Date: 2018-01-10 23:36:44 ID: 1790
The 9th scientific congress of Traditional Medicine Practitioners (TMP) and Conventional Medical Practitioners of the ECOWAS region was held in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso from 21 to 22 December 2017 under the theme “10 years of promotion of traditional medicine in the ECOWAS region: achievements and challenges”. The official opening ceremony of the Congress was chaired by Dr Cornelle Traoré, Head of Mission representing the Minister of Health of Burkina Faso, in the presence of Dr Xavier Crespin, Director General of WAHO. Since 2007, WAHO made TM one of its priority programmes and worked consistently to implement, together with the countries, a wide variety of activities. Among the flagship achievement made since then include the development of the harmonised framework for to regulate practitioners, practices, traditional medical products, and the documentation of traditional knowledge for their protection, rational use, the compilation of an inventory of plant medicine formulations with proven efficacy, the publication of a West African Pharmacopoeia, the development of training manuals to build the capacity of TMPs in managing priority and emerging diseases, and a curriculum for teaching TM to students in medical schools. At the institutional level, the Congress assesses WAHO’s TM programme orientations which are in line with the resolutions of the Heads of State and Government and with those of the AU, WHO as well as the recommendations of the ECOWAS Assembly of Health Ministers. The Congress approved WAHO’s strategy which contributes to placing the researchers in a network to undertake multidisciplinary research with high community impact. Beside, the Congress recognized WAHO’s immense contribution to the promotion of TM in the ECOWAS region during the past ten years, with a view to ensuring the freedom of informed choice regarding the rational utilization of TM practices and products. To heighten the potential of TM in achieving the objectives of Universal Health Coverage (UHC), the sessions of the 9th Congress invited countries to accelerate the implementation of policies toward the proper integration of TM into the national health systems.
The Congress warmly congratulated WAHO for the support provided to countries over the past 10 years to consolidate the TM sector, and this has become a model for the other regional entities. In addition to the country presentations on the promotion of TM in the ECOWAS region, the committee of experts for the development of the second volume of the West Africa Pharmacopoeia also presented an overview of its work.
In addition to the country presentations on the promotion of TM in the ECOWAS region, the committee of experts for the development of the second volume of the West Africa Pharmacopoeia also presented an overview of its work. Following the presentations and some verifiable evidence, it came out clearly that the positive results were obtained thanks to the multidimensional approach supported by a large variety of stakeholders, namely: the TMP, TM program directors/coordinators, experts in TM, socio-anthropologists, physiotherapists, toxicologists, doctors, pharmacists, directors of health service training institutions, of research institutions plant medicine and partner institutions of the public and private sectors. We wish to note that the Congress experienced a special moment with the presentation by Dr Cornelle Traoré, of a certificate to Dr Xavier Crespin, Director General of WAHO, who was nominated in 2016 for the award of the title “Chevalier de l’Ordre National du Burkina”