Building for women's traditional health and medicinal plant knowledge in Malawi : opportunities for support by the Malawi Social Action Fund (MASAF)

This study is concerned with the traditional health knowledge which underpins the home-based use of traditional medicinal and food plant resources among local women in rural Malawi. Through a qualitative investigation of traditional health knowledge and the use of health protective and restorative plant species among ordinary women in selected rural communities in Malawi, this study aims to gain insight into the particular contributions of local women in this realm. Through the use of gender sensitive qualitative research methods, the study aims to elucidate the actual and potential contributions of such traditional knowledge and skills and how they might be strengthened and promoted for improving the health conditions of those who continue to depend on them. This study sets out with an introduction and background. The remainder of this report is organized as follows. Section II sets out the study context, through a brief overview of ongoing initiatives in support of traditional herbal medicine in Malawi, and how the focus of this study relates to the priority areas identified in MASAF III's strategic plan. Section III outlines the study's conceptual framework, including its specific objectives and research questions. Section IV provides a description of the general research approach, and the specific qualitative data-gathering methods employed. In Section V the field research organization is described, including, notably, the criteria used for selecting the three study communities along with a brief description of each. Section VI discusses the main findings of the study under four broad topics: (a) the most pressing health problems experienced by local people and the remit and perceived value of home-based traditional practices vis à vis the range of biomedical health care resources available to them; (b) distribution and transmission of traditional health/medicinal plant knowledge; (c)classification, supplies and use patterns of the plants commonly used as medicine among the study communities; and (d) community-identified priorities for possible MASAF interventions. Discussion of the gender analyses carried out on the results of the FGD ranking sessions which focused on each of these themes form the core of this section. Section VII outlines the main conclusions of the study and distills some key lessons learned relating to methodological and substantive issues. Finally, Section VIII delivers some key recommendations for MASAF based on the priorities identified by the local people themselves.