Traditional Medicine: The Case for it's Inclusion in Sustainable Development. No One Should be Left Behind

Ndukwe-Nnawuchi, Chukwuemeka Agamadodaigwe (2018) Traditional Medicine: The Case for it's Inclusion in Sustainable Development. No One Should be Left Behind. Doctoral thesis, University of Buckingham.

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Abstract

This research takes an interdisciplinary approach to examine how developing and least-developed countries can advance considerably towards achieving the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Successful collective action for achieving this Agenda is dependent on the realisation of Goal 3, which aims to ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages (without leaving anyone behind) by eradicating the epidemics of malaria, tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS and other chronic communicable and noncommunicable diseases by 2030. The Agenda aims to achieve this by promoting universal health coverage and access to affordable essential medicines for these diseases that predominantly impact developing and least-developed countries through (a) the negotiation of a binding convention on drug research and development (R&D) that prioritises the needs of developing and least-developed countries, and delinks the cost of R&D from the end prices of medicines; and (b) the reinforcement of the full use by developing and least-developed countries of the flexibilities contained in the Agreement on the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights 1994 (TRIPS flexibilities). To achieve the primary objective of progress towards sustainable development by 2030 in developing and least-developed countries, this research has four ancillary objectives. First, it critically assesses the effectiveness of the strategy of utilising TRIPS flexibilities and negotiating a convention on drug R&D in promoting universal health coverage and delivering timely access to medicines in developing and least-developed countries by 2030. Secondly, it examines whether traditional medicine can contribute to achieving sustainable development by promoting universal health coverage and providing treatments for malaria, tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS. Thirdly, it determines whether there are challenges to using traditional medicine for health care and if so, proffers solutions. Fourthly and intimately connected with the latter, it considers how traditional medicine can be appropriately integrated into the health systems of developing and least-developed countries. Essentially, this research argues that relying on the use of TRIPS flexibilities by developing and least-developed countries to promote access to medicines is problematic and that there are great complexity and uncertainty surrounding the conclusion of a binding convention on drug R&D in time for meeting the 2030 date for global progress towards sustainable development. The research finds that traditional medicine has immense potential to contribute towards attaining sustainable development by promoting universal health coverage and access to affordable medicines, and on this note, proposes its integration into the national healthcare systems of developing and least-developed countries as a complementary tool to the use of TRIPS flexibilities and (probably) a convention on drug R&D. It concludes that there is need for developing and least-developed countries to formulate national policies on traditional medicine; regulate traditional medicine practices and therapies; educate and licence traditional medicine practitioners; and enact domestic legislation for the conservation of biological diversity and sustainable use of its components, as well as for the protection of traditional medical knowledge and the fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising from its utilisation with indigenous and local communities in order to appropriately exploit traditional medicine's potential for sustainable development.

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