Two recent meetings hosted by the Government of India are important in the context of Traditional, Complementary and Integrative Medicine (TCIM). India's presidency of G20 for the year 2023 concluded with signing the G20 New Delhi Leaders' Declaration. The leaders unanimously decided to accelerate efforts to achieve the 2030 agenda for sustainable development. The declaration, first time in G20 meetings, included TCIM. Another parallel event was the Traditional Medicine Global Summit 2023 jointly organized by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Ministry of Ayush, Government of India. The Summit reaffirmed its commitment to the TCIM for health and well-being. Both declarations are milestones in the global recognition of TCIM potentials.
1. G20 New Delhi Leaders’ declaration
Amidst global challenges and crises for the effective implementation of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the ministers, senior officials, and civil societies from G20 nations expressed their commitment and priorities towards the future. A comprehensive Indian thought “One Earth, One Family, and One Future” was the theme of the meetings. The G20 Health Ministers Meeting at Gandhinagar, Gujarat drafted the health related recommendations with the commitment to strengthen global health architecture. The G20 New Delhi Leaders’ Declaration covered an agenda for the planet, people, peace, and prosperity. The declaration emphasized on sustainable, balanced, and inclusive growth for progress. The G20 meetings and deliberations included indigenous knowledge, biodiversity and TCIM. The declaration advocates international collaborations for evidence based TCIM interventions and the importance of clinical research. The declaration acknowledges the role of an accessible, affordable and healthy diet for ensuring health and wellbeing. It calls for an inclusive approach that embraces resilient and environment friendly approach, promotion of lifestyle and improved access to mental health for sustainable development. The declaration also underlines importance of culture as one of the prominent drivers for SDGs. The recommendation for the inclusion of culture as a standalone goal for further discussions highlights the protection of the living cultural heritage.
Inclusion of Traditional Medicine (TM) in the G20 agenda recognizes potential role of TCIM in global health systems. Integration of evidence-based TCIM with mainstream national healthcare systems will be beneficial for people at large. Several interventions from various TCIM systems aiming at health promotion, rehabilitation, disease prevention and management, await integration with conventional healthcare. The experience of COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the need of resilient, equitable, sustainable and inclusive health systems. The amalgamation of TCIM with conventional care is crucial to address evolving challenges for global health systems.
2. Gujarat Declaration
World Health Organization's newly established Global Centre for Traditional Medicine organized the first WHO Traditional Medicine Global Summit (TMGS) with the theme “Towards health and well-being for all”[1]. The government of India's Ayush Ministry and the External Advisory Group for the WHO-TMGS planned the agenda of the Summit. The participants from 90 countries and health ministries of 30 WHO member states included various stakeholders such as academia, voluntary organizations, industries, and regulatory bodies. Government of India, Ministry of Ayush hosted the program at Gandhinagar, Gujarat, India on 17th and 18th August 2023. The concurrent organization of the Summit with the G20 health ministers' meeting brought a synergy for policy decisions related to TCIM.
The TMGS was important for several reasons. The cultural diversity of participants, representation of various knowledge domains covering traditional and modern sciences, members from government and voluntary organizations, and participants of various age group made the Summit a multi-regional, multi-disciplinary and multi-stakeholder event. The meeting was addressed by the director general of WHO, Dr. Tedros Ghebreyesus, who expressed the need for efforts to harness the potentials of TM for effective integration into national health systems.
Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, director general of the World Trade Organization, said that the TCIM is an inclusive and accessible approach to health and it has an important role for universal health coverage. Nobel laureate Dr. Tu Youyou underscored the importance of blending ancient wisdom with modern science and technology, emphasizing the interconnectedness of humanity and nature to safeguard the planet from natural disasters. Dr. Gururaj Mutalik, a senior physician-scientist, explored traditional knowledge as a comprehensive body of wisdom, drawing from his own experiences to promote its utilization alongside advancing technologies. Prof. Bhushan Patwardhan, a biomedical scientist and the summit's co-chair, defined modernity as the evolution of tradition and emphasized the significance of experiential evidence in TM.
Representatives from various parts of the world voiced their views, concerns and commitments that portrayed several dimensions of TM. TM is an expression of comprehensive traditional knowledge (TK) reflected in several determinants of health. Therefore, application of TM needs explanations from TK along with its cultural aspects. Hence the practices and transfer of TK are based on values, behaviour, theories, beliefs, culture and experiences. Along with efforts for the preservation, traditional knowledge needs protection to retain its epistemological context. At the same time, the studies including validation of TK needs transdisciplinary approaches. This balance is important for preservation and mainstreaming of TM. Some of the members from the African region expressed a strong sentiment about diminishing human-nature interactions, which is the foundation of traditional and indigenous knowledge. Protection of biodiversity and ensuring sustainability in human activity is an important challenge highlighted by the Summit.
Key outcomes of the Summit are published as Gujarat Declaration (GD). The declaration outlines an action plan for effective implementation of evidence-based TCIM interventions and approaches for achieving Universal Health Coverage and health-related SDGs. The Summit emphasized on potentials of traditional knowledge and called for coordinated efforts to explore the same with the help of advancing science, and technology. Acknowledging TCIM systems as a valuable resource for humanity, the GD appeals to explore and validate the knowledge pool for health, wellbeing and sustainability. The holistic thinking of TCIM covers physical, mental, social, and spiritual dimensions of health and well-being.
Considering the importance, the GD advocates funding mobilization for new research, evidence syntheses and knowledge translation of TCIM. The declaration has endorsed the development of an evidence base which would be “multidimensional, multi-disciplinary, inclusive, yet culturally appropriate”. While retaining the core concepts and culture the need for convergence with digital health initiatives including artificial intelligence is also emphasized. The Summit proved a milestone in the development of TCIM. The Journal of Ayurveda and Integrative Medicine is reproducing the Gujrat Declaration in this issue.
3. Indian contributions
India's G20 Presidency highlighted its leadership role on a global canvass. This was an opportunity for Indian institutions to prepare plans for several areas through a nation-wide series of activities for the duration of its G20 presidency. India has rich TM in terms of Ayush systems. Since its establishment in 2014, the Ministry of Ayush is instrumental in developing channels with other ministries and global government organizations. During the WHO-TMGS, Shri. Mansukh Mandaviya, Minister of Health and Shri. Sarbananda Sonowal, Minister of Ayush unanimously affirmed the Government of India's commitment to mainstream Ayush in Indian health systems. Vaidya Rajesh Kotecha, secretary of the Ayush Ministry, presented changing scenario of the sector with many examples and shared new initiatives such as the establishment of Ayush-based health and wellness centres, and a scheme for Ayush visa. India is contributing to the global development of holistic healthcare by leveraging the strengths of biomedicine and Ayush systems.
The New Delhi Leaders' Declaration and the Gujrat Declaration have sketched the roadmap for advancing TCIM. These declarations highlight potentials and specify expectations for the sector. The Global commitment to TCIM is an assuring context for a long awaited dream - ‘health and well-being for all’.
Funding declaration
The authors did not receive any funding for writing this editorial.
Author contribution
GT conceptualized and prepared the first draft. SC reviewed and revised the manuscript.
Conflicts of interest
The authors do not have any conflict of interest.
Acknowledgement
We thank World Health Organization for permission to reproduce the Gujarat Declaration. We thank Prof Bhushan Patwardhan for inputs. Thanks to Dr Akash Saggam and Ms Sanchita Sangle for editorial assistance.
Footnotes
Peer review under responsibility of Transdisciplinary University, Bangalore.
Contributor Information
Girish Tillu, Email: gtillu@gmail.com.
Sarika Chaturvedi, Email: sarikabharat2005@gmail.com.
References
- 1.Patwardhan B., Wieland L.S., Aginam O., Chuthaputti A., Ghelman R., Ghods R., et al. Evidence-based traditional medicine for transforming global health and well-being. J Ayurveda Integr Med. 2023;14(4) doi: 10.1016/j.jaim.2023.100790. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]