The Global Initiative for Traditional Systems (GIFTS) of Health (http://users.ox.ac.uk/~gree0179/) is supported by the Common-wealth Secretariat (see Section 4.2). It seeks to raise international awareness of the role of traditional health systems and to pro-mote policy development to ensure their continued use. This work includes developing linkages between traditional health systems, biodiversity conservation and economic development.

The Research Initiative on Traditional Antimalarial Methods (RITAM) (http://mim.nih.gov/english/partnerships/ritam_application.pdf) was launched in 1999 as a collaboration between WHO, the Global Initiative for Traditional Systems of Health (GIFTS), the University of Oxford, and researchers and others throughout the world who are investigating or interested in the antimalarial properties of plants, with a view to developing or validating local herbal medicines to prevent and/or treat malaria. RITAM held its inaugural meeting in December 1999 in Moshi, Tanzania.