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The project “The Yaounde Gathering” was conceived and executed by the French association, “Traditions d’Avenir” (Traditions for the Future) and its president, Senator Michel Guerry. It began from the premise that,”in spite of important political, scientific and financial efforts, large pandemic diseases such as HIV-AIDS and malaria are not subsiding, especially in poor countries”.

It is therefore essential to become more knowledgeable about these environments in order to bring more effective and better adapted healthcare solutions. Everywhere in developing countries, the vast majority of people use traditional medicines: what are these approaches to strongly integrated health care, that often give astonishing results?

It was decided to convene players and observers from many different perspectives to reflect on “the sick populations of developing countries in the context of traditional and scientific medicines”. About 75 people from Asia, Africa, Europe and the Americas gathered for three days to discuss these questions, emphasizing the need to understand both the patients and their social milieu. China and India, already well advanced for millennia in this dual approach, were well represented. Africa was represented by a number of healers, doctors and scientists, including many associations of patients with viral infections. Public health officials from Central and South America also attended, along with many European scientists and doctors. We had also wanted Canadian aboriginal practitioners to attend, but this was not possible.

In addition to myself, the BDA Foundation was represented by Father Jacques Paulus, s.j. , director of ISAV in Kinshasa and founder of many health projects involved in the cultivation of medicinal plants for rural and tribal populations in the Congo, Dr. Célestin Pongombo, professor of traditional medicine at the universities of Kasai and Lubumbashi in DR Congo and Ruengeri in Rwanda.

Traditions D’Avenir had heard of the BDA Foundation and of PharmAfrican. During a trip to Canada, Pierre Noel, its director general, asked to meet Carole Robert who then accepted to participate in this event. As I am living in Europe, I was designated the BDA representative to attend the regular steering committee meetings, in the offices of the French senate in Paris. I even found myself on the Honor Committee along with such personalities as Chantal Biya, first lady of Cameroon, Jacques Chirac, professor Luc Montagnier 2008 Nobel prize winner for medicine, Jean-Pierre Raffarin and other scientists and politicians involved in public health.

The Yaounde Gathering took place at the Hotel Mount Fébé in Yaounde from November 17-19, 2009. The organizers had obtained a favorable deal for the group from Air France leaving from Paris and the Cameroon government paid for the rooms and the meals. The Cameroon health minister offered a reception at the end of the first day and the French ambassador, Bruno Gain did the same on the second day. All meetings were plenary, each starting with two opening statements and followed by a group discussion. Father Paulus participated in the workshop on medicinal plants and talked about his medicinal plant association in Kinshasa and about the BDA Foundation, insisting on the need to put in place a financial mechanism to share eventual profits with local populations, often where these plants are actually used.

The organizers had also solicited papers. Dr Pongombo wrote a paper on behalf of the BDA Foundation, which was distributed to all participants. This paper will also be part of the final report and will appear on the Traditions d’Avenir web site.

The participants, from both North and South, were unanimous in their view that the meeting was a great success. The Africans, in particular, appreciated the opportunity to present their traditional medicines to a receptive audience of foreigners. The Indians described the integration of their traditional medicines into their national health system, which consists of five major streams which have been practiced for five thousand years. The Chinese, certainly the most advanced in terms of significant integration of scientific and traditional medicine in their national system, told of fascinating rates of success by their traditional practitioners (which often left us somewhat dubious).

The organizers will soon prepare and distribute a final report of the meeting, including the detailed program and the list of all participants.

A certain number of conclusions are already apparent: western medicine, referred to as scientific medicine, is very specialized and develops specialists and drugs for every type of human ailment. It treats illnesses. Traditional medicine, however, used by about 80% of the world population is holistic, in that it places the sick in their social context in order to cure the ailment. It treats the patient.

Traditional medicine uses all sorts of techniques (most of them incomprehensible to the western mind), but plants are used, often with great success in about 50% of cases. This is where the BDA Foundation can play an important role because until now, with very few exceptions, medicinal plants have been harvested in the wild, without any knowledge of optimum conditions of harvest and storage and with no concern for their sustainability. As it is certain that traditional medicine will continue to be used (more and more in the North), it becomes essential to have access to quality plants, in reliable quantity. The time has come to inject elements of science and quality control in a sector that badly needs it in order to improve yields and meet demand. This is true not only for plants with medicinal qualities, but also those with nutritional qualities.

All participants recognized the importance of quality plants in traditional medicine and the necessity to secure sustainable supplies. They also recognized the role played by the BDA Foundation in this sector and many African representatives said they would like to see our program established in their countries; almost all of them however lack the financial means.

Many delegates expressed publicly the desire to see these meetings repeated and Brazil in particular would like to host the group. The organizers were pleased with the conclusions and are ready to go forward with other meetings in the future.

Réjean Frenette