27 April 2011
Middle East and North Africa ready to scale up harm reduction services in its response to AIDS
Injecting drug use and the growing HIV epidemic in the Middle East and North Africa were the focus of the International Harm Reduction Conference 2011 that took place in Beirut, Lebanon from 3-7 April 2011. The region is slowly increasing availability of harm reduction programmes although countries are at different stages of introducing the different components of the harm reduction package. Despite positive changes occurring in some countries, repressive measures and criminalization of drug users are still predominant in the region. To try reverse this situation, the Global Fund has granted $US 8.3 million to a multi-country project. Its aim is to raise awareness, advocate and build capacity of civil society organizations to scale up the provision of harm reduction services in 12 countries over the next three years.