The Organization of Trade Unions of West Africa (OTUWA) is intensifying its campaign for greater budgetary allocation to health care through expanded regional and global partnerships. This announcement was made by OTUWA Executive Secretary John Odah in Abuja during a solidarity message at the 24th Plenary of the West African Health Sector Unions Network (WAHSUN).
OTUWA’s “Health Care Is a Human Right” campaign, now in its fourth year, is collaborating with the global union federation Public Services International (PSI), various civil society organizations in the region, and WAHSUN. Their goal is to advocate for equal and fair health care access for all residents of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).
In Africa, nearly 83 percent of workers are stuck in low-paying, unstable informal-sector jobs without access to state-provided health care or health insurance. This places an unfair financial burden on the most vulnerable. Despite this, West African governments are failing to meet the 15 percent minimum annual health budget allocation agreed upon by African heads of state in the 2001 Abuja Declaration. No country in the region currently meets this target.
OTUWA’s campaign, launched in 2020 by national labor federations from five countries, has now extended to health sector unions and national labor centers in eight countries, including The Gambia, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, and Togo. It also includes civil society organizations like the International Federation of Women Lawyers (FIDA). The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, along with the World Health Organization, defines the right to health as “a fundamental part of our human rights and of our understanding of a life in dignity.” The Solidarity Center supports OTUWA in this campaign and other worker rights initiatives.
“Together we must get public health services out of their chronic state of neglect and underfunding,” Odah told the Solidarity Center, emphasizing that OTUWA’s campaign is also demanding good governance in health care.
So far, the campaign has collected and released vital data on regional health care workers and held advocacy meetings with national, regional, and African Union legislators and policymakers, including the Parliament of ECOWAS. The campaign achieved a recent success in Nigeria earlier this year when the federal government announced a disbursement of almost $70 million to improve the country’s health infrastructure.
“Only a transparent, democratic system can secure, fairly allocate, and responsibly spend increased health care funds,” said Odah.
OTUWA represents national trade union centers in the 15 West African countries that make up ECOWAS. PSI includes more than 700 trade unions representing 30 million workers in 154 countries.
