BUJUMBURA, July 3rd (ABP) – The Ministry of National Solidarity, Social Affairs, Human Rights, and Gender, in collaboration with the National Confederation of Community Health Insurance Schemes in Burundi (CONAMUS), organized an exchange meeting last week for media officials as part of the implementation of the national social protection policy and in line with Burundi’s vision of becoming an emerging country by 2040 and a developed country by 2060.
Véronique Barindongo, Assistant to the Minister in charge of National Solidarity, emphasized that health is a fundamental right for every human being. She recalled that this right to health is enshrined in numerous international human rights instruments, including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the WHO Constitution, and the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights. As part of improving access to healthcare, Barindogo recalled that the Burundian government has undertaken several important measures in recent years. These include the creation of the Civil Service Mutual Insurance Fund in 1980, which manages the basic health and maternity insurance scheme for public sector employees and those with similar status; the provision of free healthcare for children under five and pregnant women; and the introduction of the Health Insurance Card to cover healthcare for vulnerable groups. There is also the approval and monitoring of social health protection mechanisms such as community health mutual insurance funds, structured private sector mutual insurance funds, and micro health insurance; and the implementation of programs to support vulnerable households and the elderly.
However, she lamented that despite all the efforts made by the government in collaboration with its partners, a culture of foresight has not yet developed among the people of Burundi. To that end, she requested the active involvement of media leaders to support efforts to raise awareness among citizens, particularly on the importance of massively adhering to healthcare access mechanisms.
For his part, CONAMUS chairman Déo Claude Nshimirimana stated that the confederation aims to provide the people of Burundi with access to quality healthcare in an equitable, efficient, and sustainable manner. It was born from the Burundian mutual fund movement’s desire to establish a national facility made up of federations of community health mutual funds, present throughout the country.
Although health mutual funds offer many advantages, their coverage rate remains low, Nshimirimana added. He emphasized that many challenges remain to ensuring universal health coverage in Burundi, including the weak, yet undeveloped, culture of foresight among Burundians, a lack of awareness of the benefits offered by health risk pooling, overlapping mechanisms, membership in community health mutual funds, which remains voluntary, and weak regulation of drug prices.