AFRICAN UNION

UNION AFRICAINE

Addis Ababa, ETHIOPIA  P. O. Box 3243  Téléphone : 5517 700  Fax : 5511299

DIVISION OF COMMUNICATION AND INFORMATION

PRESS RELEASE N.162
31 AUGUST 2009:

Addis Ababa, 31 August 2009 – The African Union will celebrate on August 31st 2009, the Day for African Traditional Medicine under the theme “Traditional Medicine and Patient Safety”.

In 2009, the theme calls upon member states to scale up institutionalization and integration of TM into national health systems as well as promote research in the field. Therefore, Member States are urged to conduct advocacy/educational programmes to mark the Day which falls on Monday 31st August 2009, in line with this theme, and to provide feedback to the Commission. Member States are also urged to provide updated reports on the status of implementation of the 11 priority areas of the Plan of Action on the AU Decade for African Traditional Medicine (2001-2010) in order to facilitate early compilation of a consolidated, comprehensive and accurate end-of-Decade Report.

A Plan of Action and Implementation Mechanism for the Decade was adopted by the AU Conference of Ministers of Health and endorsed by the 2003 Maputo AU Summit Heads of State and Government. The main objective of the Plan of Action was to accelerate the recognition, acceptance, development, integration and institutionalization of Traditional Medicine (TM) by Member States into the public health care system in Africa by 2010. These commitments were made in recognition that traditional medicine is not only a health issue but also an important element of Africa’s cultural heritage which must be protected and preserved. They were also aimed at increased advocacy towards development and promotion of traditional medicine since at least 80% of African populations rely on traditional medicine and practices for their health needs.

At international level, the Alma Ata Declaration on primary health care (PHC) which was adopted in 1978 recognized the role of traditional medicine (TM) and its practitioners as important allies in achieving Health-For-All. Since then, significant progress has been made in promoting TM and integrating it within the public health sector. Wide-ranging experiences in traditional medicine and practices have been shared and lessons learnt.

In 2001, the Lusaka Assembly Decision declared the period 2001-2010 as the Decade for African Traditional Medicine. In this framework, the Maputo Summit of 2003 also declared 31 August Each Year as the Day for African Traditional Medicine.

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