Ethiopian Informer
ADDIS ABABA: September 30 (EI) – The Ethiopian government on Monday unveiled a National Traditional Medicine Roadmap that aimed to harness the great potential of traditional medicines in the country’s healthcare provision efforts.
The national roadmap on the promotion of traditional medicines was launched by the Ethiopian Ministry of Health (MoH) on Monday, which mainly envisaged to promote research in Ethiopia’s indigenous traditional medicines.
Amir Aman, Ethiopia’s Minister of Health, said that the major aspirations of the roadmap include revision of policies, proclamation and guidelines, strengthening control mechanisms as well as nurturing, documenting and preservation of indigenous knowledge.
Amir also said that the newly launched roadmap, among other things, is expected to improve policy, legal frameworks, as well as the overall coordination and regulation of traditional medicine development and promotion in the East African country.
“The geographic location and weather of Ethiopia favors for a variety of plants, animals and minerals existence,” Aman said, adding that Ethiopia, as an ancient country, possesses “years of wisdom and knowledge, mainly in traditional medicine, in which an estimated 80 percent of Ethiopia’s population take traditional medicine first-hand for most of the illnesses.”
The roadmap also aspires to improve conservation and documentation efforts of traditional medicine and cultural heritage, as well as initiate and improve the training and education of traditional healers and strengthen the capacity of multidisciplinary experts, it was noted.
Promotion of research and development of traditional medicine, improving the provision of a standardized and regulated traditional healthcare practice, as well as enhancing the production of validated traditional medicine through incubation centers and link with industry are also said to be among the major targets of the initiative, the ministry said.
According to Amir, the long-awaited traditional medicine research and roadmap initiative mainly embrace the revision of policies, proclamation, and guidelines, strengthening control mechanisms, as well as nurturing, documenting and preservation of indigenous knowledge.
The initiative is also expected to avail well-regulated traditional medicines with traditional medicine practitioners and stakeholders including MoH’s national plan, incorporate traditional medicine knowledge to formal education, facilitate capacity-building efforts to traditional medicine practitioners, as well as research system development, the minister added.
It also envisaged streamlining collaboration with pharmaceutical manufacturers to produce research-proven traditional medicines, it was noted.
