A national programme on TM/CAM, as defined in the survey form, is any programme performed at local or national level by the Ministry of Health, other ministries or local bodies, whose mandate is to take specific action in order to achieve objectives in line with national policy or legislation.

Member States were asked whether a national programme exists and if so, when it was created. If they answered “no”, they were asked to indicate whether such a programme is in the process of being established.

Forty Member States (28%) reported that they had created a national programme on TM/CAM (Figure 5).

Figure 5. National programmes on TM/CAM

Further, of those Member States lacking such a programme, 33% (31 countries) indicated that such a programme was in the process of being established.

Of the 40 countries having a national programme on TM/CAM, 39 stated the year of issue. It can be seen that the number of national programmes on TM/CAM has more than doubled in the last decade (Figure 6). Furthermore, the greatest numbers of national programmes on TM/CAM were issued in the period 2000-03 compared with other periods, signaling an increased trend in establishing national programmes.

Figure 6. Number of Member States with national programmes on TM/CAM, by year

Finally, Map 4 indicates those Member States with national programmes on TM/CAM, and those Member States indicating that a national programme is in development.

Map 4. Member States with a national programme