Guinea-Bissau 2026. 285 field agents trained for the mapping of traditional practitioners
From 3 to 10 July 2026, ICHESS trained the field teams of the geo-referenced mapping of traditional medicine practitioners in Guinea-Bissau in all 11 health regions of the country, through a decentralised cascade approach.
Key figures
- 285 people trained: 245 data collectors, 33 regional supervisors and 7 PROMETRA focal points
- 11 of 11 health regions covered: Bafatá, Bijagós, Biombo, Bolama, Cacheu, Farim, Gabú, Oio, Quinara, SAB and Tombali
- Sessions held close to the field, to reduce travel and address the realities of each region
Why this mapping matters. In many rural, peri-urban and island areas, traditional practitioners are an important source of care for families, yet data on them remain scattered and hard to compare: one mapping in Bafatá identified 1,379 practitioners, while a national exercise in 2025 recorded only 197. The mapping will build a reliable national database and a cartographic atlas for the Ministry of Public Health, the Directorate of Community Health Services and Traditional Medicine Promotion, UNDP and partners, to improve planning, coordination and collaboration with the formal health system across all 114 health areas.
What the teams learned. The training followed the full life cycle of an interview on Survey Solutions: installing and configuring the application, receiving assignments, completing the questionnaire, capturing GPS coordinates with a 20-metre precision threshold, checking alerts and synchronising data. Ethics were central: informed consent, confidentiality, voluntary participation and respect for refusals, with separate consent for interviews and for GPS collection.
Next steps. Pre-deployment briefings in each region, continuous technical support, a daily checklist for each data collector, close review of the first interviews by supervisors and quality control of data before central validation.
| Region | July 2026 | Data collectors | Supervisors | PROMETRA focal points |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bafatá | 3–4 | 33 | 3 | 1 |
| Bijagós | 4–5 | 11 | 3 | 0 |
| Biombo | 6–7 | 16 | 3 | 0 |
| Bolama | 8–9 | 6 | 3 | 1 |
| Cacheu | 3–4 | 37 | 3 | 0 |
| Farim | 4–5 | 11 | 3 | 0 |
| Gabú | 4–5 | 41 | 3 | 1 |
| Oio | 9–10 | 26 | 3 | 1 |
| Quinara | 4–5 | 12 | 3 | 1 |
| SAB | 3–4 | 37 | 3 | 1 |
| Tombali | 4–5 | 15 | 3 | 1 |
| Total | 3–10 | 245 | 33 | 7 |
Read also: launch of the mapping with the Ministry of Public Health (30 June 2026)
