THE ORGANISATION of Trade Unions of West Africa (OTUWA revealed Thursday that it has built partnerships with trade unions in West Africa, Africa and globally for improved healthcare provisioning in the sub-region.
The Executive Secretary of OTUWA, Comrade John Odah, made the revelation at the opening session of the 24th Plenary of the West African Health Sector Unions Network (WAHSUN) held at Denis Hotel, Abuja.
Odah said OTUWA had, in partnership with American Solidarity Center, launched a campaign with the slogan “Healthcare is a Human Right”.
He said in the campaign, which included a number of sub-regional and national level programmes, OTUWA carried out advocacy for improvement of healthcare delivery in terms of infrastructure, accessibility and affordability for the people of the subregion and promotion of the rights of health workers, especially in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.
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Odah said: “For us as OTUWA, working in partnership with the Solidarity Center of the AFL-CIO, we had just before the outbreak of Covid-19 launched a campaign with the slogan “Healthcare is a Human Right”.
“We did a number of sub-regional and national level programmes calling for improvement of healthcare delivery in terms of infrastructure, accessibility and affordability for the people of the subregion and promotion of the rights of health workers, especially in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We did two successive surveys on “the impact of COVID-19 on Health workers in six West African Countries” in October 2020 and “Accessibility of Healthcare for workers in the informal sector in six West African States” in June 2021 respectively.
“The outcome of both studies revealed serious gaps in terms of healthcare delivery in the countries where these-studies were carried out.”
Odah also noted that using the reports of the studies, OTUWA carried out a campaign for improved budgetary allocation for the health sector across the West African sub-region.
“Using these reports of the studies we embarked on a campaign across the subregion calling for increased budgetary allocation for Health to enhance healthcare delivery for all including workers in the informal sector.
“In the third phase of the activities, the OTUWA campaign was expanded to include the West Africa Health Sector Union Network, Public Service International (PSI) as well as health unions in the six participating countries.
“This time the campaign sought to address the issues of poor funding of the health sector, poor healthcare infrastructure and medical equipment, shortage of medical personnel, inequality in wages and insufficient social protection coverage for health workers,” Odah stated.
According to him, the campaign which is in its fourth year, has moved beyond West African sub-regional trade union circle to involving civil society organisations as well as pan-African and global actors.
Odah stated: “We are currently in the 4th phase of the project in which we have strived to add among the list of partners civil society organizations working in the area of health. We have in the 4th year of the campaign also sought to do training on how democracy can best serve the cause of the people of the subregion in delivering on the promise of improved healthcare provisions.
“We cherish the partnership with the WAHSUN and our wish is to consolidate the relationship. In our work with ECOWAS and its agency, the West Africa Health Organization (WAHO), we obviously need the expertise of our unions in the health sector across the subregion.
“We are also involved at a pan-African and global level with Comrades like Kwasi Adu Amankwah, Baba Aye and the new ITUC-Africa General Secretary, Joel Odigie in an initiative called the Global African Workers Institute (GAWI). It’s an organization with trade unionists of African Heritage across the Americas, Europe, the Caribbean, Asia and other parts of the globe seeking to promote the interest of workers of African descent around the globe.
“One of its standing committees is the health committee in which Baba Aye sits on. Our hope is that the WAHSUN leadership will in due course explore participating in this initiative.”
