Overview of Traditional Medicine in ECOWAS Member States

ABSTRACT

Traditional medicine has been the main source of healthcare for the vast majority of people in the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). It is currently estimated that between 70-80of West Africans use traditional medicine for the management of both communicable and non-communicable diseases. In 2007; the West African Health Organization (WAHO) conducted a situational analysis to assess the level of development of traditional medicine in its member states. The findings showed that although there was strong political will from West African governments for the development of traditional medicine; the disparities in the level of development among the countries were very huge. For instance; it was observed that whist some countries had advanced to the stage where they had established training institutions and had herbal medicines on their essential medicines lists; others had not even developed national traditional medicine policies and legal frameworks; codes of ethics and strategic plans for implementation of national policies. Although all countries have made very good progress in the area of sensitization and popularization of traditional medicine; some others have made good progress in the development of national traditional medicine policies (11 out of 15). However; no country has a health insurance coverage for TM; alternative and complementary medicine. Intellectual property is still a relatively new area and this situation delays the development of frameworks for the protection of traditional knowledge and access to biodiversity in majority of Member States