Date: 2018-04-20 22:17:05 ID: 1833
The Director General of WAHO, Dr Stanley OKOLO, during his speech at the official opening.
Bobo-Dioulasso, BURKINA FASO - The West Africa Health Organisation (WAHO), from 17th to 19th April, organised a regional meeting to validate the harmonised manual on the utilisation and protection of knowledge in traditional medicine.
Participants at the meeting were: practitioners of traditional and orthodox medicine, university researchers in botany, phytotherapy, toxicology, pharmacognosy, en pharmacology, Director/Coordinators of programmes or traditional medical facilities, resources persons with experience in the promotion of traditional medical knowledge.
The Director General of WAHO, Professor Stanley OKOLO, raised the profile of the workshop by chairing the official opening ceremony. In his opening speech he invited ECOWAS member States to ensure that the Manual produces a community impact, which would contribute to the development of the countries.
The meeting is a follow-up to the one held in Abuja, Nigeria, from 24 to 25 May 2017 to kick-start the development of the said manual, which, as may be recalled, was specifically recommended in March 2016 by an expert group from ECOWAS member States in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire. The recommendation was to enable the group benefit from training on the existing tools for the protection of intellectual property rights in traditional medicine.
The objective of the meeting was to validate the manual after a critical study of its content (patents, brands, industrial designs and models, geographical information, copy right, traditional knowledge and representation of folklore) with a view to presenting it in a format that would be ready for publication.
The procedure adopted by WAHO is within an international context marked by the organisation, in March 2018, of the 35th session of the intergovernmental committee of the WIPO on genetic resources, traditional knowledge and folklore; and at the regional level by the high-level meeting of AIPO member States, in April 2018, on intellectual property and the development of genetic resources, traditional knowledge and traditional cultural expressions.
On the sidelines of the meeting, was organised the 3rd session of the committee charged with the preparation of the 2nd issue of the ECOWAS Pharmacopoeia to provide experts with the opportunity to have an overview of research undertaken to date and highlight the way forward.
Deliberations at the workshop led to the finalisation of the manual which will be presented in a format that is accessible to stakeholders for the efficient management of intellectual property rights relating to traditional medicine.
The meeting unanimously considered the manual as one which corresponds to the concerns of most of the stakeholders as it enables them understand the variety of training tools currently available, in view of the complexity of intellectual property policies throughout the world.
The meeting positively assessed the collegiality with which the Experts carried out their work and the progress made in the drafting of the monograph of the 2nd issue of the ECOWAS Pharmacopoeia, the finalisation of which is scheduled for the end of the first quarter of 2018, in line with the roadmap established for the purpose.
The meeting expressed gratitude to WAHO for its precious technical and financial contribution to the documentation of traditional medical knowledge with a view to its protection by intellectual property and the contribution of such knowledge to the development of ECOWAS countries.
The committee of experts particularly thanked WAHO for the support provided during the entire process of drafting the 2nd issue of the ECOWAS Pharmacopoeia.
The participants expressed appreciation for the availability of the staff at the WAHO headquarters and for the facilities provided to ensure the proper deliberations at the workshop.
The meeting expressed its sincere gratitude to the Burkinabe authorities for the warm welcome given to participants.