WAHSUN, PSI, OTUWA Wants ECOWAS To Implement 15% Abuja Declaration On Health Budget
West African health sector unions network, WAHSUN, has petitioned ECOWAS for the inability of its member States to implement 15% budgetary allocation to health as agreed at the 2001 Abuja declaration of African Union.
WAHSUN President, Pepertual Ofori-Ampholo, said regrettably the situation has continued to promote health tourism and increase the massive migration of health professionals abroad.
In 2001, the heads of African Union member states gathered in Abuja to find long-term solutions to Africa's health crisis and other pressing issues.
The Abuja Declaration was conceived during this meeting, with one of its key features being the pledge to allocate at least 15% of a country's total annual budget to the health sector by 2015.
Nine years after rhe supposedly deadline, alAdrican countries still struggling with commitment to promising their citizens healthcsre.
In West Africa, healthcare unions have submitted petitions at rhe ECOWAS Secretariat, seeking their commitment for renewed assurances
The West African health sector unions have the support of public service internstions, PSI, the organisation of trade unions in West Africa, OTUWA, the American Centre for labour solidarity and the centre for black trade unions, CBTU, in the oush for countries to place priory in public health and safety.
For Nigeria, concerns continue to grow as over 42, 000 nurses alone, have left the country in less than two years for greener pastures and the government's inability to allocste even 10 % of its budget to health since the 2001 Abuja declaration agreeing on 15%
