On January 20, 2021, CICODEV hosted a delegation composed of Mr. Matabara DIOP, Head of the Regional Service of the UHC, Mrs. Ndèye Sokhna Guèye CISSE, Regional Director of Community Development and Equity Promotion and Mr. Moustapha MBENGUE, President of the Regional Union of Health Mutuals of Dakar. One by one, they praised the partnership with CICODEV, an organization they consider to be an important player that has made a significant contribution towards Universal Health Coverage through its strategy of introducing Endogenous Health Financing Mechanisms to the communal mutual health organizations that authorities have chosen as the mechanism through which people should enroll in the Universal Health Coverage program.
At the end of the meeting, they were handed the microphone to present their opinions and feedback.
MATABARA DIOP, Head of the Regional Department of Universal Health Coverage.
“An effective partnership to be preserved, flexible and proactive, not only financially but also technically.”
“We came here today for two main purposes. The first is to congratulate CICODEV for having agreed to accompany us during the implementation of the activities aimed at creating a link between community development and the UHC Agency in order to promote group membership and technical and financial support under the best possible conditions. We also came to ask CICODEV to continue to support us in the same manner, but also in effectively implementing the activities selected during these workshops, with the aim of going to the communal level, sensitizing organized groups and organizing group membership in mutual health organizations in the various departments of Dakar.
A partnership to be maintained
“The partnership with CICODEV is an effective partnership to maintain, one that is flexible and proactive, not only financially but also technically. During the preparatory phase of the activities, CICODEV assisted our teams in identifying the target and with the technical aspects of preparation, in terms of content. CICODEV has effectively contributed to these workshops by providing inputs, sharing successful experiences at the national level and in other regions, thus equipping the organized groups with sufficient information to facilitate the creation of an innovation adapted to their capacities and needs to join and contribute to the mutual health organizations in Dakar.
We want CICODEV to continue to support us in the next steps so that we can generalize these activities in the Dakar region.”
MOUSTAPHA MBENGUE, President of the Regional Union of Community Mutual Health Organizations in Dakar
“CICODEV understood very early on that it is through support, guidance and supervision that mutual organizations can move forward and achieve the objectives set by the agency.”
“We came to thank CICODEV, who supported our efforts in the workshop on linking and harmonizing interventions at the departmental level of the Departmental Directorate of Community Development and mutual health organizations for the membership of community-based organizations (CBOs). This workshop, which took place in December of 2020, made it possible to regroup all the organizations in the Dakar region. Thanks to CICODEV’s technical and financial support, we were able to spend two days per department and make considerable progress on women’s groups and Village Savings and Credit Association (AVEC) networks. Two months later, we are reaping the benefits.
A winning partnership
The workshop aimed to sensitize women’s groups and networks of women’s organizations on UHC; the mechanisms and modalities of enrolling in mutual health organizations, as well as to share the UHC parameters and to develop a policy for group membership. We have had a large number of these groups join and in Yoff alone, 2,300 women are being enrolled in mutual health organizations. This is also the case in Ouakam, Ngor, Parcelles Assainies and Grand Yoff. Thanks to CICODEV, such technical and financial support has made it possible to do 2 days per department instead of the 1 day that was initially planned.
This group membership policy, which is different from the family membership we used to have, has allowed us to have even greater opportunities and to adapt to the Endogenous Health Financing Mechanisms. We found that although the women were already organized, healthcare was not accounted for. Along with CICODEV, we sensitized them and many of them are now coming to us. We are in the process of exchanging and this promises interesting perspectives for the social protection of these vulnerable groups but also the development of mutual health organizations. This is why we are here, to thank CICODEV, who understood very early on that it is through support, guidance and supervision that mutual health organizations can advance and achieve the objectives set by the agency. Community-based health insurance has become indispensable and an instrument in the fight against poverty in that it guarantees people’s incomes.
Mutualists solicit CICODEV’s expertise
We also wanted to advocate with CICODEV to support the Departmental Unions of Mutual Health Organizations of Dakar in obtaining their own strategic plan, their own development plan. This plan can even be synthesized at the regional level in order to have a regional development program. This is important for us because it will allow us to synchronize the intervention of our partners, but also to capitalize and direct our efforts towards the development of mutual health organizations.”
MADAME NDEYE SOKHNA GUEYE CISSE, Regional Director of Community Development and Equity Promotion of Dakar
“We are counting on CICODEV’s support to reach as many organizations as possible and facilitate their membership in mutual health organizations.”
“We have come to thank CICODEV and also to express our gratitude for supporting the activities of the Regional Service of the UHC with the decentralized services of Community Development.
CICODEV helped organize workshops in the four departments of Dakar. In these workshops, the majority of women’s organizations were present and it was an opportunity for the UHC to present its service offerings in the presence of the mutual health organizations as well.
We’re counting on CICODEV’s support to continue these activities because we stopped at the departmental level but we plan to continue towards the lower levels, the communal level down to the neighborhood level to reach the maximum number of organizations and facilitate their membership into mutual health organizations.”