Medicinal Plants and ECD Projects

Introduction

A team of NGOs, government officials and Bank staff from East Africa participated in a study tour of Sri Lanka and India to develop cross regional partnerships to integrate indigenous knowledge & practices into East African Projects through knowledge sharing and learning exchanges. As part of cross-country exchanges and knowledge sharing activities between South Asia and East Africa, a team of project officers from three East African Countries – Ethiopia (Medicinal Plants), Kenya (Early Childhood Development)and Uganda (Nutrition and Early Childhood Development) were part of the tour. They visited  various government  projects and institutions. In this debriefing, the clients discuss their observations and lessons learnt from how South Asian projects have worked with communities and integrated indigenous knowledge into development programs.

The video can be viewed in its entirety or via shorter clips sorted along the main themes (blue underlined) which emerged during the debriefing.  This debriefing was organized by the Knowledge and Learning Group as part of AFTQK’s knowledge sharing and learning services. Dr. Z.M.Nyiira, Director Uganda National Council for Science and Technology and the Bank team conducted the debriefing on September 21^st, 2002.

Full debriefing (1:23 hrs)
 

1. Summaries of visit from groups (16:00 min)

Summary observations from Group I – ECD group (6:24 min)

Summary observations from Group II – Medicinal Plants (8:46 min)

a.       Project enabled communities – to fully participate in conserving resources and IK (1:04 min)

b.       IK workshop – to develop national strategy for documentation and sustainable utilization (1:08 min)

c.       Conservation through demonstration – sites for education and eco-tourism (1:15 min)

d.        Unique model of benefit sharing – from Kani tribe in India (1:51 min)

e.       Validation procedures – via better documentation (1:54 min)

f.         Ways to institutionalize IK (1:02 min)

2. Multi-sectoral integration – what would be the best approach? (20:42 min)
   1. Kenya
      1. District level committee – can be used to facilitate integration (1:10 min)
      2. Forum to discuss IK and ECD matters (57 sec)
      3. Bamako initiatives  – community based pharmacies to promote traditional medicine (2:12 min)
   2. Uganda
      1. Social services committees – have a perceived narrow scope and are not utilized fully (3:42 min)
      2. ECD program are already multi-sectoral – but needs to refocus and clearly define priorities tapping into IK  (2:41 min)
      3. Integrating platforms for promotion of IK – exhibitions, community development centers, community based planning, etc (1:50 min)
   3. Ethiopia
      1. No integrative force – for ECD and TM (3:48 min) 4:57 min)
      2. Committee for elimination of harmful traditional practices
      3. Decentralization to district level – aims to implement their priority development needs (57 sec) 
3. Main themes – cross cutting issues for inter-institutional collaboration (3:39 min)
   1. Integrating IK and ECD – need to take stock of projects already in progress (1:33 min)
   2. Training  officers to fully understand local conditions (1:22 min)
4. What processes can we borrow from South East Asia? (12:58 min)
   1. Using NGO’s in Uganda (3:56 min)  to integrate traditional and modern health practitioners
   2. Facilitating collaboration between ECD and TM (1:16 min)
   3. Countries are at different levels of development (2:17 min)
   4. Giving due importance to ECD (2:58 min)
   5. Need to send a clear signal to policy makers (2:09 min)
5. Conceptual framework to integrate IK into the mainstream (1:28 min)
6. Getting buy in from leaders / presidents  is key for government support (5:57 min)
7. How do you get the policy makers on board? (4:43 min)
8. Importance of incorporating a ‘political wheel’ (9:20 min)
   1. ‘Involving politicians from the word go…’ (55 sec)
   2. Political/resource group – working with the technical / implementer group (3:20 min)
   3. Getting the policy makers on board – need to give them information and keep them involved (4:51 min)
9. Learning from each other – there is so much to learn from other African countries (1:13 min)
10. Closing Remarks (3:42 min)