Occupational Safety and Health Africa Foundation with the trademark OSHAfrica is a Pan-African Occupational Safety and Health organisation legally registered in 2017 with the principal aim of bringing together Occupational Safety and Health professionals across Africa, creating an atmosphere for collaborative work, sharing of knowledge and OSH data across different countries and sub-regions of Africa. We aspire to be the African information agency on Occupational Safety and Health.
OSHAfrica has been structured with a Regional Administrative Office in Lagos, Nigeria with sub-regional leadership offices across all African sub-regions with the sole aim of bringing activities closer to each OSHAfrican.
History
OSHAfrica idea was conceptualised in ICOH Conference 2015 held in Seoul, South Korea. The 2015 ICOH conference, we found common virtually in all papers presented the worrisome statement that there were no data from Africa and this got a number of Africans who were present at that conference disturbed. We were able to mobilize a number of Africans together during the conference and agreed to meet during one of the lunch sessions to discuss the issues surrounding the lack of data in Africa. In that meeting, we had 23 Africans present where we discussed amongst other things, the need to create a unified Pan African OSH body. Upon return from ICOH Conference 2015, we started reaching out to fellow African professionals on this dream and we created a WhatsApp Group called OSHAfrica which we grew to 120 members discussing Occupational Safety and Health in Africa.
OSHAfrica is a dream come true, we are here ready to work and develop decent and safe workplaces across the African Continent.
Objectives
- To lead Occupational Safety and Health researches and studies across African continent
- To work in collaboration with external Occupational Safety and Health organisations and agencies in developing Occupational Safety and Health projects, programmes and data in Africa
- To bring together Occupational Safety and Health professionals and Associations across Africa and creating enabling environment for collaborative work and sharing of data for professional improvements
- Holding collaborative talks with National Leaders and supporting African Union and other regional economic blocs with Occupational Safety and Health expertise in workplace policies formulation and reviews across the continent
- To create a unified electronic space where African Occupational Safety and Health professionals can be visible to the rest of the world
- To spearhead daily incident and accident reporting processes in workplaces and cities across African continent
- To support African member countries across the region in improving National Occupational Safety and Health standards
- To interface with other international Occupational Safety and Health training institutions, colleges and faculties in improving our regional professional competencies and certifications
- To support and be part of global Occupational Safety and Health Researches and Studies for workplace improvement