Course of treatment the writer needed in backward African country (7)
I believe the answer is:
regimen
'course of treatment' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'the writer needed in backward african country' is the wordplay.
'the writer' becomes 'me' (the person who is writing these clues).
'needed in' is an insertion indicator.
'backward' shows that the letters should be reversed in order.
'african country' becomes 'niger' (Niger is an example).
'niger' in reverse letter order is 'regin'.
'me' inserted into 'regin' is 'REGIMEN'.
(Other definitions for regimen that I've seen before include "Merge in (anag.)" , "administration" , "Merge in for prescribed way of life" , "Systematic course of treatment, diet, etc" , "Course of diet, therapy" .)