The Permanent Secretariat of Non-Governmental Organizations (SPONG) organized, Friday, August 30, 2024, in Manga (Zoundwéogo province), a visibility workshop on the Universal Health Insurance Scheme (RAMU). The meeting brought together around thirty participants, including officials and agents of the Manga health district, administrative authorities, customary and religious leaders, as well as members of civil society and Health Monitoring Committees (CVS). "The objective of this meeting is to raise awareness among community representatives and partners who deal with health issues to relay information on RAMU to begin mobilizing communities," said the project manager at SPONG, Eugène Bakouan. The Universal Health Insurance Scheme (RAMU), he explained, was designed and implemented to meet a need: "to increase the use of health services and ensure that everyone, everywhere, has access to quality health services without suffering financial difficulties." The process, according to him, began in Burkina Faso since 2008 and, to date, the large-scale operationalization phase has begun after the adoption of the legal and regulatory framework and implementing decrees, as well as the start of pilot implementation phases in four regions. The visibility meeting initiated in Manga is therefore a platform to urge participants to encourage community engagement for the effective implementation of RAMU at the local level. "The system is essentially based on a joint and several guarantee, which means that you pay in little by little so that when you fall ill, you don't have to be asked for money to treat you. So we need to start raising awareness among communities so that they can join the process," explained Eugène Bakouan. Continuing, he noted that in addition to communication around RAMU at the level of the Manga health district, participants are expected to begin "to prepare the decentralized services to make diagnoses on what needs to be strengthened in order to have fewer pitfalls in the implementation of the process ." The representative of the High Commissioner of Zoundwéogo, Innocents Ouattara, also called for the commitment of the participants. "I would like to engage you on the paths for the effectiveness of universal health insurance in the Manga health district," he told the audience. The RAMU visibility workshop is part of the implementation of the community monitoring project to improve access for vulnerable groups and internally displaced persons to health services, health insurance and social protection in Burkina Faso. This project, implemented in partnership with UNICEF, is scheduled to last from April 2024 to December 2025 and will take place in twenty (20) communes in ten (10) health districts across Burkina Faso. In the province of Zoundwéogo, these include the communes of Bindé, Guiba, Manga and Gon-Boussougou, which fall under the Manga health district, which benefit from this intervention. The implementation of the project at the local level by SPONG will be done in collaboration with the associatio ns Zak La Yilguemdé (AZLY) and Teel Taaba. Source: Burkina Information Agency