Paper short abstract:

Anthropologist, I have studied the informal drug market in West Africa since early 2000’s. I will highlight how I have focus on national pharmaceutical systems and global drug circulations. I will describe moments of exchange with national regulatory authorities and the lessons I have learned.

Paper long abstract:

As a female anthropologist, I have been conducting research on the informal drug market in West Africa since the early 2000s, first in Senegal, then in Benin, Ghana and Burkina Faso. I will highlight how from the informal market, I came to focus on national pharmaceutical systems and global drug circulations. I will emphasize how the differences in regulation between French and English speaking countries on these issues allow us to understand the economic and political stakes behind "fake medicines". I will relate different moments of exchange on these subjects with national regulatory authorities: from a doctoral research restitution in Benin, to the organization of an international colloquium in Benin and several restitutions in Benin and Ghana following a European research program. The lessons I have learned from this work are the difficulties I have experienced in making the results of this research heard by national regulatory authorities and, above all, in making them usable for political action. Beyond the question of gender and age, which, as a young woman researcher, does not facilitate the scaling up of research in West African contexts, these experiences lead me to believe that 1) the political agenda can hardly be attuned to social science research that highlights the complexity of social situations, 2) the usefulness of my research would be more easily highlighted through the production of video documentaries aimed at the general public, or even other forms of innovative writing in social sciences.