Universal Health Coverage: The Development of the Traditional and Integrative Healthcare

The Astana Declaration on primary health care (PHC) makes specific reference to traditional medicine and calls for all stakeholders to align to take joint actions to build stronger and sustainable PHC toward achieving Universal Health Coverage (UHC). As the World Health Organization (WHO) is evaluating its “Traditional Medicine Strategy: 2014–2023” and WHO member states are deciding if WHO should develop a new strategy, the inclusion of stakeholders from traditional, complementary, and integrative healthcare (TCIH) is more important than ever.

Professional TCIH organizations are stakeholders that play an important role in the organization of care and the regulation of education and practice.The critical role of—and benefits of including—civil society, including patient groups and nongovernmental organizations in the shaping of health policies is well known from the history of AIDS and some other diseases—but civil society has been largely excluded from discussions around TCIH. The role and work of stakeholders receive no mention in the implementation report of the WHO Traditional Medicine Strategy.

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