Technical Consultant to prepare policy brief on role of traditional medicine in achieving universal health coverage and healthy islands in PICs.

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Background

At the meeting of ministers of health for the Pacific Island Countries (PICs) in 1997, the Rarotonga Agreement: Towards Healthy Islands was adopted, and it encourages, where appropriate, use of traditional medicine in national health care. The Palau Action Statement on Healthy Islands, adopted by ministers of health for the PICs in 1999, also recognized role of traditional medicine in primary health care and encouraged to include traditional medicine practitioners as members of community health teams. This intent was strengthened in subsequent resolutions of the World Health Assembly and included in the Regional Strategy for Traditional Medicine in the Western Pacific (2011-2020) and the global Traditional Medicine Strategy 2014-2023.

As a result, there have been great efforts and achievements made by PICs to maximize potentials of traditional medicine in national health care, focusing on primary health care. At the fourth annual non-communicable diseases (NCDs) conference in the Federated States of Micronesia in 2015, potential role of traditional medicine for management of NCDs was highlighted, and integration of traditional medicine in the national health system was included as a part of the resolution. Since then, with support from WHO, the government has tried to develop the national strategies and actions to implement it. In Samoa, the Samoa Health Sector Plan 2008-2018 includes strengthening closer working relationship including referral pathways with traditional healers as one of indicators for control and management of communicable diseases and NCDs to improve access and strengthen quality health care delivery in Samoa. In Cook Islands and Tonga, there are ongoing efforts to conduct scientific researches on medicinal plants to tackle antimicrobial resistance issues.

In Fiji and Papua New Guinea, there are ongoing efforts to develop regulatory system for complementary medicine products. Furthermore, there are several PICs which have developed regulations on complementary medicine practitioners such as acupuncturists, chiropractors and chiropodists.

The governments are facing many challenges in developing strategies and actions to use traditional and complementary medicine in the national health systems and implementing them. More importantly, there is very limited information on use of traditional medicine in PICs. Thus, the proposed activity will conduct comprehensive literature review on use of traditional and comprehensive medicine and regulatory status in PICs. It will provide baseline information for policy makers in PICs to develop actions on traditional medicine to achieve universal health coverage along their journey to healthy islands.

Tasks

This activity aims to provide information for informed-policy development on how to integrate traditional medicine in the national health systems to advance universal health coverage and healthy islands in Pacific Island Countries (PICs). The activity will be conducted with the following objectives:

• To conduct comprehensive literature review on use of traditional medicine products and services by communities including prevalence of usage, socio-demographic data of users, key modalities of traditional medicine practice, types of practitioners and their training, perception on the role delineation between western and traditional medicine, health seeking behaviour, and interaction between traditional healers and other health care providers(contact and referral), if information is available, and current regulatory status for traditional and complementary medicine products and practitioners in PICs where the information is very limited;
• To identify examples to use traditional medicine in health care systems in PICs; and 
• To analyze place(role) of traditional medicine in health care services in PICs, achievements and challenges

The expected outcome from this consultancy will be a policy brief on role of traditional medicine in achieving universal health coverage and healthy islands in PICs.

The expert will develop the methodology for a comprehensive literature review, which will be finalized in consultation with WHO staff. According to the agreed methodology, she/he will conduct a literature review on use of traditional medicine products and services by communities including prevalence of usage, socio-demographic data of users, key modalities of traditional medicine practice, types of practitioners and their training, perception on the role delineation between western and traditional medicine, health seeking behaviour, and interaction between traditional healers and other health care providers(contact and referral), if information is available, as well as regulation of traditional and complementary medicine products and practitioners in PICs. The expert will analyze the place of traditional medicine in health care services in the PICs, its potential role in achieving universal health coverage and the vision of healthy islands, challenges and actions which policy-makers can consider. Thereafter, the expert will write a brief policy-oriented report to summarize this information and provide options for policy-makers to consider for use of traditional medicine in the resource-limited environments in PICs.   

Method(s) to carry out the activity

• Development of methodology for literature review
• Literature review using databases, hand-searching of major relevant journals and the relevant gray literature, including governments' official websites and WHO documents.
• Compilation of information on use of traditional medicine products and services by communities including prevalence of usage, socio-demographic data of users, key modalities of traditional medicine practice, types of practitioners and their training, perception on the role delineation between western and traditional medicine, health seeking behaviour, and interaction between traditional healers and other health care providers(contact and referral) and current regulatory status of traditional and complementary medicine
• Identification of examples of success in the use of traditional and complementary medicine products and services in health service delivery in selected PICs
• Analysis of the place and potential role of traditional medicine in health care service delivery and relevant challenges
• Development of actions policy-makers may consider implementing with WHO staff
• Development of a brief policy-oriented report containing a summary of the above

Required profile of the contractor

Education
Advanced university degree in health-related or social sciences, with a post-graduate degree in public health.

Experience required:
Experiences in researches on public health issues, especially primary health care in Pacific Island Countries for more than 3 years. 

Skills / Technical skills and knowledge:
Skills and knowledge for literature review and health systems analysis

Language requirements:
Expert knowledge of English in reading, writing and speaking

Please submit following documents to the Supply Officer (WPRO) at wprosao@who.int by 31 October 2017. Please use Tender Notice No. 63325 as subject to all submissions.

• Expression of interest (cover letter) that includes a financial proposal
• CV (for individual contractors) or Company Profile (for institutional applications)

Please note that the application may be closed before the indicated closing date if a sufficient number of applications are received. Only successful candidates will be contacted