Africa Region • The World Bank The Indigenous Knowledge (IK) Program has been The Agricultural Research and Training Project supporting local and national efforts to mainstream (ARTP II) in Uganda builds on practices in agriculture the use of traditional knowledge in the development to make them part of the outreach program. The Agri- process since 1998. A number of African countries cultural Extension team in Uganda plan to build its have undertaken various initiatives to integrate IK in monitoring on IK. The IK Program’s role is to provide agriculture, healthcare, and education. the methodological input to transfer relevant technolo- Uganda has taken the gies and IK and im- lead in the formulation of proved cultural prac- a national policy on IK, tices to farmers’ fields Ghana in the use of IK to and promote their improve agricultural prac- adoption. Examples of tices, and Burkina Faso in these practices include highlighting the role of the use of small farm traditional hunters in implements designed natural resource manage- for the smaller cattle of ment. Uganda, such as the The IK Program has improved Ugandan supported ongoing local plow. initiatives by documenting In Eritrea, IK prac- and disseminating these tices in early child- practices through its da- hood and develop - tabase of over 200 cases ment are being pro- and dedicated publica- moted through the tion, “IK Notes.” It has IK stakeholders meeting in Kampala, Uganda use of new information promoted regional net- technologies. In Lake works and funded national consultative workshops Malawi, IK is being linked with scientific knowledge to to bring together the key stakeholders to develop na- enhance the quality of the environmental protection tional strategies on IK. The Program has also sought program. In Kenya, Ethiopia and Ghana, projects are to match knowledge seekers with providers, through underway to promote medicinal plants as an integral community-to-community exchanges. part of health related IK to provide alternative sources of income and maintain biodiversity. It is hoped that Bank supported projects integrate IK the success of these projects can be used to main- stream and replicate the use of IK in the development The IK Program set up an IK Integration Fund for of new projects. the amount of $250,000, which is being allocated to task managers to integrate IK in Bank-supported projects: National strategy for IK Community-to-community exchanges In July 1999, the Uganda National Council for Sci- The Swiss Development Corporation (SDC) is plan- ence and Technology (UNCST) initiated a study sup- ning to provide trust fund resources in support of ported by the Bank to activities designed to explore the diversity of strengthen the capac- IK in Uganda in rela- ity of selected African tion to agriculture, community-based or- health sciences, and ganizations to better technology. This utilize indigenous formed the basis of a knowledge in the de- national strategy that velopment process. would include all the The SDC sup - stakeholders, from in- ported program in- digenous healers to cludes: community- civil society, as well as to - community ex- policy makers. changes of IK prac- Six months later, a tices (e.g., connecting national workshop in- local communities by volving these key play- matching knowledge Bank staff advises clients on the use of IK in medicinal plants ers was held to draft a seeking/providing national strategy and communities, pro - framework for action. This was the genesis of the moting cross-community exchanges through local Kampala Declaration on IK for sustainable develop- events, field days, excursions, story telling, etc.). ment. The Declaration urges the government to sup- The primary focus of these activities is on issues port the development of IK and planners to include IK related to poverty, especially in the agriculture and in the national planning process. This is being imple- health sectors as well as in gender in development. A mented in several ways, such as including IK into first pilot exchange was recently conducted in South Uganda’s Poverty Eradication and Action Plan (PEAP). Africa financed by the Bank and IFAD, and lessons The Bank has funded an Institutional Development learned so far will be applied in other countries. Fund (IDF) grant of $ 400,000 to support the develop- These include exchanges between local communities ment of a national Centre for Indigenous Knowledge. living in the Trans-Frontiers Conservation Areas that The IK Program has played a facilitating role to sup- border Mozambique, Swaziland, and South Africa. The port the Steering Committee to monitor the implemen- indigenous knowledge to be exchanged is in traditional tation process and a Secre- medicine, community based tariat to coordinate activities eco-tourism, and integration specifically related to IK. of traditional and scientific Efforts are underway to knowledge in conserving support national activities in biodiversity. other countries to main- In Kenya, the IK Program stream IK. The IK Program is is sponsoring an exchange jointly sponsoring a national between Maasai pastoralists workshop in Tanzania with and Luo farmers. The Simba the FAO Links project. The Maasai community of the consultative forum will be Ngong Hills have created a convened by the Office of the museum in the village, meant Vice-President of Tanzania to for the preservation of the develop a national IK strategy local material culture. The and action plan. community has also set up a Tanga AIDS Working Group project to conserve the local trees and document their medicinal values. The Luo tunistic infections secondary to HIV. They possess a community of rural farmers are equally innovative. wealth of information on the whole process of treat- Located in western Kenya, on the outskirts of Kisumu, ment, including plant collection and preparation, uses a group of women have developed a number of indig- and methods of usage, as well as indicators of efficacy. enous food varieties. Similar communi- They were also in- ties exist in other strumental in orga- parts of Tanzania nizing local milk and beyond, and coops and informal TAWG believes mu- credit schemes. This tually beneficial ex- will be one of the pio- changes of indig- neer exchanges to cut enous knowledge across different com- could occur in well- munities and prac- matched groups of tices. traditional healers. In Tanzania, The The SHDEPHA+ Tanga AIDS Working group have devel- Group (TAWG) has oped a system of one goal: to alleviate self-help and self- suffering from HIV/ support that en- AIDS using indig- ables its members enous knowledge. to both live posi- TAWG healer treats 2,000 AIDS patients using three herbs The HIV/AIDS pan- tively with AIDS and demic is multi- generate modest in- sectoral and cross-cutting, impacting on the commu- come. Group members have tended to live longer than nity as a whole. With this in mind, TAWG has identi- other TAWG clients, partly because of the mutual sup- fied three ‘communities’ in Tanga which represent the port that is always present. areas of treatment, self-help, and care; that they would Whereas many HIV/AIDS interventions focus on pre- like to involve in exchanges of indigenous knowledge vention, TAWG recognizes that people with HIV/AIDS with similar communities in Tanzania (and possibly need all the help they can get. Patients receive little Kenya). These are local networks of traditional heal- help from the formal health sector, which is simply ers, people living with unable to cope with the AIDS and staff working heavy demand. TAWG has within the TAWG Home developed a state of the Based Care project. art, low cost, home care Traditional healers in program that includes the Tanga locality have counseling, HIV testing, identified and are using home visits, medical treat- traditional plant remedies ment, and social support. in the treatment of oppor- They believe the system is replicable and would like to share their knowledge with other organizations working in the same field. TAWG staff provide counseling IK Program Website: www.worldbank.org/afr/ik/ default.htm Contacts: Reinhard Woytek (Rwoytek@worldbank.org) Siddhartha Prakash (Sprakash@worldbank.org)