UNITED | E |
Economic and Social Council | |
Distr. 1192nd Meeting | |
CND Res.43/1. | Streamlining the annual reports questionnaire* |
The Commission on Narcotic Drugs, Reaffirming the importance of following up the commitments of Member States set out in the Political Declaration8 adopted by the General Assembly at its twentieth special session, devoted to countering the world drug problem together, Recalling Economic and Social Council resolution 1994/3 of 20 July 1994, in which the Council requested the Secretary-General, in his capacity as Chairman of the Administrative Committee on Coordination and with the assistance of the Executive Director of the United Nations International Drug Control Programme, to review and integrate all annual reports questionnaires, using modern communication and presentation techniques to make such changes in format as might be appropriate to achieve optimum acceptability and to facilitate their Reaffirming the importance of basing the development of demand reduction programmes on a regular assessment of the nature and magnitude of drug abuse and drug-related problems in the population, using similar definitions, indicators and procedures, as set out in the Declaration on the Guiding Principles of Drug Demand Reduction,9 Welcoming the activities of the United Nations International Drug Control Programme in support of the building of capacity to collect comparable and reliable data through the global drug abuse assessment programme, and encouraging Member States to invest in the development of national information systems to allow collection of sound and comparable data on drug abuse, Noting with satisfaction the approval by the General Assembly, in its resolution 53/220 of 7 April 1999, of the use of resources from the Development Account to reduce the burden on Governments of manual data-gathering, maintenance and exchange by providing information technology support to selected countries in order to allow electronic submissions of annual reports questionnaires and other forms and questionnaires, Underlining the need to avoid duplication of effort by Member States in reporting on drug demand reduction activities, in particular the overlap between the content of sections 2 and 3 of part II of the annual reports questionnaire and that of the new biennial questionnaire, Reiterating the need to revise the annual reports questionnaire and to make such changes in format as may be appropriate to achieve optimum acceptability and to facilitate its use, Taking note of the consensus reached by technical experts at a meeting, held in Lisbon in January 2000, on the principles, structures and indicators for drug information systems,10 1. Decides to abolish sections 2 and 3 of part II of the annual reports questionnaire, since those sections duplicate the new biennial questionnaire; 2. Requests the Executive Director of the United Nations International Drug Control Programme to revise section 1 of part II of the annual reports questionnaire, taking guidance from the consensus reached by technical experts at a meeting held in Lisbon in January 2000,10 and considering other initiatives and documents relevant to the subject, and to test the resulting draft questionnaire in countries with various levels of development with regard to data-collection capacity; 3. Also requests the Executive Director to use information technology, as part of the revision process, to assist countries with more efficient submission of the annual reports questionnaire on drug abuse; 4. Further requests the Executive Director to submit to the Commission on Narcotic Drugs at its fortyfourth session a draft of the revised annual reports questionnaire for examination with a view to introduction in 2002; 5. Calls upon the Executive Director to ensure that appropriate resources are made available to allow the data received to be analysed and disseminated in a more meaningful manner. 1192nd meeting */ For the discussion, see chap. II, para. 37. |