Indigenous Medical Knowledge for Integrated Public Health Development: A New Way to Reduce Poverty in West Java

DOI

10.2991/imm-16.2016.22How to use a DOI?

Keywords

indigenous knowledge, traditional medicine, poverty, public health.

Abstract

Poverty and economic development in Indonesia are directly linked to the access to public health care. Globalisation changes socio-cultural contexts of the communitythe top-down approach rather than the bottom-up approach of primary health care development by ignoring traditional medical systems. Traditional medicine is not only a part of local health practices and traditional indigenous knowledge but has also become a formal strategy to improve primary health care (WHO Traditional Medicine Strategy 2014-2023). The development of traditional medicine is an innovative way to reduce poverty and increase public health through its integration into new forms of integrated microfinance management, implemented through local institutions. Indonesia consists of about 400 ethno-cultural groups, where each group has inherited their specific indigenous knowledge systems from generation to generation, including traditional knowledge of therapies and medicines. The potential benefits of traditional medicine should not be underestimated. Apart from its contribution to reduce high-prevalence diseases in Indonesia, the problem of persistent poverty could also be resolved since traditional medicine is not only a relatively cheap way of treatment, but is also marketable and can as such be an important source of income and employment for local peoples. This paper aims to review evidence on the role of indigenous medical knowledge on the improvement of the current health system and the related reduction of poverty. It is important that all communities take the opportunity to integrate indigenous medical knowledge and practice into local community services, such as in integrated microfinance management in order to improve Indonesia's health agenda while conserving the local cultures.

Copyright

© 2016, the Authors. Published by Atlantis Press.

Open Access

This is an open access article distributed under the CC BY-NC license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/).

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Maya Febriyanti
PY  - 2016/10
DA  - 2016/10
TI  - Indigenous Medical Knowledge for Integrated Public Health Development: A New Way to Reduce Poverty in West Java
BT  - Proceedings of the International Conference, Integrated Microfinance Management for Sustainable Community Development (IMM 2016)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 143
EP  - 147
SN  - 2352-5428
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/imm-16.2016.22
DO  - 10.2991/imm-16.2016.22
ID  - Febriyanti2016/10
ER  -