Objectives:

to assist Member States to develop capacity to monitor patterns and trends in drug abuse

to encourage the adoption of methodologically sound and comparable indicators of drug abuse

to support the development of expert technical networks at both national and regional level
to facilitate design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of evidence-based demand reduction responses in areas of prevention, treatment and rehabilitation and reducing negative health and social consequences of drug abuse
 

Global Assessment Programme on Drug Abuse (GAP) is strengthening the global information base on drug abuse through developing and disseminating cost-efficient methods and tools, and assisting countries in the collection and analysis of drug epidemiological data in accordance with internationally agreed standards of best practice.

To date, training and technical assistance to increase local capacities for the collection, use and reporting of internationally comparable epidemiological data on the demand for illicit drugs has been provided in over 70 countries in different regions of the world. Presently, GAP field advisors are assisting national data collection activities, and design and implementation of evidence-based demand reduction responses in Central and South-West Asia, North Africa and the Middle East, West and Central Africa, and in the Russian Federation.

GAP activities build upon and support the tasks and responsibilities as mandated by the Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND) in order to enhance data reliability and the comparability of information provided by Member States. GAP prepares annually the report to the CND session titled " Report of the Secretariat on world situation with regard to drug abuse" in which the global trends in drug abuse are summarized on the basis of the Annual Reports Questionnaire (ARQ) data and opinions of informed experts on the drug abuse situation. The ARQ is submitted annually by over 100 Member States, and its analysis is supplemented with information available from most up to date referenced data sources.

GAP has been successful in developing resources that promote, support and facilitate the reporting of comparable drug consumption data ( Evaluation of the GAP, Issue Two - December 2006). In order to further facilitate sharing of best practices in drug abuse epidemiology and to encourage use of harmonized indicators and tools, GAP develops and promotes the use of a methodological Toolkit for monitoring drug abuse, which provides a pragmatic approach for Member States to use to assess the drug abuse situation. 

GAP TOOLKIT:

Module 1 Developing an Integrated Drug Information System
 
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Module 2 Estimating Prevalence: Indirect Methods for Estimating the Size of the Drug Problem
 
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Module 3 Conducting School Surveys on Drug Abuse
 
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Module 4 ARQ Part II: Data management, Lexicon of Terminology and Guidance Notes
 
English French Russian Spanish Arabic
 
Module 5 Training in Basic Drug Abuse Data Management and Analysis
 
English   Russian Spanish Arabic
 
Module 6 Focus Assessment Studies: A Qualitative Approach to Data Collection
 
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Module 7 Ethical Challenges in Drug Epidemiology: Issues, Principles and Guidelines
 
English,   Russian Spanish Arabic,
 
Module 8 Guidance for the Measurement of Drug Treatment Demand
 
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