Exploring evidence-based uses of traditional medicine, such as ginger to treat nausea, is one of the topics discussed at the second meeting of the World Health Organization (WHO) summit dedicated to traditional, complementary and integrative medicine (TCIM), which is taking place this week in India.

While most WHO member states report that 40 to 90 percent of their populations use traditional medicine, a meager 1 percent of global health funding supports research in this area. Additionally, a WHO an investigation showed regional imbalances in the percentage of countries with a national CIMT policy.

Why have so few funds been allocated to traditional medicine? And is traditional medicine a treatment, a way of life or something else?

To find out, UN News spoke to Rabinarayan Acharya, director general of the Indian Central Council for Research in Ayurvedic Sciences (CCRAS). who collaborates with WHO to advance research in this area.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

© Courtesy of Rabinarayan Acharya

Rabinarayan Acharya is the Director General of the Indian Central Council for Research in Ayurvedic Sciences (CCRAS).

UN News: How did you get into the field of traditional medicine?

Rabinarayan Acharya: My entry into traditional medicine was formed very early at home. My father received formal training in Ayurveda and Sanskrit at a renowned Sanskrit institution in Puri, Odisha, and I grew up exposed to classical texts, philosophy and scholarly traditions. Odisha’s strong living heritage of Ayurveda has instilled in me a deep respect for Ayurveda as a system of knowledge, and not just as a treatment modality. This foundation, combined with my scientific background and botany specializations, naturally led me to pursue Ayurveda as a career focused on research, evidence generation, and teaching.

UN News: Is Ayurveda a lifestyle or a treatment?

Mr. Acharya: Ayurveda is both a way of life and a system of medicine, but its reach extends far beyond either in isolation. At its core, Ayurveda emphasizes healthy living through proper lifestyle practices (Vihara), dietetics (Ahara), and ethical conduct (Sadvritta). These principles are designed to maintain homeostasis, prevent disease, and promote long-term well-being rather than simply treating disease after it occurs. When illness occurs, Ayurveda offers well-structured therapeutic measures aimed not only at relieving symptoms but also at restoring systemic homeostasis.

This holistic focus aligns closely with conventional public health priorities, such as disease prevention, healthy aging, and management of chronic lifestyle disorders. The principles and practice of Ayurveda are particularly relevant in the context of the global shift towards non-communicable diseases, which are largely driven by modifiable risk factors such as poor diet, physical inactivity, stress and environmental exposures.

UN News: The WHO Global Traditional Medicine Strategy 2025-2034 aims, among other objectives, to strengthen the evidence base on traditional medicine. What role do national institutions play in achieving these goals?

Mr. Acharya:At CCRAS, our mandate directly addresses the need identified by WHO that although the use of traditional medicine is widespread, robust evidence on safety, effectiveness and appropriate use must be systematically generated.

We achieve this by designing and conducting methodologically rigorous clinical studies, observational research, and public health evaluations rooted in classical Ayurvedic principles, while adhering to contemporary scientific and ethical standards. These research initiatives focus on drug development, clinical research, pharmacology, medicinal plant research, epidemiology and health systems research, enabling the generation of evidence across the research continuum.

UN News: Currently, less than 1 percent of global health research funding is allocated to traditional medicine. Why do you think this is the case and what will it take to change?

Mr. Acharya:The limited share of global health research funding for traditional medicine is largely due to structural and methodological factors, not a lack of relevance or demand. Systems such as Ayurveda are complex, individualized and implemented as comprehensive interventions, which do not always fit neatly into the conventional biomedical research frameworks that dominate global funding priorities.

Changing this will require a strategic shift towards evidence-based integration, as outlined in the WHO Global Strategy for Traditional Medicine 2025-2034. This means sustained investment in high-quality, fit-for-purpose research that clearly demonstrates safety, effectiveness and public health value – from health promotion and prevention to treatment, rehabilitation and palliative care. It is equally crucial to integrate validated traditional medicine interventions into national health policies.

UN News: To what extent do you hope that more countries will integrate traditional medicine into their health systems?

Mr. Acharya: I am cautiously optimistic and the global dynamics are certainly encouraging. This is particularly relevant at a time when health systems are under pressure from increasing noncommunicable diseases, aging populations, and workforce and resource constraints.

It is important to note that integration does not imply the replacement of conventional care, but rather a complementary approach where safe and effective traditional medicine practices are aligned with national health priorities and public health goals.

UN News: Can you give us an example of evidence-based traditional medicine used to treat bodily or mental health illnesses?

Mr. Acharya:Withania somnifera (Ashwagandha), traditionally used as an adaptogen in Ayurveda, has been studied as a complementary treatment for mental health. Evidence suggests it may help reduce symptoms of depression and anxiety, while being generally safe and well-tolerated, highlighting its potential as a therapy for mental disorders.

Briefing of ambassadors in the Security CouncilRosemary DiCarlo, the UN’s political affairs chief, and Joyce Msuya, deputy emergency relief coordinator, said Syrians had made tangible progress over the past year.

However, the country’s recovery – following the fall of the Assad regime in December 2024 – remains fragile and uneven, requiring sustained international support.

Millions return, millions more are in need

One of the clearest signs of change, UN officials say, has been the large-scale return of displaced Syrians. More than two million internally displaced people have returned to their areas of origin, while more than 1.3 million refugees have returned from neighboring countries.

“Two million displaced people in Syria have returned – most after years of living in camps in precarious conditions.“, Ms Msuya said.

But many returnees return to damaged or destroyed homes, with limited access to electricity, water, health care or jobs. Millions more remain displaced, and many families are reluctant to return due to lack of housing and services, particularly during the winter months.

As a result, humanitarian aid remains essential, even as the UN seeks to wind down one of its largest aid operations in the world.

Humanitarian operations under pressure

Msuya said the UN has been able to streamline its humanitarian response over the past year, reaching around 3.4 million people per month – 25 percent more than last year – despite less funding.

However, she warned that the 2025 humanitarian appeal is only about 30 percent funded, forcing difficult prioritization decisions and leaving millions of people without assistance.

“Given the scale of needs and the time needed for development efforts to take effect, we also need support to maintain and expand humanitarian assistance in the short term.” she said.

She noted that the easing of sanctions by several countries has helped facilitate procurement and financial transactions for aid operations and could support Syria’s long-term recovery if it continues.

Deputy Secretary-General Rosemary DiCarlo briefs the Security Council on the situation in Syria.

Political progress, but fragile security

On the political front, DiCarlo said Syria had taken important steps, including restoring state institutions, forming a new cabinet, issuing a constitutional declaration and holding indirect parliamentary elections in October.

Levels of violence have declined significantly, she said, while warning that intercommunal tensions remain high after years of conflict and repression.

“Tragically, these tensions have increased over the past year,“, she said, citing deadly violence in coastal areas in March, a terrorist attack on a church in Damascus in June and clashes in Druze-majority Soueida in July that displaced more than 155,000 people.

Israeli airstrikes and incursions into southern Syria have further worsened the security situation, U.N. officials said, including an operation in late November that killed 13 people and forced families to flee.

DiCarlo reiterated the UN Secretary-General’s call for Israel to respect Syria’s sovereignty and urged all parties to respect the 1974 disengagement agreement.

Justice, reconciliation and the road ahead

Both officials stressed that long-term stability would depend on accountability, reconciliation and inclusive governance.

“The shadows of the past continue to haunt the Syrian people,DiCarlo said, calling for a full accounting of past abuses, including addressing the plight of missing people and ensuring those responsible for serious crimes are held accountable.

She stressed that inclusive dialogue – including the meaningful participation of women – alongside sanctions relief and sustained international engagement, will be key to rebuilding trust, restoring investor confidence and laying the foundations for reconstruction.

Ms. Msuya echoed this message through the story of Rawaa, a single mother who returned from Turkey to her village of Hama with her two children, hoping to start a small business.

“We owe it to them to give them this chance,” she said, urging the international community to seize what she described as a rare moment to help Syria transform hope into lasting recovery.

Published by the United Nations Human Rights Office, OHCHRThe report describes how civilians – many from besieged El Fasher – endured torture and kidnapping during a three-day offensive by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) against the nearby Zamzam camp for displaced people in April this year.

Highlighting the report’s findings, UN human rights chief Volker Türk noted that more than 1,000 civilians had been killed in the Zamzam offensive alone, including 319 who were at risk of summary execution in their homes, the main market or in schools, health facilities and mosques.

“Such deliberate killings of civilians or people or combat may constitute a war crime of murder… The world must not stand idly by and watch such cruelty take root,” Mr. Türk insisted.

A camp full of terrified people

At the time of the RSF paramilitary attack, the Zamzam camp housed around 500,000 people uprooted by Sudan’s war, which began in April 2023 between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the RSF, following a failed transition to civilian rule.

According to the OHCHR report, the RSF attack “supported by allied Arab militias” lasted from April 11 to 13; this involved “heavy artillery bombardments and ground incursions” which caused large numbers of civilian deaths and displacement. “Incessant attacks” against El Fasher and surrounding camps had taken place since May 2024, prompting High Commissioner Türk to issue an alert for residents of the Abou Shouk and Zamzam camps in September 2024.

“At least 104 people, including 75 women, 26 girls and three boys, mostly from the Zaghawa ethnic tribe, were subjected to horrific sexual violence, including rape, gang rape and sexual slavery,” Türk said in an online video message on Thursday. “Sexual violence appears to have been deliberately used to sow terror in the community,” he added.

A dark testimony

Testimonies presented in the report detailing the summary execution of displaced people describe how RSF fighters targeted civilians, including seven elderly men at a mosque and 16 others at a religious school.

“A surviving community leader recounted how two RSF fighters inserted their rifles into small holes in the window of the room where he was hiding with 10 other men and opened fire, randomly killing eight of them,” OHCHR said in a statement. “A woman who returned to the camp the day after the deadly attack, looking for her missing 15-year-old son, said: ‘The camp was empty. I saw dead bodies scattered on the roads. Only chickens, donkeys and sheep wandered around.’ She did not find her son that day.

The report’s findings are based on UN human rights monitoring, including a field mission to eastern Chad in July this year. Interviews were also conducted with 155 victims and witnesses – including 114 women, three girls and six boys – who had fled the Zamzam camp during and after the RSF paramilitary offensive.

UN rights chief Türk called for an “impartial, thorough and effective investigation into the attack” on the Zamzam camp; all those responsible for serious violations of international law must be punished through fair procedures, he stressed.

Since Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022, Ukraine has suffered incessant air raids and drone strikes, disrupting daily life and endangering security.

Ahead of International Migration Day on December 18Elvira explains how art and the quiet power of creativity helped her get through three tumultuous years.

As kyiv bears the weight of war, in the showroom of Crimean Tatar ceramicist Elvira Demerdzhi, her ceramics offer a fragile refuge and reminder of home.

Crimean roots

Elvira’s story begins long before she shapes her first piece of clay. Her mother, pregnant with her, returned to Crimea from Uzbekistan in 1989 as Crimean Tatars returned home after decades of exile.

Her grandmother, deported at the age of nine in 1944, is the only survivor of her family.

Elvira Demerdzhi produces vessels inspired by traditional Crimean Tatar ceramics.

Elvira’s great-grandfather, who fought against Nazi Germany at the time, was later exiled and reunited with her years later.

The family rebuilt their lives in Crimea, where Elvira grew up, free to roam the southern coast from which she had once been torn away.

Before turning to ceramics, Elvira worked for twelve years as a professional dancer and performer.

Russian annexation of Crimea

After Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014, she lost her home and her displacement pushed her toward new forms of expression. Drawn to something more stable, she enrolled in a private ceramics workshop in kyiv and set out to learn everything she could, including how to run a business.

Clay has become both a craft and a form of self-discovery. “When I was displaced after the annexation, I began to study the lands of the Crimean Tatars and realized how little we knew about our homelands. »

For Elvira, each piece is anchored in the places she carries within her, reflecting the landscapes and memories of her childhood and her identity.

His workshop, “Aqyar Ceramics,” is named after the Crimean Tatar city of his hometown, Sevastopol. While traditional Crimean Tatar pottery is known for its colorful floral ornaments, Elvira chose a modern, minimalist approach. She works mainly with stone clay.

Elvira Demerdzhi sells her work through her brand Aqyar Ceramics.

When Russia invaded Ukraine, Elvira sought temporary refuge in the Netherlands. She could have stayed, but returning to kyiv seemed necessary because it was her home.

In October 2025 alone, Russia launched 269 missiles at Ukraine, the highest number recorded in the first ten months of the year, according to official figures. After such intense bombing periods, sales often drop sharply.

IOM Business Support

“Crafts need stability and, for now, I can only dream of having that for my business,” said Elvira.

Even so, some days bring small signs of progress.

Military families attend his master classes, appreciating the concentration and calm that clay requires. Customers are looking for meaningful gifts. Restaurants and hotels place orders for handmade tableware.

This year, Elvira received a business grant from International Organization for Migration (IOM), which allowed him to purchase additional equipment and materials. With the grandmother, she was able to collaborate with other ceramicists and take on large orders.

Elvira Demerdzhi offers dishes that reflect her Crimean Tatar roots.

Between 2022 and 2025, IOM helped more than 1,800 Ukrainian micro and small businesses stay afloat despite the pressures of a war economy.

Rebuilding her business is only part of Elvira’s life. She is also raising her six-year-old son, hoping to pass on their Crimean Tatar heritage when he is ready.

“He knows where he comes from, but I want to protect him a little longer,” she said.

Between Brussels, Flanders and Wallonia, the cultural year 2025 showed a creative, plural and very lively Belgium – but also more attentive to questions of financing, access and cohesion.

Summary. In 2025, Belgian culture continued to do what it does best: mix languages, scenes and audiences. Brussels has played the heritage and design card (with a strong return of art deco), while remaining a crossroads for contemporary art, comics and cinema. The major festivals have confirmed the country’s place on the European map, from Boom to Dour and Kiewit. But the year was also marked by very concrete debates: subsidies, political stability and public access to an offer that is intended to be “for everyone”.

Brussels, cultural showcase and urban laboratory

In the capital, 2025 has put heritage back at the center of the conversation. The city is told in geometric lines, gilding, glass and modernity: the “art deco year” has multiplied the meetings, with exhibitions and tours which place Brussels in the European history of the style of the 1920s and 1930s. The BELvue museum, for example, highlighted art deco both as a luxury… and as a production that had become accessible to a rapidly changing middle class.

Brussels also continued to do what it has been doing “at home” for a long time: juxtaposing the very institutional and the very popular. A weekend of free jazz on the squares, a large contemporary art fair at Brussels Expo, and — a few metro stations away — smaller venues where new formats are tested, from performance to stand-up, from documentary to hybrid concert.

In this landscape, large houses remain landmarks. At BOZAR, the exhibition Khoros by Berlinde De Bruyckere (presented from February 21 to August 31, 2025) illustrated a strong trend: Belgian artists visible internationally, but also shown “at home”, in a program which assumes the dialogue between contemporary, art history and broad audiences.

Contemporary art: Brussels confirms its place

On the market and the stage, Brussels has continued its transformation: less “city of passage” than before, more a rear base for galleries, artists and collectors. The fair Art Brussels has, in 2025, insisted on discovery and the unprecedented, with a strong international presence, while maintaining a Belgian anchorage. The recipe works because it marries the local DNA: a city where we go from French to Dutch (and English) without the creation apologizing for being multiple.

Living scenes: when Brussels “becomes a school”

The performing arts also set the tone. Kunstenfestivaldesarts celebrated its 30th^e edition from May 9 to 31, 2025, recalling that Brussels is not only an administrative capital: it is a city of theater, dance and performance, where the international is experienced on a daily basis.

And when the end of May comes, the music comes outside. THE Brussels Jazz Weekend (from May 23 to 25, 2025) has maintained its formula: free concerts, large squares and small stages, mixing of generations — a simple way of making culture “practical,” without unnecessary barriers.

A summer of festivals: from Boom to Dour, from Kiewit to… everywhere

Belgium confirmed in 2025 that it remains a country of festivals — in the broad sense, and not just for those in the know. Summer is a cultural geography in itself: we cross provinces as we cross styles.

• Tomorrowland at Boom (two weekends, July 18 to 20 and July 25 to 27, 2025) recalled its power of global attraction. The edition was marked by a spectacular event: the fire which destroyed the main stage a few days before the opening, without causing any injuries, and the continuation of the festival with adapted solutions.
• Dour Festival (from July 16 to 20, 2025) continued to defend a “big gap” programming, capable of aligning electronic music, rap, rock and experiments, with a very Belgian identity: open, without snobbery.
• Pukkelpop in Kiewit (Hasselt), from August 14 to 17, 2025, continued its tradition: diversity of stages, big names and discoveries, and logistics designed for large crowds — including via event trains.

Alongside these behemoths, Belgian culture 2025 has also been told through “neighborhood” and diaspora festivals, which make a clear difference in inclusion and representation. In Brussels, for example, the Afrodisiac Festival (Bois de la Cambre) highlighted the creativity of the African diaspora, between music, gastronomy and workshops, in a city where culture is also written with communities.

Cinema and comics: two Belgian signatures that never go out of fashion

Belgium 2025 is also a cultural identity that comes through images: on the big screen and in the bubbles. THE Brussels International Film Festival (BRIFF) was held from June 20 to 28, 2025, confirming Brussels’ place as a showcase for European and French-speaking cinema, but also as a place for public debates around contemporary stories.

In Ghent, Film Fest Gent (from October 8 to 19, 2025) announced a structuring novelty: the introduction of Flanders Film Days ahead of the festival, a sign of a sector that wants to combine creation, industry and international visibility. The 2025 list confirmed the attention paid to social issues, with a Grand Prize awarded to The Voice of Hind Rajab (Kaouther Ben Hania), according to the festival.

And then, obviously, there are comics — a shared national pride, from Brussels to Charleroi, from Liège to the coast. THE BD Comic Strip Festival has, in 2025, brought the public together around exhibitions, meetings and prizes, reminding us that comics are not just a heritage: it is also a creative industry and a common language between generations.

The crux of the matter: budgets, stability, access

This picture would be incomplete without the question that arises everywhere in Europe – and “a fortiori” in Belgium: how do we finance culture, and with what priorities?

In 2025, several signals showed increasing nervousness. In Flanders, the decision on the allocation of socio-cultural subsidies (for continuing education and community life organizations) was postponed, fueling a public debate on the role and legitimacy of this funding. In Brussels, the long regional political impasse has also weighed on the ecosystem, creating uncertainty over certain allocations and the continuity of projects. In a federal country, culture depends a lot on the levels of power: when the machine seizes up, the structures — especially the smallest — quickly feel it.

For cultural actors, the challenge is twofold: guaranteeing ambitious creation, and maintaining real accessibility (price, mobility, dissemination, mediation). In short: prevent culture from becoming a luxury. As such, free or very affordable formats (open-air jazz, heritage trails, neighborhood festivals) remain a Belgian strength in 2025 — and a real social choice.

A “Belgian style” Belgian culture: plural, close, and not always in agreement

Belgian culture, in 2025, cannot be reduced to a postcard image. It is made of compromises, frictions, translations and cohabitations. It’s sometimes complicated, but it’s also an asset: you can live twenty minutes from a major exhibition, an electro scene, a theater festival or a comic book meeting. And, “once”, that is perhaps the true Belgian singularity: a cultural density which forces you to choose… even when you would really like to do everything in a single week (or even over seventy-two hours).