Accra - Ghana — Experts on drugs and drug-related issues on Thursday, 19th May 2011 ended their three-day meeting in Accra with a call on the ECOWAS Commission to facilitate the adoption of harmonized indicators and the collection of data by Member States for the elaboration of ECOWAS drug report.
Participants at the meeting, which reviewed the drug situation in West Africa and the various approaches used for data collection and analysis as well as shared experiences and best practices on prevention, treatment and rehabilitation services in the region, urged the ECOWAS Commission to facilitate the establishment of a Community epidemiological network at both national and regional levels on drug use. Similarly, they called on the Commission to support training to build capacity so as to monitor data on drug trafficking and use in Member States. Participants noted the anecdotal evidence indicating the early age of initiation into drug use and recommended the focusing of preventive activities which target children who are at a high risk of developing substance abuse.
In this regard, they requested the Commission to facilitate, as a matter of priority, initiatives that can foster child prevention activities and interventions that promote the use of drug-specific skills within the framework of inter-agency cooperation between ECOWAS, UNICEF, UNODC and the World Health Organization. Furthermore, they called on the Commission to expedite action to support up- scaling of human resources in drug demand reduction at government and non- governmental levels through support for conducting national and regional training and mentoring programmes, such as training on simple treatment interventions.
The ECOWAS Commission was also tasked on undertaking advocacy missions towards the setting up of a minimum of one treatment and rehabilitation centre in each Member State. In addition, the participants urged the Commission and the UNODC to harmonize activities in reduction of drug demand through the establishment of a coordination mechanism which will enhance efficiency, consistency and reduce the risk of duplication at various levels of intervention. Recommendations from this first drug demand reduction meeting will inform the formulation of policies and programmes specifically directed at addressing the drug demand reduction problem in ECOWAS Member States.
The President of the ECOWAS Commission, Ambassador James Victor Gbeho, represented by the institution's Commissioner for Human Development and Gender, Dr. Adrienne Diop as well as Ghana's Minister of Interior, Dr. Benjamin Kumbuor, addressed participants at the opening of the meeting on Tuesday, 17th May 2011.
The meeting was held consistent with the Commission's mandate contained in the 2008 Regional Action Plan against Drug Abuse, Trafficking and Organized Crime, which aims at implementing programmes that address the emerging threats of increased drug abuse and associated health and security problems as well as the need to develop valid and reliable to assess the magnitude of drug trafficking and abuse problems in West Africa.
