Participants at this year’s annual Association for Research on Civil Society in Africa (AROCSA) conference, in Dakar, Senegal, have urged governments on the continent to integrate data from civil society organisations, CSOs, in making health-related policies.

The conference, the sixth edition, focused, among others, on safeguarding and strengthening the role of CSOs in human and environmental health in Africa.

The participants “called on national governments to integrate the rich and robust data generated by civil society groups into decision making process on public health policy in Africa.”

These groups called on national governments and regional bodies to put in place new and more meaningful structures to include civil society in decision making platforms. 

This, they argued, would facilitate the achievement of  Sustainable Development Goals, in particular SDG 3, the Health goal.

Speaking on the conference, Dr Judith-Ann Walker, Country Director of development Research and Projects Centre (dRPC) which joined other civil society groups from the African continent at the event, noted that the conference brought civil society groups from across to discuss and proffer solutions to tackle the impact of practices, challenges and policies and how they are impacting on the continent’s human and environmental spaces.

In his keynote address, Professor Mamuoda Ndiaye of the University of Dakar, called on African civil society organizations to deepen the public health policy advocacy capacities and strategies.

He said: “African civil society organizations are urged to ensure that governments shift health funding sources away from aid and loans and toward innovative domestic funding sources that prioritize health. 

“To achieve this goal, African civil society organizations (CSOs) need help strengthening their policy and budget advocacy skills.”

In  her presentation at the conference, Dr Salam Anas Ibrahim, the Director Family Health, Federal Ministry of Health, Nigeria, stated that: “Through a series of strategic engagements and partnerships, PAS has contributed to the launch of important policy documents such as the family planning Blueprint, FP2030 agenda, the Task shifting, and Task sharing policy and supported the implementation of maternal and child health interventions both at the National and subnational level.”

On their part, the PACFaH@Scale NGO leaders at the session (from Alumni Association of the National Institute AANI-Lagos and Medical Women Association of Nigeria Kano) put on record the project’s contribution to capacity development of their organizations, positioning these civil society groups to take up leadership roles in the policy advocacy space.

The high point of the conference was the closing remarks from a leading Nigerian scholar on civil society in Africa, Professor Eghosa E. Osaghae whose scholarly reflections were complemented by a call to action by African civil society organizations present.