© Kamla-Raj 2016 Ethno Med, 10(4): 481-487 (2016) The Role of Indigenous Knowledge in the Provision of Health Care in Malawi Cecilia Promise Maliwichi-Nyirenda 1 , Lucy Lynn Maliwichi 2 and Yamiko Msosa 3 1 University of Malawi, College of Medicine, Blantyre, Malawi 2 Department of Consumer Science, University of Venda, Thohoyandou, South Africa 3 Indigenous Knowledge Centre Blantyre, Malawi E-mail: 1 <nyirendacecilia@yahoo.co.uk>, 2 <Maliwichi@univen.ac.za>, 3 <yamikomsosa@yahoo.co.uk> KEYWORDS Indigenous Knowledge. Health Care. Maternal Health ABSTRACT Malawi has rich indigenous knowledge (IK) but lacks coordination processes to promote utilisation of IK in economic development. Indigenous Knowledge Centre (IKC) was established in 2009. IKC’s goal is to compile, preserve, manage and promote IK; and strengthen Science, Technology and Innovation (STI).This paper looks at innovative methods to harness IK in healthcare provision in Malawi where some people resort to traditional healthcare because modern hospitals are inaccessible; lack drugs, personnel and laboratory equipment; and staff are presumed to ill-treat patients. Malawi’s maternal mortality is 984 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births. Traditional Birth Attendants (TBAs) are discouraged from using medicinal plants because they cause ruptured uterus, a major cause of maternal mortality. Hospital records show that TBAs delivered at least 1,100 babies per month. The study by the IKC found that trained TBAs were still using medicinal plants. A total of 107 plant species were used in pregnancy and 128 for under-five cases to treat different ailments. Most of the medicinal plants were administered without dosage guidelines. Although TBAs were banned from practicing, some trained TBAs were still assisting pregnant women to deliver. Those that were afraid delivered with the assistance of village elderly women. Because modern and traditional healthcare systems operate side by side, there is a need to integrate the two systems. Medicinal plants need to be analysed; safe dosages established and toxic plants identified to guide evidence-based policies. INTRODUCTION As has been the phenomenon worldwide, some of the indigenous knowledge has been the basis for technological development. About 25-50 percent of the modern drugs are derived from indigenous knowledge collected from eth- nobotanical studies (Davis 1995). Well known examples are Aspirin, derived from Filipendula ulmaria; quinine, from Cinchona officinalis; and digitalis or digoxin, from Digitaris purpurea (Cotton 1996; Pei 2001; Balick and Cox 1996). Indigenous knowledge is also important to pol- icy makers because it highlights potentially valu- able resources, their uses and traditional utilisa- tion and management methods (Balick and Cox 1996; Alcorn 1995). In the case of species of me- dicinal value, IK information provides an over- view of healthcare problems prevalent in an area (Cotton 1996). The knowledge is also useful in biodiversity conservation and environmental management. There is evidence that countries that have used IK innovatively have made strides in so- cio-economic development. In India, several medicinal preparations and surgical procedures were developed through traditional medicine system known as Ayurveda (Dwivedi and Dwivedi 2007). Despite indigenous knowledge’s importance in Science, Technology and Innovation (STI), little has been documented in Africa. Most of the knowledge is passed orally from one gener- ation to the other and it involves memorising hence it easily gets distorted (Balick and Cox 1996; Prance 1995; Kokwaro 1995; Msonthi and Magombo 1983). Status of Indigenous Knowledge in Malawi Malawi has 13.1 million people of which 6.7 million are females [National Statistical Office, 2004]. It is the thirteenth poorest country in the world with 64.3 percent of the population living below the poverty line of 41USD cents per per- son per day (Benson et al. 2002). Around 70 per- cent of the population live in rural areas. De- spite being socio-economically poor, Malawi, like all African countries, has rich indigenous knowl- edge base which has sustained people for thou-