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January 2008 - International Harm Reduction Association | | | | | | |
| Urgent Request from the UN Reference Group on HIV and IDU
The Reference Group to the United Nations on HIV and Injecting Drug Use– based at the National Drug and Alcohol Centre in Australia - are currently looking for data from around the world. The role of the Reference Group is to advise the UNODC, UNAIDS and WHO on issues relating to injecting drug users and to help to guide strategies for scaling up effective activities to prevent HIV amongst this population.
One of the Reference Group’s major activities is to report on the global extent of injecting drug use and HIV. As part of this report, they are in the process of updating estimates for every country around the world on:
• The number of people who inject drugs in each country
• The prevalence of HIV among these injecting drug users
Producing these estimates is a complex task as, in many countries, there are no data measuring the extent of injecting drug use or HIV among injecting drug users. In other countries data may exist, but are not widely available. This has been partially overcome with an extensive search of the peer-reviewed literature, and “grey” literature (such as NGO and government reports). However, there are a number of countries for which sufficient data has not been found:
• Eastern Europe and Central Asia:
Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Lithuania
• South Asia:
Bhutan, Maldives, Sri Lanka
• East and South East Asia:
Brunei Darussalam, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Japan, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Mongolia, Republic of Korea, Singapore, The Taiwan Provence of China, Timor Leste
• Caribbean:
Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Cuba, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Grenada, Haiti, Jamaica, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent & Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago
• South America:
Argentina, Belize, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Guyana, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Uruguay, Venezuela
• Oceania and the Pacific:
American Samoa, Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, French Polynesia, Guam, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Nauru, New Caledonia, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, Vanuatu
• Western Europe:
Albania, Andorra, Belgium, Iceland, Italy, Finland, France, Liechtenstein, Monaco, Montenegro, San Marino, Serbia, Spain, Switzerland, The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia
• Middle East and North Africa:
Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, Morocco, Occupied Palestinian Territories, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syrian Arab Republic, Tunisia, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, Yemen
• Sub-Saharan Africa:
Angola, Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Côte d’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Djibouti, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Republic of the Congo, Rwanda, Sao Tome and Principe, Senegal, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Swaziland, Togo, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe
The Reference Group would like to hear from anyone who has data from the countries below. Any information will be acknowledged in the Reference Group’s reports. Due to the limited time which the Group has to complete this work, they will only be able consider material that is submitted before 15th February 2008. Please send any information that you can share to IDUreferencegroup@med.unsw.edu.au
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| IHRA Vacancy: Media and Communications Officer
| As part of an on-going commitment to creating a conducive global environment for harm reduction, IHRA is pleased to announce a vacancy for a ‘Media and Communications Officer’. This new post will be based at the London (UK) office, and will allow IHRA to develop and implement an effective and diverse media and communications strategy in order to promote the organisation’s work.
This new post should appeal to people with media and communications experience – preferably within a harm reduction, HIV/AIDS, human rights or drug or alcohol policy context – who wish to expand their skills and responsibilities in the context of an international charitable organisation.
The successful candidate will be able to deliver with a high level of initiative under general direction, and to have a flexible approach to their work. The post will require contact with a wide variety of people and target audiences working at different levels and in different countries.
|  Click here for the Job Description and Person Specification [PDF:64KB]
| The salary for this post will be in the region of £25,000 to £30,000 per annum (based on full time hours). The closing date for applications is the 15th February 2008. For more information about any of these positions, please contact Annie Kuch.
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| Harm Reduction in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Network is Formed
| As part of the HR2 project - IHRA’s new programme of research and advocacy on harm reduction and human rights which aims to create a conducive global environment for harm reduction - an ‘Inaugural Meeting’ took place in Nairobi, Kenya in October 2007. This meeting (which was organised and funded by IHRA) was attended by over thirty participants including representatives from ten different countries across sub-Saharan Africa. The meeting was initiated to discuss drug use and drug related harm in the region and to set up a new regional harm reduction network to support advocacy and practice.
Over the course of two days, there were several presentations given on the national situations across sub-Saharan Africa - including Kenya, Mauritius, Zambia, Uganda, Liberia,Tanzania, South Africa, the Seychelles, and Nigeria. During the afternoons, group discussions were held to debate various points about harm reduction, how a new network might be organised and what it should aim to do.
It was unanimously agreed that a harm reduction network for sub-Saharan Africa was needed and, after much discussion, the ‘sub-Saharan Africa Harm Reduction Network’ (SAHRN) was formed. Seven people were voted on to the steering committee for the network with another two members to be appointed in the near future, and their next meeting will be held at Harm Reduction 2008: IHRA’s 19th International Conference in Barcelona in May 2008, supported by further funding from IHRA. For more information about the network, please contact Annie Kuch.
| Click here to view the meeting report [PDF:1.98MB]
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| Middle East and North Africa: Call for Proposals
| The World Health Organisation Eastern Mediterranean Regional Office (WHO-EMRO), in collaboration with IHRA, has launched two calls for proposals as part of the joint WHO and IHRA programme of work to establish the Middle East and North Africa Harm Reduction Network (‘Menahra’) and strengthen harm reduction capacity in the region.
The first call is for organisations that would like to initiate or scale-up harm reduction projects in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. The projects must be owned or implemented by local civil society organisations and must be in line with internationally recommended practice in harm reduction.
| Click here to download the Proposal Form and Guidelines
| The second call is designed to supplement existing projects so that they are able to demonstrate best practice in harm reduction interventions, share their experiences with other organisations in the region or internationally, and demonstrate the feasibility of good practice in harm reduction in the region (through receiving and supervising study visits).
| Click here to download the Proposal Form and Guidelines
| For more information, please email WHO-EMRO.
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| CONNECTIONS Project Launched
| The European Institute of Social Services (EISS) of the University of Kent and the project partners are proud to announce the launch of the CONNECTIONS Project to ensure integrated responses to drugs and related infections across the European criminal justice systems.
This initiative, which has received co-funding from the European Commission Public Health Programme, will build on the work carried out by the European Network on Drugs and Infection Prison in Prison (ENDIPP). However, this newly launched project will tackle the challenges of providing drug treatment and infections prevention within the criminal justice system as a whole in European countries (and not just prisons).
The project represents a partnership of European NGOs, service providers, criminal justice agencies and research bodies. It will aim to facilitate the introduction and promotion of effective, comprehensive, evidence-based policies and services at the national and regional level in order to respond to the problem of drug related infections within the criminal justice system.
For more information, please visit the newly launched project website - www.connectionsproject.eu – which includes details of project activities (including European Conferences), training sessions, study visits, and the dissemination of information and research. Alternatively, please contact Ms Cinzia Brentari, the Project Coordinator.
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| International Youth Network for Harm Reduction
| IHRA have recently agreed to fund an international youth harm reduction network – which has been initially named Youth RISE (Resources, Information, Support and Education). This new network is a youth-led initiative which aims to increase the engagement and social inclusion of young people in harm reduction policies and practice that affect their lives.
The network is looking to establish an International Working Group to lead the initial development process. The Working Group will stand for one year (beginning in February 2008) and will be expected to contribute to conference calls, email discussions etc. Working Group members will also meet during 'Harm Reduction 2008: IHRA's 19th International Conference' in Barcelona in May 2008 (for which financial support to attend may be available courtesy of the UK Department for International Development). The deadline for applications is Friday January 25th 2008.
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| International Journal of Drug Policy – Special Conference Offer and Latest Issue
| To coincide with Harm Reduction 2008: IHRA’s 19th International Conference, Elsevier is pleased to announce a special offer on journal subscriptions. For registered delegates at the 2008 conference, the International Journal of Drug Policy is available at a special price of only US$50 - that is more than a 75% discount on the regular personal subscription rate.
The International Journal of Drug Policy (IJDP) is IHRA’s official journal. It provides a forum for the dissemination of current research, reviews, debate, and critical analysis on drug use and drug policy in a global context. Special focus issues and supplements planned for 2008 include ‘Women and Harm Reduction’, ‘Coverage of Harm Reduction Interventions’, ‘Values and Ethics’, and ‘Nursing and Harm Reduction’.
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| The latest issue of IJDP (Volume 18, Issue 6 – December 2007) includes an insightful editorial by Rick Lines (IHRA’s Senior Policy Advisor) and Richard Elliott (Executive Director of the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network) which highlights the conflicts between drug control policies, access to harm reduction measures and drug users’ human rights.
The issue focussed on the impact, coverage and process of drug treatment, and highlights include:
• Findings from a systematic literature review of the impact of substitution treatment in prisons by Anke Stallwitz and Heino Stöver.
• An examination of predictors of drug treatment coverage for injecting drug users across more than 90 metropolitan areas in the US by Sam Friedman and colleagues.
• A comparison of the drug use characteristics and treatment outcomes of treatment ‘experienced’ and treatment ‘naïve’ clients in Scotland.
• A study by Denise Reiling and Michael Nusbaumer examining the attitudes of the beverage alcohol industry employees towards responsible service measures.
• The official conference report summarising issues and highlights from IHRA’s 18th International Conference on the Reduction of Drug Related Harm, in Warsaw in May 2007.
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