our partners, we also work on prevention by informing communities about diseases and how to protect themselves against them.

The fight for access to healthcare is a long one, but it is absolutely essential. After all, how can we improve our living conditions if a simple illness can destroy everything? Education, sustainable agriculture and food, entrepreneurship... Without health, our other battles lose their meaning.

Brice Titipo,
Head of Access to Healthcare Programme
& Health Promotion in West Africa

Edito

2016 will be a pivotal year for Louvain Coopération

2016 will be a pivotal year in many respects. We are celebrating 10 years of a solid partnership with the National Union of Free Mutual Societies, focusing on mutual health insurance in Benin and Togo. Every year, the collaboration grows stronger. The exchange of expertise is increasing. All this is taking place in a context where social protection and universal health coverage are high on the African political agenda. Beyond municipalities and districts, the issue is national. The MASMUT programme, which brings together the various Belgian mutual unions and their NGO partners, supports this advocacy. Different models are in competition with each other. The mutual health insurance scheme is the only one that distributes responsibilities between the state, healthcare providers and patients in a functional and democratic manner.

But 2016 is also a year of reflection and decision-making with a view to our next strategic plan and our 2017-2021 programme. A detailed assessment of our past actions has prompted us to further broaden our understanding of the social and cultural mechanisms at work everywhere. What codes govern the choices of micro-entrepreneurs, their reluctance to join a cooperative or mutual society, their diet, their concept of well-being? Our teams and partners, with the transdisciplinary support of UCL, will devote their energy to these analyses, which will inform our projects and actions. Finally, 2016 also brings new projects and new areas of intervention. More to follow in the next issue!

Félix Vanderstricht

Edito

Supporting a robust economic fabric

Louvain Coopération is constantly seeking to diversify and innovate in its methods of action.

The Belgian and European public subsidies we work with, while necessary and effective, are not the only means of action we must mobilise to fulfil our mission.

Our partners in the agricultural and rural world, cooperatives and farmers' organisations, challenge us on our ability to support them in their entrepreneurial development, beyond agroecological production techniques.

Processing and marketing units for their products would enable them to add value to their production while retaining control. However, this type of entrepreneurial project faces financing difficulties: excluded from subsidies, too risky for local banks or microfinance institutions, too small for social investors in Western countries.

The Kampani investment fund, of which Louvain Coopération is a founding member, offers financial tools tailored to the development of such initiatives.

The technical and strategic support provided by our programmes, coupled with Kampani's investment capabilities and requirements for the creation of agricultural SMEs, enables us to support a solid economic fabric that serves small farmers and combats global warming.

Félix Vanderstricht

Edito

Taking action to improve women's health

When a woman is about to give birth, can you imagine her loved ones having to go around the neighbourhood to collect money to pay for the caesarean section that will save her and her child? No? Yet this is still a reality in many parts of the world. Every day, around 830 women die as a result of pregnancy or childbirth. And 99% of all maternal deaths occur in low-income countries. These figures are totally unacceptable, given that most of these deaths are due to complications that could be prevented or treated.

For several years now, there has been a growing awareness of this issue: improving maternal health is the fifth Sustainable Development Goal pursued by the United Nations. Over the past 20 years, there has been a decline in maternal mortality worldwide, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, but this decline has been far too slow and has been weakened in recent years by the Covid-19 pandemic.

The deaths of young mothers are not just a medical problem: they are also a social and political issue. Financial access to healthcare is central to maternal health, and mutual health organisations have a key role to play in bringing about change. While social protection is a given in Belgium, this is much less the case in Benin, Togo and Burundi, where Louvain Coopération works tirelessly to be part of the change. By contributing each month, young mothers who are members of mutual health organisations ensure comprehensive medical care during and after their pregnancy. But women's health is obviously not limited to pregnancy. Breast and cervical cancer are currently wreaking havoc in Africa, as are non-communicable diseases such as diabetes.

Discover in this Devlop’ the actions we are taking to improve women's health.

Brice Titipo
Programme Manager
Access to Healthcare & Health Promotion
in West Africa