In July 2020 the UNODC Civil Society Team (CST) held a series of webinars in cooperation with the UNODC Research Section and the Vienna NGO Committee on Drugs (VNGOC) with the aim to disseminate the information contained in the World Drug Report (WDR) among relevant civil society stakeholders.
The webinars whicg were held in English, French, Russian and Spanish were attended by some 200 participants from around 30 different countries across the world. All four sessions were recorded and are available on the VNGOC website.
The first webinar which was held in French took place on July 15, with Chloe Carpentier, Chief, Drug Research Section, UNODC presenting the World Drug Report. The civil society perspective was provided by Asyun Bagran from the Turkish Green Crescent who explained how her organization uses the report and the data to for their advocacy work. Questions to the speakers ranged from the availability of the report in French to the regional data availability in West Africa.
The second webinar was held in English on July 27. Thomas Pietchmann, one of the authors of the World Drug Report and part of the UNODC Drug Research Section presented the report, focusing on overall drug use prevalence, and different trends such as opiates and NPS. George Ochieng Odalo, Slum Child Foundation Kenya provided the civil society perspective, focusing on the importance of data provided in the WDR, to ensure that the work on the ground remains evidence-based, and that all stakeholders involved are aware of current trends. Questions from participants related to how NGOs could contribute to the report and how COVID-19 may affect the various drug markets and overall drug use. Thomas answers are available in the event recording.
A day after, on July 28 the event was organized in Spanish and Leonardo Correa from the UNODC country office in Colombia held the presentation on the World Drug Report. The civil society perspective was presented by Corina Giacomello from Equis Mexico who focused on the gender aspects of the WDR, and how women are often affected disproportionately by unintended, negative consequences of drug policy.
Questions during the webinar focused on factors contributing to the illegal cultivation of crops in rural settings, and how it would be possible to monitor lack of access to pain medication. Both Leonardo Correa and Thomas Pietschmann were available to answer these – watch the video of the event.
The final webinar was held in Russian on July 29 by Mirzahid Sultanov from the UNODC Regional Office for Central Asia. Two civil society representatives made interventions during the webinar. The first was a presentation by Gleb Paykachev, Russian Drug Users Forum who showed how his organization uses the data provided in the WDR for their advocacy work, especially its recommendations. The second intervention was made from the floor by Nikita Lushnikov from the National Anti-Drug Union, Russia and focused on the WDR data in relation to prevention and treatment.
The executive summary of the WDR is available in all six languages and while the report as a whole mainly focuses on the global situation, regional and country data can be found in the annex and the reports website, https://wdr.unodc.org/wdr2020/en/index.html.
Further Information
WDR Presentation English (Thomas Pietschmann, UNODC)
WDR Presentation Russian (Mirzahid Sultanov, UNODC)