The Sunday Mail
Sekuru Friday Chisanyu
Traditional medical practitioners are the local innovators and developers of a number of innovations, technologies, practices and systems which are the ingenuity of communities themselves.
They are also spirits who are traditional pharmacologist to provide information on medicinal plants and other problems. Traditional medicine is administered to patients in hospital unofficially every day.
As a result, there is need to pursue development of legal frameworks to facilitate access to their patients and protection on intellectual property rights of traditional medical practitioners through policy and institutional changes at national and regional levels.
Copyright
Traditional health practitioners are the victims of exploitation of their knowledge and medicinal plants by researchers and pharmaceutical companies.
Some academics interview traditional health practitioners and later publish results without acknowledging the traditional health practitioners as the source of information on medicinal plants.
Medical scientists are also interviewing traditional health practitioners and take results of their investigations to certain pharmaceuticals for their use as a way of robbing traditional health practitioners of their knowledge.
Sharing mechanism
Researchers also proceed to harvest medicinal plants, screen them for specified biological activity then isolate active compound and patent it without traditional health practitioners’ acknowledgement as the source of medicine. They are financial challenges for a traditional health practitioner to do the patent and imbalance of power between a single traditional health practitioner and interested corporations.
There is need for the formulation of access and benefit sharing mechanisms of intellectual property rights based on customary law, as this is familiar with the norms and practices of traditional practitioners.
This issue should be approached from different angles including access to indigenous knowledge and products, innovations, technologies practices and systems of traditional medical practitioners which scientist have failed to study.
Participation
Therefore, traditional health practitioners should contribute towards developing access and benefit sharing mechanisms required to access the products they develop. There should be a law that protects indigenous knowledge, innovations, technologies and practice with respect to traditional medicine. The protection should be clear on what is to be protected and duration of protection.
The law also should define the nature and bundles of rights which should belong to a traditional health practitioner.
Rights
An intellectual property right is based on the Western concept of ownership.
It does not recognise the wealth of indigenous knowledge and innovations developed by traditional health practitioners and the communities living with biological diversity to meet their social needs related to health.
There is urgent need to formulate and enact legislation to protect traditional medical practitioners. This legislation will cover biological resources which are under custody of traditional medical practitioners as a local community.
Such legislation should focus on the rights of practitioners and the communities over conversion on biodiversity to avoid environmental degradation. The right of practitioners to participate in the main stream of health programs because of their trade secrets. The right to their innovations, practices and technologies acquired through generations.
The only solution to this problem is a Sui – generis legislation (unique) that facilitates access and benefit sharing mechanisms in the area of medicinal plants. Therefore as a traditional health practitioner I propose African countries to initiate long term efforts to promote and utilise indigenous knowledge on integration of traditional medicine practice, adoption of practitioners and their technologies which scientist will never be able to study.
Safety and efficacy of traditional medicine in research and training developments for traditional medical practitioners. Government should develop academics for traditional medicine to national and regional plans as to promote equitable benefit sharing mechanisms with the participation of traditional medical practitioners to facilitate documentation of national and regional frameworks. The dearth of legal frameworks lead to the disappearance of traditional medical practitioners in some years to come.
Sekuru Chisanyu is the president of Zimbabwe National Practitioners Association. You can send feedback at [email protected]
