In the framework of project “New Psychoactive Substance Use in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Georgia and Serbia” Eurasian Harm Reduction Association (EHRA) is seeking to engage technical consultants, one consultant per country, for conducting research on new psychoactive substances (hereinafter – NPS) use in the four countries. This research project is a collaboration between EHRA and the the School of Law, Swansea University, UK.
The assessment is aimed to analyze existing evidence and documents to overview the
- existing statistics/data on NPS use from various sources,
- researches of patterns of use and procurement of NPS (via clubs, darknet, etc),
- existing algorithms of ambulance and police actions, and
- availability of harm reduction services for NPS users, and how existing services needs to adapt to meet the needs created by NPS in four countries – Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Georgia and Serbia. This research will be conducted using the same methodology as one, done already in Moldova and Belarus.
The potential candidates should:
- collect national data sources (such as website links, documents (in word, pdf formats), presentations and other materials) on NPS (documents and research data on drug use, behavior and harm reduction services, existing laws on health and drug policy). If documents are in national language – to make summary of the document with main quotes and translate it into English or Russian;
to organize the field data collection: - recruit respondents from community of people who use drugs for focus-groups;
- arrange interviews with officials from law enforcement and health services, harm reduction services (list of needed interviewees will be agreed with EHRA);
- according the collected national sources on NPS use, together with EHRA staff member to adjust questionnaire for interviews/ focus groups;
- organize logistics for the interviews/ focus-groups (place, time, coffee breaks for focus-group participants);
- make notes during interviews and focus-groups;
- make transcripts of the focus group discussion and interviews (in Russian or English);
- help EHRA staff member to validate data of the report prepared by EHRA with respondents.
Soft copies of all collected data and minutes of interviews should be shared with EHRA via DropBox or GoogleDrive. In case of using quotes from individuals, the consultant must have a signed informed consent from each interviewee.
The candidates are invited to submit their CV and letter of interest with suggested respondents list, and state the daily rate in EUR (should be provided in EHRA’s template) by e-mail referenced under title “Technical Consultant” to Eliza Kurcevic at eliza@harmreductioneurasia.org by 5th January 2020, 24:00 EET. Results will be announced by January 10th, 2020. Each candidate will be contacted individually.
For more information about the Association and specifics of the work follow this link.