Presents preliminary results of a literature review considering the links between local and biomedical knowledge in Africa, using the theoretical lens of social capital.

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LINKING LOCAL AND GLOBAL
KNOWLEDGE: LESSONS ON IMPROVING
THE LINKS BETWEEN TRADITIONAL AND
MODERN MEDICINE IN AFRICA
Sarah Cummings
Sustainability and Development Conference
#sandmeet
10 November 2018
sarahcummings sarahcummings1 sarahcummingswork@gmail.com

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 Disconnects in the development
knowledge system
 The role of knowledge in the
SDGs and Agenda Knowledge for
Development
www.k4dp.org/agenda
 What about local knowledge and
health?
 Chris Zielinski, Suzanne Kiwanuka
and Barbara Regeer
BACKGROUND
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 Local knowledge and global
health
> Why local knowledge?
> Focus on Africa
 Theoretical framework
 Literature review
 Findings
 Conclusions and next steps
OVERVIEW
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4. Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
 Why local knowledge?
> Perspective broader than traditional medicine
> Local practices relating to health
> ‘…it encompasses such medical pluralism, rather than suggestion of
exclusively indigenous or traditional beliefs’ (Beinhart and Brown 2013: 18)
 Focus on Africa
> Quiz question: what proportion of health services provided by
traditional medicine in Africa? 20%? 40%? 60%? 80%?
> Huge amount of diversity
 Hypothesis
LOCAL KNOWLEDGE AND GLOBAL HEALTH

5. Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
 Social capital
> ‘The aggregate of the actual and potential resources which are linked
to possession of a durable network’ (Bourdieu)
> Highly relevant to knowledge creation and exchange (Nahapiet and
Ghoshal 1998)
> Role at the grassroots (Anastasia Seferiadis and colleagues)
 Why social capital?
> Cognitive, relational and structural aspects
> Endogenous resources
> Trust (and distrust) plays an important role
THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

6. Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
 Critical interpretive synthesis
> Analysis of complex and diverse bodies of literature
> Qualitative approaches
> New concepts and theories
 WoS search
> TS= (African countries OR Africa) AND (local knowledge OR
indigenous knowledge OR traditional knowledge) and (health OR
mortality OR malaria OR tropical diseases OR non-communicable OR
alcohol OR deaths OR family planning OR reproductive health OR
hazardous OR pollution OR vaccines OR medicin*) AND TI=(local OR
indigenous OR traditional)
LITERATURE REVIEW

8. Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
 Many papers on ethnobotany (133 papers)
 Cognitive aspects
> Different knowledge systems, different status
 Structural aspects
> Legislative framework, education systems
 Relational aspects
> Trust/distrust, networks
FINDINGS

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 Cognitive, structural and
relational disconnects
 Limited number of countries:
South Africa (9), Nigeria,
Tanzania, Uganda, Zimbabwe (3),
Ghana, Mali, Cote d-Ivoire (1)
 Strong focus on HIV/AIDS (9),
malaria (4), and primary health
care
FINDINGS
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 Social capital is a useful lens
 Case studies linking local and
biomedical knowledge at local
and national level
 Advocacy
 Thank you for your attention
CONCLUSIONS AND NEXT
STEPS
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