
Rodrigo Gouveia
Why we need a Global Platform for Health Cooperatives
Health cooperatives are still a somewhat unknown sector of the cooperative movement despite their huge success in several countries. One of the reasons for this relative lack of knowledge, particularly from governments, is the fact that health cooperatives often serve a marginal or complementary role to the national public health systems or, in some countries, they do not exist at all.
Health cooperatives are an excellent model to help achieve universal health coverage and other health objectives, which are part of the Global Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development and its Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In fact, health cooperatives can be a very effective way to complement national health systems in a way that is open, democratic, affordable and of quality.
So, why aren’t there more health cooperatives?
A recent research project that we were involved in shows that health cooperatives still face many challenges to develop, in part due to the lack of knowledge of their potential, as mentioned before, which leads to the lack of investment in the sector. Additionally, health cooperatives face many needs that they can’t overcome on their own, even in cases where they are large and successful.
According to a survey that collected the views of experts from around the world, the three main challenges for health cooperatives are:
1. Knowledge and information sharing: because they have a specific model of business, unlike others in the health sector, health cooperatives could benefit from more exchanges of knowledge and information, particularly regarding their cooperative nature.
2. Funding: not surprisingly, many respondents to the survey identified the lack of funding as one of the major obstacles to the development of their cooperative.
3. Capacity-building, training, and technical assistance: health cooperatives would certainly benefit from more capacity-building, training, and technical assistance initiatives given that, in many countries, access to these opportunities is very limited.
What can be done to overcome these challenges?
The answer is not simple, and the solution requires multiple approaches. However, the creation of a global platform for cooperatives and other social economy organizations working in the health sector should be a part of the answer. Building a common platform where cooperatives could share knowledge and information and receive assistance in their areas of need would create the conditions for their development.
The only global structure that brings together health cooperatives, the International Health Cooperative Organizations (IHCO), one of the partners in the project mentioned above, is a representative structure and does not have the resources to deal effectively with the challenges identified.
Nonetheless, projections show that a global platform could be a self-sustained initiative in as little as four years if the funding existed for its start-up phase. Therefore, what is needed is to find the partners that are willing to invest in this opportunity, which could be a mix of international organizations, national development agencies, ministries, and cooperatives themselves.
There is a global trend of public disengagement from the health sector, which brings with it many questions related to social justice, democracy, human rights, equality, etc. If, in addition to that, there is no investment in the promotion and development of health cooperatives, those problems will aggravate. Building a global platform is an urgent need to create the basis for the growth of the sector.
NOTE: The views and opinions expressed in these articles are those of the author only and do not necessarily reflect the views of PromoCoop and its partners.
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