Category: General News

Donors conference for vulnerable populations

Posted on by Milutin

The coronavirus outbreak has a devastating effect on general population around the world as well as on people who use drugs and other connected vulnerable groups – homeless people, sex workers, LGBTI, women and young people who use drugs, men who have sex with men, people living with HIV and many others. These populations generally have limited or no access to health services, social benefits, clean water and food. Current situation multiplies these obstacles and add new ones.

Since February, the Drug Policy Network South East Europe and our member organisations were primarily engaged on providing support dedicated to the practical strengthening of the health, social, economic and mental resilience of the vulnerable groups of citizens. That included harm reduction and treatment services, fighting stigma and discrimination, providing legal and social advices and responding to a variety of additional needs these groups now have.

During the Conference on protection of vulnerable populations in South East Europe, held on 23 April 2020 and the Conference Social, mental and economic consequences of the coronavirus pandemic to the vulnerable populations in SEE: Do we know them and how to recognise and respond to them? held on 17 July 2020, DPNSEE learned that it is time to invite wider donors’ community, from national, regional to international level, to ensure universal, efficient, sustained funding and coordination respond to the needs of the vulnerable populations in the region.

The global pandemic requires a global response, and that response has to cover all.

The aim of the Conference is to present the needs and potential projects of vulnerable populations in South East Europe and establish better communication, coordination and cooperation between service providers and public and private funding programmes. The Conference will strengthen cooperative ties between potential project implementers from different sectors, increase knowledge of available public and private funding sources and improve strategic coordination between project ideas and funding structures.

South East Europe is usually side-lined in international support to key populations. We sincerely hope that vulnerable groups we serve deserve more attention and support.

The Conference will include plenary presentations from the region and donors, and work in two separate discussion rooms:

Group 1:        Sustainability of services for vulnerable populations

  • Quality assurance in service providing
  • Bridging funds for emergency situations (COVID and wider)
  • Children living in families with drug abuse history and young people who use drugs

Group 2:        Emerging needs of key populations

  • Respond to the economic consequences of coronavirus pandemic (empowering, rapid assessments and surveys, practical support on housing, food, clean water supply, etc.)
  • Involvement of key populations in designing and monitoring of the services for them

The Conference will be held on Thursday 6 August 2020 starting at 13:00 CET (14:00 EEST) via Zoom at the following link https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89837901957. The conference would last for a maximum of 90 minutes.

Access to the Conference will be open. We would appreciate that you apply using following link https://forms.gle/bmDW7q25Ge15o2wW6 and indicate in which small group you would like to participate. If we don’t receive that information, we shall have to make the choice for you.

The Conference will be recorded in audio and visual format. The recording will be used for reporting only.

 

World Hepatitis Day 2020

Posted on by Milutin

Worldwide, 290 million people are living with viral hepatitis unaware. Without finding the undiagnosed and linking them to care, millions will continue to suffer, and lives will be lost.

World Hepatitis Day (WHD) takes places every year on 28 July bringing the world together under a single theme to raise awareness of the global burden of viral hepatitis and to influence real change. In 2020 the theme is ‘Find the Missing Millions’. Have a look at the promotional video of the campaign in 2020

WHD is a day for the world’s hepatitis community to unite and make our voices heard. It’s a day to celebrate the progress we have made and to meet the current challenges. It’s also an opportunity for us to increase awareness and encourage a real political change to jointly facilitate prevention, diagnosis and treatment.

WHD is a great opportunity for us to raise awareness of the importance of knowing your hepatitis status and to spread the word about treatment.

Whether you have one minute or an hour, there are plenty of ways you can get involved in World Hepatitis Day. Find out how to join following this link>>>.

 

The WHO Regional Office for Europe published Compendium of good practices in the health sector response to viral hepatitis in the WHO European Region. It includes 34 practice examples from 18 Member States in the European Region authored by various actors in the collective response to viral hepatitis, including government and national viral hepatitis programmes, academia and public health institutes/research institutes and NGOs and CSOs. The Compendium is available for free download following this link>>>.

 

To inspire and challenge you with its essential stories, our colleagues from Correlation – Harm Reduction Network collected and published Good Practice Examples of hepatitis C interventions which is the first of its kind with a focus on civil society organisations in Europe.

Addressing HIV and TB in Prisons, Pre-Trial Detention and Other Closed Settings

Posted on by Milutin

From EECA Regional Platform for Communication and Coordination

The new technical brief describes how HIV and TB interventions for people in prison and other closed settings can be incorporated into funding requests to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. The Global Fund supports evidence- and rights-based interventions aimed at ensuring access to HIV and TB prevention, treatment, care, and support for key populations, including people in prison.

Global Fund resources should be used to fund interventions that are in line with internationally agreed standards and technical guidance and have a significant impact on the HIV and TB epidemics in a country. Global Fund policy requires upper-middle income countries to focus 100% of their funding on programs benefiting key and vulnerable populations, lower middle income countries must demonstrate that 50% of funding is focused on the same. Low-income countries are also strongly encouraged to target resources to those at highest risk. Global Fund resources can also be used to advocate for laws and policies that enable an effective human-rights-based HIV and TB response and the removal of policies and laws that present obstacles to this.

  • Section 1 of this brief outlines the vulnerability of people in prison to HIV, TB, viral hepatitis and other infectious diseases. 1 UNAIDS (2015). UNAIDS Strategy 2016-2021. 2 WHO (2016). Global Health Sector Strategy on HIV, 2016-2021. 3 WHO (2015). WHO End TB Strategy. 4 Global Fund (2015) Global Fund Support for Co-morbidities and Co-Infections
  • Section 2 outlines guiding principles for designing and implementing programs.
  • Section 3 outlines the comprehensive package of interventions for HIV, TB, and other health issues recommended by WHO, UNODC, and other partners.
  • Section 4 describes approaches to incorporating prison harm reduction programs within funding proposals, and the health components and strategies for an enabling environment that should be included.
  • Section 5 offers examples of promising practices from around the world.
  • Section 6 lists further publications that may be of assistance in compiling proposals, as well as for technical support in programming. Publications on specific areas are also mentioned throughout this brief and referenced in the footnotes.

The technical brief is available following this link>>>.

COVID-19 Law Lab

Posted on by Milutin

The COVID-19 Law Lab initiative is a joint project of United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the World Health Organization (WHO), the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) and the O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law at Georgetown University. It gathers and shares legal documents from over 190 countries across the world to help states establish and implement strong legal frameworks to manage the pandemic.

The goal is to ensure that laws protect the health and wellbeing of individuals and communities and that they adhere to international human rights standards. Well-designed laws can help build strong health systems; evaluate and approve safe and effective drugs and vaccines; and enforce actions to create healthier and safer public spaces and workplaces.

The COVID-19 Law Lab is a database of laws that countries have implemented in response to the pandemic. It includes state of emergency declarations, quarantine measures, disease surveillance, legal measures relating to mask-wearing, social distancing, and access to medication and vaccines. It will also feature research on different legal frameworks for COVID-19. These analyses will focus on the human rights impacts of public health laws and help countries identify best practices to guide their immediate responses to COVID-19 and socioeconomic recovery efforts once the pandemic is under control

The COVID-19 Law Lab is accessible following this link>>>.

Guidance manual for therapeutic communities

Posted on by Milutin

Unfortunately, COVID-19 will last indefinitely among all of us, so the Therapeutic Communities (TCs) need to organize themselves to carry out the new reception procedures, especially considering that the public served by the TCs has great chances of being contaminated with COVID- 19 due to their social vulnerability. TCs that have structure, trained human resources, guarantee of adequate personal protective equipment (PPE), notification flow with the municipality’s Health Department and contingency plan, will be able to carry out the quarantine process (14 days) within the organization itself.

For this reason, Federação Brasileira de Comunidades Terapêuticas (FEBRACT) published the Guidance manual for therapeutic communities “Basic care in relation to the coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19)“. This guide for new entries, visits and outing is prepared in accordance with the guidelines of the PUBLIC TECHNICAL NOTE Nº 01/2020 of National Agency for Health Surveillance – ANVISA.

To download the Manual, follow this link>>>

 

A realistic insight into the consequences of COVID-19 to vulnerable populations

Posted on by Milutin

DPNSEE held the Conference “Social, mental and economic consequences of the coronavirus pandemic to the vulnerable populations in SEE: Do we know them and how to recognise and respond to them?” with support of the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addictions and Correlation – Harm Reduction Network.

39 representatives of civil society organisations, national drug agencies, international organisations and agencies and donor community participated.

Initial results of the EMCDDA study on Impact of COVID-19 on people who use drugs and drug services in the Western Balkans, as well as Correlation’s approach to collecting data from the point of view of civil society which can be of use in establishing our indicators and method of collecting them. Our colleagues gave us a very realistic view on the situation in their countries and efforts they made to provide services needed.

We hope to produce and distribute the report from the Conference in the next few days.

The presentations from the Conference are ready to download:

  • Kateřina Škařupová, PhD, Scientific analyst on health at the IPA project, European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA): Initial results of the study on Impact of COVID-19 on people who use drugs and drug services in the Western Balkans following this link>>>
  • Roberto Perez Gayo, Project Officer at the Correlation – Harm Reduction Network: Results of the harm reduction response to the epidemic in Europe following this link>>>
  • Marija Radović, Coordinator of the department of direct assistance to people who use/inject drugs, sex workers and prisoners at Juventas, Montenegro: The influence of the COVID19 on the social and economic status of persons who use/inject drugs following this link>>>

 

Update on the 5th European Harm Reduction Conference

Posted on by Milutin

From the Correlation webpage

The unexpectedly prolonged uncertainty in the future of international events and meetings caused by COVID-19 pandemic has slowed down our preparations of the Conference as well. However, the epidemic also made the significant role of our work focus, harm reduction, even more strongly certain.

 The 5th European Harm Reduction Conference now aims to serve as the platform where all the vital exchange of our “pandemic” experiences takes place, as well. Currently, we are busy fine-tuning the Conference, with a couple of adjustments such as ensuring the necessary social distancing and enabling video streaming opportunities just in case.

We have almost finalised the Conference programme and speaker list.

“Objects or subjects? Youth in drug policy and harm reduction services”
“Migrant sex workers right to health, safety and protection”
“New Psychoactive Substances, Drug Injecting and Sex” and
“Sustainability and accessibility of OAT Programs in the Context of COVID-19 and Transition” are only a couple of the highlights from the Conference programme.

The complete list of sessions and their details are HERE

 If the Conference cannot take place on the envisaged dates, we plan to organise virtual conference sessions between 4 – 6 November and to postpone the face-to-face Conference to 2021.

Your registration is valid for the postponed event as well, but if you wish, your registration fee could be refunded too.

Please be aware that hotel and flight bookings can be refunded in almost all cases.

You can check out the Conference website for updates HERE or subscribe to our newsletter, so we send them to your inbox.

 

Conference “Social, mental and economic consequences of the coronavirus pandemic to the vulnerable populations in SEE”

Posted on by Milutin

Following the success of the Conference on protection of vulnerable populations in South East Europe, held on 23 April 2020, the Drug Policy Network South East Europe organises the Conference “Social, mental and economic consequences of the coronavirus pandemic to the vulnerable populations in SEE: Do we know them and how to recognise and respond to them?”

During the coronavirus outbreak, DPNSEE and its member organisations were primarily engaged on providing support to key populations we usually serve, which is mainly related to harm reduction and treatment services, fighting stigma and discrimination, providing legal and social advices, etc. Besides these, we learned that they have a variety of additional needs and that the consequences of the situation will be wider.

One of the conclusions of the Conference we held was that it is necessary to observe social and economic impacts of coronavirus epidemic to key populations in South East Europe. That would help to better define the emerging needs of the populations and provide them with better services.

The aim of the Conference is to discuss the consequences of the coronavirus epidemic on key populations in South East Europe.

The Conference should contribute to defining the indicators for collecting data and producing regional Assessments of social, mental and economic impact of coronavirus epidemic to key populations in South East Europe. The indicators will be observed by the DPNSEE member organisations and published quarterly and annually.

The external inputs will be provided by

  • European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA) on the initial results of the study on Impact of COVID-19 on people who use drugs and drug services in the Western Balkans
  • Roberto Perez Gayo, Project Officer at the Correlation – Harm Reduction Network, who will present results of the harm reduction response to the epidemic in Europe.

In addition, we expect inputs from the experts, authorities and civil society organisations from the region.

The Conference will be held via Zoom at the following link https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81356455423 on Thursday 16 July 2020 starting at 14:00 CET (15:00 EEST). The conference would last for a maximum of 90 minutes.

The Conference will be recorded in audio and visual format. The recording will be available at the DPNSEE website.

We sincerely hope that you shall join us, contribute to understand the situation in the region better and help define reliable indicators.

 

Webinars on the World Drug Report 2020

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The Vienna NGO Committee on Drugs (VNGOC) together with the UNODC Civil Society Team are holding a series of webinars to present and discuss the World Drug Report 2020. The series includes webinars in English, French, Russian and Spanish.

Each webinar includes a formal presentation of the World Drug Report 2020 by UNODC, a civil society presentation about how they work with the data of the World Drug Report, and an open question and answer session.

The webinars will be held in English on Monday, 27 July 2020, at 15:00 CET.

To register for the webinar follow this link>>>.

Seizing the moment

Posted on by Milutin

Excerpts from the UNAIDS Media release

A new report by UNAIDS shows remarkable, but highly unequal, progress, notably in expanding access to antiretroviral therapy. Because the achievements have not been shared equally within and between countries, the global HIV targets set for 2020 will not be reached. The report, Seizing the moment, warns that even the gains made could be lost and progress further stalled if we fail to act. It highlights just how urgent it is for countries to double down and act with greater urgency to reach the millions still left behind.

Fourteen countries have achieved the 90–90–90 HIV treatment targets (90% of people living with HIV know their HIV status, of whom 90% are on antiretroviral treatment and of whom 90% are virally supressed.

Millions of lives and new infections have been saved by the scale-up of antiretroviral therapy. However, 690 000 people died of AIDS-related illnesses last year and 12.6 million of the 38 million people living with HIV were not accessing the life-saving treatment.

The world is far behind in preventing new HIV infections. Some 1.7 million people were newly infected with the virus, more than three times the global target. Around 62% of new HIV infections occurred among key populations and their sexual partners, including gay men and other men who have sex with men, sex workers, people who inject drugs and people in prison, despite them constituting a very small proportion of the general population.

Stigma and discrimination, together with other social inequalities and exclusion, are proving to be key barriers. Marginalized populations who fear judgement, violence or arrest struggle to access sexual and reproductive health services, especially those related to contraception and HIV prevention. Stigma against people living with HIV is still commonplace. At least 82 countries criminalize some form of HIV transmission, exposure or non-disclosure, sex work is criminalized in at least 103 countries and at least 108 countries criminalize the consumption or possession of drugs for personal use.

The COVID-19 pandemic has seriously impacted the AIDS response and could disrupt it more. A six-month complete disruption in HIV treatment could cause more than 500 000 additional deaths in sub-Saharan Africa over the next year (2020–2021), bringing the region back to 2008 AIDS mortality levels. Even a 20% disruption could cause an additional 110 000 deaths.

In 2019, funding for HIV fell by 7% from 2017, to US$ 18.6 billion. This setback means that funding is 30% short of the US$ 26.2 billion needed to effectively respond to HIV in 2020.

To read the Report, follow this link>>>.