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13 September 2022 | Story Andrè Damons | Photo Andrè Damons
Prof Motlalepula Matsabisa
This week, Prof Motlalepula Matsabisa, will give a keynote speech on Indigenous Knowledge Systems (IKS) and Health during a session at the eighth edition of the UNGA77 Science Summit around the 77th United Nations General Assembly (SSUNGA77).

Prof Motlalepula Matsabisa, Director of Pharmacology at the University of the Free State (UFS), has been invited to give a keynote speech on Indigenous Knowledge Systems (IKS) and Health during a session at the eighth edition of the UNGA77 Science Summit around the 77th United Nations General Assembly (SSUNGA77).

While in New York, Prof Matsabisa will also meet with officials from the Wellcome Trust – a global charitable foundation – where he will present a strong and compelling motivation for the Wellcome Trust to invest in traditional medicines. Says Prof Matsabisa: “I will deliver a compelling message for investment to be made in scientific research and development around traditional medicines. This development will be piloted in a hub-and-spoke model based on the African economic blocks, with the hub being in South Africa. The returns on the investment put in this initiative will be massive for the African continent, both socially and economically, and I believe it will lead to self-sustainability and Africa being a supplier of innovations based on the science of traditional medicines.” 

SSUNGA77 is organised by Intelligence in Science and will take place from 13 to 30 September 2022. It will bring together thought leaders, scientists, technologists, innovators, policy makers, decision makers, regulators, financiers, philanthropists, journalists and editors, and community leaders to increase health science and citizen collaboration across a broad spectrum of themes, including ICT, nutrition, agriculture, health, IKS, and the environment.

Prof Matsabisa, an expert in African traditional medicine (ATM) and Chairperson of the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) Regional Expert Advisory Committee on Traditional Medicines for COVID-19 (REACT), is also the convener of this session, following his successful proposal for such a session. The session will take place in person on 20 September at the UN headquarters in New York. It is an official side event of the UN General Assembly’s 77th anniversary and will be co-sponsored by the permanent missions of Ireland, Spain, South Africa, Brazil, and Bangladesh to the UN.

His message at Science Summit

“At the end of the summit, we are to make recommendations to the UN, EU, and AU on IKS and health developmental matters. This is exciting and nerve-wracking for me, but I will remain calm knowing that I have a message to deliver to the highest global decision-making body. There can be nothing greater than presenting my talk and proposals for consideration to such a body.” 

“I will convey three simple messages, namely the importance of traditional medicines in contributing to universal health coverage, the need for Africa – through the heads of state and governments – to take seriously the local manufacturing of traditional medicines for industrialisation, economic emancipation, and responding to poverty and inequality. The third message is the need for sustained and adequate financial support by African ministries of health for the development, commercialisation, and market access to quality and well-researched, safe, and effective traditional medicines in order to contribute to priority diseases as well as responding to pandemics,” says Prof Matsabisa. 

According to him, this address at SSUNGA77 is a chance to correctly position the story on IKS with arguments based on good scientific evidence. “It means we are getting much closer to the institutionalisation and formal economic contribution of IKS to health, and that the African IKS health system is getting international recognition and acceptance,” he says.
Prof Matsabisa says he hopes the message will emerge clearly from his talk that Africa has the resources for raw materials and that the science, as well as the infrastructure, exists to develop IKS and to contribute to new health products. The spin-off is the industrialisation, job creation, and wealth generation that Africa can offer to the rest of the world.

Overall information on the summit is available here

News Archive

UFS becomes the first university in Africa to sign a memorandum of understanding with the United Nations University
2009-12-01

 During the signing of the memorandum of agreement between DiMTEC and the United Nations University in Bonn, Germany were, from the left, seated: Prof. Konrad Osterwalder, Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations and Rector of the United Nations University; and Prof. Herman van Schalkwyk, Dean of the Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences at the UFS; back: Prof. Dusan Sakulski, Academic Officer, UNU Cooperative Unit for South Africa; and Mr Andries Jordaan, Director of DiMTEC at the UFS.
Photo: Supplied
 
The University of the Free State (UFS) has become the first university in Africa to sign a memorandum of understanding with the United Nations University. The memorandum of understanding was negotiated by Mr Andries Jordaan, Director of the UFS's Disaster Management Training and Education Centre for Africa (DiMTEC).

Mr Jordaan negotiated with the United Nations University Institute for Environment and Human Security (UNU-EHS) to foster a relationship and combine their pool of resources for training in different aspects of Disaster Management. A triangular agreement between DiMTEC, UNU-EHS and the University of Novi Sad in Serbia will be established in three phases. The first phase is the signing of a memorandum of understanding between DiMTEC and UNU-EHS. This phase was completed in September 2009, when Prof. Konrad Osterwalder, Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations and Rector of the United Nations University, and Prof. Herman van Schalkwyk, Dean of the Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences at the UFS signed the memorandum in Bonn, Germany. The second phase is a memorandum of understanding between UNU-EHS and the University of Novi Sad.

The memorandum of understanding entails among others joint projects between DiMTEC and the UNU-EHS, research for specific projects, exchange of lecturers and that the UNU will assist DiMTEC with external evaluation. As a result of this memorandum, the two universities have already combined their pool of resources by presenting a vulnerability short course and a visitation to the Republic of the Congo.

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