ISA HELD THE FIRST MEETING OF THE AFRICAN FRANCOPHONE CSOs ON HEALTH FINANCING IN MARGIN OF THE AFRICAN UNION CONFERENCE IN NIAMEY
On July 2, 2019, in Niamey, Niger, Impact Santé Afrique (ISA) organized a strategic meeting of Francophone African CSOs to advocate for increased health domestic resources . This was the first francophone African CSOs meeting on health financing in margin of the African Union Summit and its objective was to directly engage African Heads of State on the mobilization of national health funding and specifically, their contribution to the Lyon conference, for a more effective response to Malaria, HIV/AIDS & Tuberculosis.
This meeting concluded with the Civil Society Niamey Declaration requesting Africa’s contribution to the next Global Fund Replenishment Conference and an increase in the funds allocated to health, signed by 40 Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) from 15 Francophone African countries (Benin, Ivory Coast, Guinea Bissau, Guinea, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Cameroon, Togo, Congo, Chad, Rwanda, Gabon, Mali, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Niger), the Global Civil Society Network for Malaria Elimination (CS4ME), the African branch of the Global Fund’s Advocacy Network (GFAN Africa).
The meeting was also attended by the Minister of Public Health of Niger, His Excellency Dr. Idi Illiassou, in the presence of representatives of : the African Union, WHO, UNAIDS, Secretariat of the Global Fund to fight HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, the Alliance of African Presidents for Malaria Control (ALMA), USAID/PMI, Multisectoral Coordinating Committee (CCM) of Niger, the Network of Niger Parliamentarians for the fight against MALARIA, TB & HIV/AIDS, the National Malaria Control Programmes (NMCP), Tuberculosis (NMCP) and HIV/AIDS (NMCP), the regional platform DES-ICI and the regional representation of the RBM Partnership in West and Central Africa.
The statement was shared publicly by CSOs at a press conference at the end of the day. The media in Africa subsequently relayed it on a larger scale.
The CSOs then led a campaign to disseminate the declaration to national leaders at the AU Summit, the Pan-African Summit of High-Level Parliamentarians on Financing AIDS and Health in Congo, the meeting with the Prime Minister of Burkina Faso, the meeting with the President’s Advisor on Health of the DRC, the meeting of parliamentarians in Cameroon, and so on.
The Declaration of the Civil Society of Francophone Africa on the mobilization of national health resource mobilization is available on the website of the Civil Society Global Network for Malaria Elimination (CS4ME), co-founded by Impact Santé Afrique, by clicking HERE.
