Kinshasa, June 10th, 2025 (CPA) – Provincial governors have been invited by the Head of State to propose strategies to boost the Universal Health Coverage (UHC) program in the provinces, at the opening on Tuesday of the 12th Governors’ Conference in Kolwezi in Lualaba (south-east of the Democratic Republic of Congo).
‘The discussions will focus on ways in which the CSU can reduce social tensions and promote inclusion. Differences in access to healthcare and their repercussions on social development will also be addressed. Finally, strategies will be proposed to reduce these inequalities through the CSU’, said President Tshisekedi in his keynote speech. ‘The main aim of this 12th Conference is to discuss the importance of universal health coverage as a structuring tool for improving social cohesion, guaranteeing political stability and reducing social inequalities within the provinces and decentralized entities’, he insisted. For this reason, the Congolese President urged the governors to systematically integrate the issue of health, and in particular universal health coverage, into their public policies, as direct players in the deployment of this program in the interior of the country. ‘Your role in this national project is crucial. You are the direct architects of the CSU, through the provincial committees that you chair. I therefore urge you to systematically integrate health into your public policies, to mobilize local resources in a transparent manner, and to guarantee exemplary territorial equity’, hammered the Head of State, adding that “the active participation of communities is essential to ensure the sustainability of our initiatives”.
Examining the challenges of vaccination
Continuing his address, the Chairman of the Governors’ Conference returned to the need to examine the challenges and opportunities associated with the various vaccinations, as well as the revision of the forgotten community medicine program.
‘This session should be an opportunity to examine the challenges and opportunities linked to vaccination, nutrition, family planning and innovations in health financing. Community medicine, which has been successfully tested since the 1970s in our provinces, must be developed to strengthen our health system’, noted the President of the Republic.
The CSU, an act of social resistance in conflict zones
Félix Tshisekedi also recommended that thought be given to ways of making the CSU a genuine extension of resistance in conflict zones, where the aggressor destroys hospital infrastructures. ‘Faced with security challenges, particularly in the east of our country, the CSU is becoming an act of social resistance in health zones where health facilities are destroyed, medicines are scarce, and reconstruction through dignity and solidarity is a response to war itself’, he said. In the same vein, the President of the Republic spoke of the need to invest in modernizing hospitals, finalize hospital reform and promote public-private partnerships involving NGOs, civil society and beneficiary communities. CPA/