The meeting of experts to overhaul Niger’s free healthcare system was held today, Thursday, October 17, 2019, as planned. The experts come from Lasdel (political anthropology research center), the Prime Minister’s Office, the Ministry of Finance (Budget & Insurance Department), the Ministry of Social Protection, the Fonds Commun Santé, the DOS, the DEP, & the DRFM of the Ministry of Health, Unicef, WHO, the World Health Organization and the World Bank. World Bank (GFF), the Embassy of Belgium and the PASS/ENABEL project, the PSR project (GFA/KfW), and Expertise France (I3S/P4H and IPSA).
The extremely rich contributions and debates enabled us to make progress towards a proposal for a renewed management system for free admission. On the basis of three options, a consensus was reached on a system that would be a hybrid between options 1 (reinforcement of the existing system) and 2 (use of the Fonds Commun Santé). A second meeting may be necessary to finalize the proposal, but from now on the authorities will have to endorse these advances.
The stated aim is to overhaul the free service, with a view to relaunching it under suitable conditions in January 2021.
