Senegal Hosts Training Workshop on Drug Abuse and HIV/AIDS for Media Practitioners

2003/02
5 June 2003

Dakar, Senegal - The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) will conduct a three-day training workshop on drug abuse and HIV/AIDS awareness at the Palm Beach Hotel in Saly, from 11 to 13 June 2003. The 35 participants of the workshop have been selected from print and audiovisual media houses across the 11 regions of Senegal.

The opening ceremony of the three-day training workshop will take place at the Teranga Room of the Palm Beach Hotel at 9 am, Wednesday, 11 June. Minister for the Interior Gen. Mamadou Niang, President of the Interministerial Drug Control Committee, together with the Minister of Culture and Communication, Mr. Abdou Fall, will co-officiate at the ceremony.

The media practitioners training workshop is organized under the framework of the UNODC project AD/RAF/02/G-14: Drug abuse and HIV/AIDS Prevention in West Africa. The project aims to prevent and reduce the spread of the HIV/AIDS epidemic induced by drug abuse among high-risk groups in West Africa in line with objective one of the International Partnership for HIV/AIDS in Africa.

The main objective of the three-day workshop is to train media practitioners in Senegal to give them a clearer understanding of the workings and mandate of UNODC, the role of international drug control bodies, awareness-raising, prevention, treatment, rehabilitation and research programmes, and to enhance their capacities in reporting and drafting articles on drug control matters.

There will be presentations on the local drug situation in addition to a presentation of the legal and institutional frameworks for drug control in Senegal. A resource person will present an overview of HIV/AIDS in West Africa with a special focus on Senegal.

UNODC was established in 1991 pursuant to the UN General Assembly resolution 45/179, as part of the Secretary-General's Programme for Reform in 1997 to enable the UN to enhance its capacity to address the inter-related issues of drug control and transnational crime.

Within the UN system, UNODC is responsible for coordinating and providing effective leadership for drug control activities. A number of programmes and projects are under implementation by UNODC in West Africa, covering both drug control and crime prevention, in addition to research and data collection, coordination and advisory services. The UNODC Regional Office for West and Central Africa covers 23 countries, using three different official languages: English, French and Portuguese.

* * * * * *

For additional information regarding the workshop, please contact:

Mickel Edwerd
UN Office on Drugs and Crime
Regional Office for West and Central Africa
Tel: +221 849 49 08
Fax: +221 849 13 86