At the signing ceremony in Geneva, Ayush Secretary, Vaidya Rajesh Kotecha, said the signing of the donor agreement is a major milestone towards achieving the shared vision of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and WHO Director-General Tedros for the development of the WHO Global Traditional Medicine Centre at Jamnagar, Gujarat.
“India remains committed to supporting WHO in its work to strengthen traditional medicine systems globally for achieving universal health coverage and serving the entire humanity, especially through this Global Centre in Jamnagar, which would help focus these efforts to benefit all Member States,” said Ambassador Arindam Bagchi, Permanent Representative of India to the UN and other International Organizations in Geneva.
The WHO Global Traditional Medicine Centre focuses on five inter-connected areas of work: research and evidence; primary health care and universal health coverage; Indigenous Knowledge and biodiversity; digital health applications; and the biennial WHO Global Traditional Medicine Summit and collaborations.
The first WHO traditional medicine global summit was held in August 2023 in Gujarat, resulting in a multistakeholder action agenda, the Gujarat Declaration. The next WHO Global Summit is planned for November 2025, following up on the anticipated launch of the 2025–2034 Global Strategy for Traditional Medicine at the 78th World Health Assembly in May 2025, the WHO said.
India’s support for traditional medicine has been expressed through a variety of long-standing partnerships with WHO. In 2023, India signed a five-year agreement to support the technical work of WHO’s Traditional, Complementary and Integrative Medicine (TCI) unit.
The unit is supporting the development of the Member State-requested new WHO traditional medicine global strategy (2025 – 2034), and publishes key benchmark documents, standardized terminologies, and other evidence-informed technical products to support the safe and effective integration of traditional medicine in national health systems.
The Centre and TCI collaborate closely with teams across WHO to advance WHO’s multisectoral agenda on traditional medicine, including through regular meetings of the WHO Technical Expert Network, coordinated by the WHO Global Traditional Medicine Centre and TCI, to promote a One WHO approach on traditional medicine across headquarters, regional and country office.