Washington D.C., July 26, 2024 - The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) is conducting a consultation among its Member States on the draft of the World Health Organization (WHO) Strategy on Traditional, Complementary and Integrative Medicine (TCIM). This consultation, aimed at gathering comments and input from national health authorities and other social actors linked to TCIM, will continue through August and conclude with virtual working sessions.
The importance of TCIM in Primary Health Care (PHC) has been recognized since the Alma Ata Declaration in 1978 and reinforced in the Astana Declaration in 2018, as well as other international instruments. For this reason, the WHO has previously published two editions of its Traditional Medicine Strategy: the WHO Traditional Medicine Strategy 2002-2005 and the WHO Traditional Medicine Strategy 2014-2023. At the 66th World Health Assembly in 2023, the validity of this latest Strategy was extended, and the development of a new version was requested for the 2025-2034 period.
In April of this year, the WHO released a first draft of the new proposal to the general public, which received more than 200 comments and suggestions. These were considered in adjusting the document now being reviewed by the countries of the Region in this consultation, continuing the consensual construction process of the new strategy.
PAHO, along with other WHO regional offices, will submit their consolidated reports to be considered for the final draft of the new strategy, which will be presented at the 156th session of the WHO Executive Committee and subsequently submitted for consideration by the 68th World Health Assembly in 2025.
