With Valentines Day just having passed, this month's African Leaders Training will focus the love and compassion that comes as a part of harm reduction. Our expert panel will discuss how harm reduction can help create a safer society.

 Dr Catherine Mwangi is a public health specialist with special focus on harm reduction. She has over 10 years’ experience implementing and managing harm reduction programs at the national and community level. She is a researcher and mentor to girls/women who use drugs in Kenya through an organization called Women Nest where she offers voluntary services.

 Parliamentary & Policy Research Officer @TB HIV Care PhD. in research on drugs & drug rehabilitation facilities at University of Cape Town

Senior Nurse Manager Addiction Expert @Psychiatric Hospital - Mental Health Authority

SSDP African Leaders Training:  Harm reduction: A panacea for a safer society

 invite you to participate in the webinar that will provide information on drug policy evaluation as an effective instrument to guide, manage and support effective policies and services. The Webinar is supported by the 

European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction

The Webinar will present an insight on how various actors can contribute to a process of monitoring and evaluation of drug policies and can benefit from. It will:

showcase the benefits of drug policy evaluations

provide examples of recent regional drug policy (e.g. Croatia, Cyprus)

provide opportunities of online evaluations

The webinar may serve as a source of inspiration to support all those involved process of building better drug policies. It is especially suitable for regional drug policy makers, regional civil society groups, European and other interested participants.

Drug Policy evaluations: approach and methods

Experiences from online/hybrid evaluation.

Three parallel breakout sessions will follow on What is needed to prepare a national drug policy?, How to monitor progress? and How to learn from and improve policies?

The Webinar will be held via Zoom at the following link https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86598224178 on Wednesday 10 February 2021 starting at 14:00 CET. The Webinar will last for 120 minutes.

As the number of participants is limited, please register by Monday 8 February using the form attached here>>>.

Drug Policy evaluation: Opportunities to support inclusive, effective and evidence-based public policy

The Vienna NGO Committee on Drugs (VNGOC) and the UNODC Civil Society Unit are inviting to a joint webinar, introducing the International Drug Control Conventions and the roles of UNODC, INCB and CND. To ensure a broad engagement the webinar will be held in English with interpretation in Russian and Spanish.

Introduction to the International Drug Control Conventions - Civil society webinar

The EAER project is a partnership of four European organisations which have aimed to use their collective knowledge to create resources that would help people in recovery access employment and to share knowledge and practice with other organisations working in employability projects with people who have a history of problem substance use.

This event will highlight the resources created for the project and presentations will include;


• Examples of good practice in employability and recovery
• An overview of a good practice guide to training, support, and qualifications across Europe.
• EAER online platform which will host the EAER project with a number of interactive features
• SocialMe and digital identity


• To deliver positive and long-lasting through building more employability and employment opportunities for people who use or have used substances
• To deliver positive and long-lasting effects on people participating in the programme through increased knowledge, skills, and motivation to improve services


• Dutch Foundation Innovation in Welfare 2 Work (Netherlands)
• Agência Piaget para o Desenvolvimento (Portugal)
• Comunità "La Tenda" Cooperativa Sociale (Italy)
• Scottish Drugs Forum (UK)

Employability for people in recovery in Europe: EAER Project

The Bylaws of the Global Fund state that the Partnership Forums should serve as a visible platform for debate, advocacy, continued fundraising, and inclusion of new partners for the development of the next Global Fund’s strategic plan. To this end, the 6th Partnership Forums will be central to the development of the post-2022 Global Fund Strategy. Representatives from across the Global Fund partnership will be convened to review input, evidence and guidance received on strategy development, and debate and distil potential emerging areas of future Strategy focus.

In early 2021, three -virtual- 6th Partnership Forums, with participation from individuals representing the regions listed below as well as a limited number of participants from the Global North, are scheduled as follows:

Partnership Forum I, 9-11 February, 2021: Eastern Europe and Central Asia & Latin America and the Caribbean;

Partnership Forum II, 17-19 February, 2021: Africa and MENA I (includes Morocco, Egypt, Djibouti, Sudan, Somalia, Tunisia, South Sudan , Algeria, Mauritania, Djibouti, Eritrea);

Partnership Forum III, 3-5 March, 2021: East Asia Pacific, South West Asia and MENA II (includes, Iraq, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, Yemen, Palestine).

This call for nominations aims to identify a pool of potential participants from which a selected group will be invited to participate in each Partnership Forum. Due to constraints in the number of people who may attend the 6th Partnership Forums, nominees will be selected based on pre-defined criteria and meeting capacity, to ensure a balanced representation of the broad range of stakeholders that make up the Global Fund partnership.

The Global Fund's 6th Partnership Forums (Virtual)

, Finnish Blue Ribbon Foundation, Finland.



Responding to drugs and homelessness: Innovative approaches in Europe

By Drug Science Student Society, Students for Sensible Drug Policy, and The Southampton Psychedelic Research Society

Drug Science Student Society, Students for Sensible Drug Policy, and The Southampton Psychedelic Research Society are proud to announce ‘The Student Psychedelic Conference’. This online transatlantic conference will take place over two days on 30th and 31st January.

We have secured a fantastic line up of speakers including Professor David Nutt, Dr. Beatriz Labate, Dr. Peter Hughes, representatives from the Conservative Drug Policy Reform Group, and Dr. Ben Sessa. See the full list of speakers at: https://www.studentpsychedelicconference.co.uk/

Our wonderful panelists will be covering a diverse range of topics from patient experience of psychedelic trials, the impact of globalization of ayahuasca, and what psychedelics can tell us about the mind and brain. We will, of course, all be including some great talks on previous research on psychedelics as well as taking a look at the future of psychedelics. We’ve included the schedule below and more information can be found on our website.

The Student Psychedelic Conference

Middlesbrough has been operating England's only Heroin Assisted Treatment programme for 18mths with some fantastic early findings. The programme has seen dramatic increase in individual participants health and well being and a significant reduction in crime .

Daniel Ahmed is a clinical partner at foundations with 20 years' experience in the substance use field as a specialist mental health nurse prescriber.

Aims of the Scheme :
Reduce the number of deaths caused by heroin addiction;
Promote independence, long-term recovery and end offending behaviour;
Provide respite for local residents and businesses, who often find themselves victims of crime to fund addiction;
Remove the health risks associated with street heroin and drug litter;
Free up substantial public resources, including health and police, currently dealing with the problem;
Cut off funding streams to drugs gangs

Heroin assisted treatment - Saving lives and communities

Recent advances in the global landscape of hepatitis C diagnostics and treatments provides a powerful momentum in low‐ and middle‐income countries to scale up their public health response towards the elimination of viral hepatitis as a public health threat by 2030. This third global report highlights the impressive recent gains achieved by some highburden countries latest and the developments in the key enablers of a successful response – market conditions related to product availability, pricing and patents, access to diagnostics, norms and standards; national policy and regulatory environments; and options for leveraging efficiencies in service delivery. Join the World Health Organization (WHO) at a virtual event to launch the new 2020 report ‐ Accelerating access to hepatitis C diagnostics and treatment: Overcoming barriers in low‐ and middle‐income countries.

1. Opening remarks and introduction
2. Report 2020 Key Messages :

Evolving access landscape for a successful public health response - challenges and opportunities

Focus on access to diagnostics – a game-changer?

Highlights on intellectual property rights and HCV diagnostics and treatment

3. Panel session – voices and experiences from countries and organization’s working on access
4. Questions and Answers
5. Closing remarks


Daniel Low-Beer, Global HIV, Hepatitis and STIs Programmes, World Health Organization

Dr. Minghui Ren, Assistant Director-General, Universal Health Coverage/Communicable and Noncommunicable Diseases, WHO

Dr Mariangela Simao, Assistant Director-General, Access to Medicines and Health Products (MHP), WHO

Meg Doherty, Director, Global HIV, Hepatitis and STIs Programmes (HHS), WHO

Françoise Renaud, Technical lead, WHO/HHS

Adriana Velazquez, Team Lead, Medical Devices, and Diagnostics WHO/MHP

Mercedes Perez Gonzales, Technical officer, Medical Devices and Diagnostics, WHO/MHP

Erika Duenas Loayaz, Technical officer, Intellectual Property Management, WHO/MHP

Olufunmilayo LESI, Team Lead, Global Hepatitis Programme, WHO/HHS

Janvier Serumondo, Director Hepatitis Program, Ministry of Health, Rwanda

Charles Gore, Executive Director, Medicines Patent Pool

Craig McClure, Senior Director, Viral Hepatitis, Clinton Health Access Initiative

Othman Mellouk, International Treatment Preparedness Coalition

Launch 2020 WHO Global Hepatitis C Treatment and Diagnostics Access Report

Background to Report : Debts, Threats, Distress and Hope: Towards Understanding Drug-Related Intimidation in Dublin's North East inner City

Ana Liffey Drug Project invite you to the launch of 

Debts, Threats, Distress and Hope: Towards Understanding Drug-Related Intimidation in Dublin’s North East Inner City

, a report from the Drug-Related Intimidation Initiative.

The Drug-Related Intimidation Initiative (DRII) is a project run by Ana Liffey Drug Project and funded by Dublin’s North East Inner City Programme (NEIC) and Dublin City Council (DCC), and supported by an interagency steering group. The report will be launched by Paschal Donohoe TD, Minister for Finance and elected representative for Dublin Central.

As part of its work, the DRII was tasked with carrying out research on drug-related intimidation in the NEIC area. With the support of Technological University Dublin, the team designed and implemented a research process which included surveys, focus groups and interviews, and which was directed at better understanding drug-related intimidation in the NEIC area. The report being launched is the final output of this research process. The report sets out the findings regarding the nature of drug-related intimidation in the NEIC area drawn from this community consultation process as well as providing short practice guidelines and recommendations for responding to drug-related intimidation on a local and national level.

Drug-related intimidation in Dublin's north east inner city - Report launch

The Black Lives Matter movement and the COVID-19 pandemic have laid bare the structural inequities within and across societies. Like healthcare, housing and criminal justice, drug policy too bears the marks of racism and colonialism. The brunt of punitive and prohibitive drug policies has long been borne by indigenous people and people of color across the world. How are these policies being challenged globally? Can decriminalization and legalization undo the harms of racist and imperialist drug wars? What does a truly decolonized global drug policy look like? Join a panel of speakers from the US, Latin America and Asia to discuss these questions, and to imagine a fair and just future for drug policy.

, Founding Director, Salvation and Social Justice


, Drug Policy Research Coordinator, DeJusticia


, Program Officer—Asia, Global Drug Policy Program, Open Society Foundations

Moderated by Kasia Malinowska, Director of the Global Drug Policy Program at Open Society Foundations and part-time lecturer at The New School.

Presented by the Julien J. Studley Graduate Programs in International Affairs at the Schools of Public Engagement and the Global Drug Program at the Open Society Foundations.

Decolonizing drug policy: Perspectives from the Americas and Asia

Hosted by the David F. Musto Center for Drug Policy Studies, Shanghai University; and the Graduate Institute Geneva

International drug control mechanisms are focused on the elimination of drug production, use and trafficking, through the operationalization of repressive public policies criminalizing these substances and their non-medical use.

The implementation of these policies has had a detrimental impact on other global development objectives, as recognized by the UN in 2008 and titled the 'Unintended consequences of drug control policies.

To explore the nexus between drug control and development policies, the David F. Musto Center for Drug Policy Studies, Shanghai University and International Development Policy, Graduate Institute Geneva present the Special Issue “Drug Policies and Development: Conflict and Coexistence".

This event will enable audiences in China to join a discussion with world experts on drug control and development policy, and to engage in a debate on different dimensions of drug policies.

18 January 2021 | 17:00 Shangai / 10:00 Geneva

Online - You can join this Zoom event via https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87447607738 | Meeting ID: 874 4760 7738

Prof. Yong-an Zhang, Dean, College of Liberal Arts, Shanghai University, Director, David F. Musto Center for Drug Policy Studies, China

Dr. Khalid Tinasti, Director, Global Commission on Drug Policy (GCDP), Fellow at the Global Studies Institute at the University of Geneva, Switzerland

Prof. Julia Buxton, British Academy Global Professor in Criminology, Manchester University, UK

Ann Fordham, Executive Director, International Drug Policy Consortium (IDPC), UK

Dr. Ved Baruah, Assistant Professor of History, Shanghai University, China

Past Events

SSDP African Leaders Training: Harm reduction: A panacea for a safer society