This article intends to summarize findings from a study carried out by the author between the winter of 1995 and spring of 1996 among the Buems on the Ghana side of the Ghana-Togo border. The objective in this paper is to identify and discuss the main philosophical contexts within which the...

Inspired by the success of the pilot study tour, the Africa Region embarked on an initiative to build cross-regional partnership between East Africa and South Asia seeking to integrate indigenous knowledge and practices into Bank supported operations. The aim was to leverage the experience of IK...

Traditional medicine practice involves a complex combination of activities, order of knowledge, beliefs and customs to generate the desired effects for the diagnosis, prevention or elimination of imbalances in physical, psychological or social well-being. Traditional medicine practice is based...

African Indigenous Knowledge (IK) is labeled variously and misconceived at international discussions and in modern literature. The most commonly used phrases are "static," "low-value-added" and "prior art", primarily in the context of the Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights...

The fieldwork-based study aims to gain insight into the local distribution of traditional health knowledge and the uses of various medicinal plants among ordinary men and women in rural communities, who constitute the vast majority of Ethiopia's population. The overall aim of the research is to...

The note reviews the impact on collective responsibility for orphans in Eritrea, as a result of the thirty-year war, when the number of children who lost both parents increased in geometric proportions. At the same time, the social structure of the traditional society was grossly disrupted, and,...

The note examines the experience of self-developed technologies by farmer experimenters (FEs) in Honduras, based on a study by the Association of Advisors for a Sustainable, Ecological, and People-Centered Agriculture - COSECHA - and shows how FEs are capable of developing large numbers of...

This report deals with a community based alternative to health care financing called "eder." Eder is a form of traditional social institution in Ethiopia that is established by the mutual agreement and assistance of community members in order to collaborate with each other whenever any member of...

The note examines the transfer of knowledge from one generation to the next, and from country to country, through trading ties, and social interactions which has raised knowledge sharing activities within Africa, and elsewhere. Such activities have reinforced the universality of indigenous...

The note aims to prompt policy makers, and development managers to reassess, and give more weight to neglected production, and consumption of traditional vegetables, so as to enhance nutrition, income generation, and food security for small scale households. Though the views expressed herewith...