Social Protection

Masmut

Masmut is the Belgian Platform on Community Health Insurance/Mutual Health Organisations which exists of representatives of NGOs, Mutual Health Organisations, research institutes and the Belgian development cooperation. It aims to promote a cooperation between the member organisations and to benefit from its complementarity to reinforce the relevance of the systems of community health insurance and mutual health organisations in the South.  

Be-cause health

Be-cause Health is the Belgian Platform for International Health. It brings together NGOs, research institutes, mutual health organisations, government agencies, consultants (with social orientation) and individual members. Its three specific objectives are the exchange of information, advocacy (to authorities) and promotion of collaboration.

History and existing collaboration

Masmut and Be-cause Health grew closer to one another the past two years during a joint preparation of sessions regarding Mutual Health Organisations and Social Protection at the annual Be-cause Health seminars (2009 and 2010). We found out that the members of both platforms share similar interests and often mingle in the same working groups (DRC, Quality of medicines, Human resources, People-centred care, etc.). That's why Masmut joined the steering committee of Be-cause Health (represented by its secretary).

That is also why we set up this joint working on social protection, universal health coverage and global health. The strength of this group lies in the combination of the technical and scientific knowledge and know-how of the member of both platforms.

General objective

The general objective of the working group is to promote social protection and universal health coverage at Belgian and international level.

Social protection is seen in different senses, the strict sense (insurance) and the wider one (see Dévereux / Sabates-Wheeler). Universal coverage is seen in its 3 dimensions: width, depth and height  (see World Health Report 2008 and 2010 and the core document of Bart Criel for the seminar 2009 Be-cause health).

Specific objectives of the working group:

• establish a joint policy paper (position paper),
• exchange experiences of members in this field,
• develop and disseminate practical information and best practices used in the field,
• monitor and participate in what is happening globally, e.g. processes at the level of AIM, ILO, STEP, WHO, the follow-up of the Conference on the development of universal social security in Brasilia and the World Social Forum on Social Security,
• on the medium term, the group will also play an advocacy role.

The working group on social protection in health will work particularly on:

• social protection mechanisms,
• universal coverage (taking into account the aspect of quality of care),
• health funding and financing (various models and innovations).

Next steps:

• establishing a joint policy paper (only French),
• preparing a joint participation on the Be-cause Health annual seminar of 2011 on the social determinants of health.