Project Reach: ASEAN Nations

From August 31 to September 2 in Bangkok, the first Conference on Traditional Medicine in ASEAN Countries was held.

Traditional medicine is a field that The Nippon Foundation has been involved in since it first established a medicine-box system for nomadic peoples in Mongolia in 2004. Under this system, boxes full of traditional remedies to common illnesses are distributed to families, who use the medicines as needed. Then, on a regular basis, a doctor will check the box, note what has been used, and charge the family only for that amount. In this way, families can carry a cost-effective medical supply with them, even when they range far from medical facilities. The set-up, which is based on a 300 year old Japanese system, has reduced the number of doctors’ house calls by up to 45 percent. It currently reaches 10,000 families in Mongolia.

In Thailand, Cambodia and Myanmar as well, projects are underway to study the ways that traditional medicines can be used to augment the current medical system. Traditional medicines generally cost only between five and ten percent of their manmade counterparts—something that is particularly appealing to countries like Thailand that provide free healthcare.

The ASEAN conference represents an unprecedented effort by a regional non-medical organization, to address the potentials presented by traditional medicine. As such, it is expected to hold great significance.

Over the first two days, the 200 delegates from the various ASEAN nations were given an overview of global and regional situation related to the issue. Following this, the nations presented their own country reports and discussed such things as the potential benefits of such systems and regional collaboration.

On the third day, an “herb expo” was also held, bringing delegates into direct contact with the various plants that they had discussed, thereby making the potential of traditional medicines very clear in their minds.

Finally, the conference produced a document entitled the “Bangkok Declaration on Traditional Medicine in ASEAN,” which sets forth that the ASEAN nations will:

It is expected that this ground-breaking conference will be a major milestone in the development of safe and effective traditional medicine systems in ASEAN nations.

Link: Our Mongolian medicine box project