Fourteen education unions in Burkina Faso took part in a technical workshop in Ouagadougou to prepare for the launch of the national mutual society for education professionals. The goal of the meetings was to move forward on several key points, including the healthcare basket offered by the future society and the management of its activities. The meetings were led by the Education and Solidarity Network and benefited from the participation of the Support Programme for Health Mutualist Strategies (PASS), the Ivorian company SIGEM, the Burkinabé customs mutual MAADO and the Federation for Professional Mutuals of Burkina.
Given the progress of discussions, the project’s partners reiterated their desire for the mutual society to be launched before the end of 2018. An initial pilot scheme will be launched in Ouagadougou but the mutual society is intended to cover the whole territory in order to improve access to healthcare for all education professionals in Burkina Faso. Poorer quality of life and the development of physical or mental health problems among teachers may lead to reduced personal resources and therefore have an impact on the quality of teaching. It should be remembered that teachers’ health and well-being is a highly significant factor for pupils’ educational attainment.
Outside the workshop, meetings with several institutions were arranged, including a meeting with the Ministry for Education and Literacy, which gave its full backing to the project. A meeting with the director of the CNAMU, the national health insurance fund, offered an opportunity to observe the complementary nature of the mutual society project with the measures taken as part of the national health insurance scheme to extend coverage among the people of Burkina Faso.
