Regulatory situation

Adopted in 1981, Decision 1831 (40) established a working group to examine problems concerning traditional medicine and traditional pharmacopoeia. Section 2 of the Decision reads:

The task of the working group shall be to determine the situation of traditional medicine and the traditional pharmacopoeia in Mauritania and, in particular:

• To examine the most appropriate and realistic ways and means of establishing an honest dialogue between the official health services and traditional practitioners in the spirit of the objective of health for all by the year 2000 through primary health care; and

• To propose the most appropriate mechanisms for identifying traditional practitioners who are amenable to such dialogue in order to determine and acknowledge the part that they can play in the system of comprehensive health care (health promotion, prevention of disease and disability, diagnosis and early treatment of disease, and rehabilitation).

Section 56 of Ordinance 83-136 (41) on the practice of medical professions states that the Ordinance does not apply to traditional medicine and traditional pharmacopoeia, as they are to be covered by separate legislation.

However, as of 1992 (6), Mauritania did not have official legislative/regulatory texts governing the practice of traditional medicine, any licensing process for traditional practitioners, or procedures for the official approval of traditional medical practices and remedies. Traditional medicine practitioners are not involved in Mauritania's primary health care programme.

Education and training

Mauritania does not have any official training facilities or programmes for traditional medicine (6).