As part of the prestigious Geneva Health Forum in Switzerland the International Summit of Cooperatives held a workshop on the development of health care cooperatives in Africa.
From left to right: Gabriel Gbedjissokpa, Romain Chave, Adriano Leite Soares and Jean-Pierre Girard
Dr Adriano Leite Soares provided an overview of the history and development of Unimed, the world’s largest health care cooperative organisation with 113 000 affiliated physicians and a diverse network of healthcare institutions, including hospitals and clinics.
Gabriel Gbedjissokpa of the Panafrican Cooperative Conference spoke about Benin’s cooperative clinics, while Jean-Pierre Girard, a consultant working with the Summit and a lecturer at Université du Québec à Montréal, provided some background on the different types of health care and social services cooperatives and mutuals around the world.
The workshop was facilitated by Romain Chave from the International Association of Mutual Benefit Societies. This workshop was an introduction to the African context, with a subsequent seminar being held in Yaoundé, Cameroon, on May 30 and 31. More information
