Tag: report

Assessment of gender sensitivity of the drug harm reduction program for youth in Serbia

Posted on by DPNSEE

This gender analysis of harm reduction services for young people who use drugs (PWUD) “Assessment of gender sensitivity of the drug harm reduction program for youth in Serbia“, published by our member organisation Prevent from Novi Sad, was conducted within the Erasmus+ regional project “Creating Gender-Based Programs for Young People Who Use Drugs,” with the aim of identifying gender-related barriers, gaps, and opportunities in existing programs. The study places a strong focus on the needs and lived experiences of young PWUD, including those of diverse gender identities and sexual orientations, while assessing the level of gender sensitivity and inclusiveness of current services. In 2025, the harm reduction landscape in Serbia is marked by the absence of an updated national strategy, weakening multisectoral cooperation, and the exclusion of civil society organizations (CSOs) from policymaking processes. Existing policies only partially recognize harm reduction and lack gender-specific or transformative approaches, while the legal framework remains repressive and discourages service access. Additionally, there is a significant lack of gender-disaggregated data and gender analysis in public systems, alongside documented discrimination against women, trans, and LGBTQAI+ individuals. Despite these challenges, CSOs continue to play a crucial role as primary service providers, offering essential support such as sterile equipment, testing, counselling, and safe spaces, though they face limited funding, administrative barriers, and declining international support, putting especially gender-sensitive and youth-focused services at risk of closure.

The findings highlight that women – particularly sex workers, Roma women, and trans and non-binary individuals – face multiple and intersecting forms of marginalization, compounded by the lack of gender-responsive services and systemic exclusion from public institutions. There is a clear need for more inclusive, gender-sensitive, and accessible approaches, including mobile and night outreach, integrated legal and healthcare support, and safe shelters. While CSOs are actively developing anti-stigma protocols, gender-neutral spaces, staff training, and protection mechanisms, their efforts remain constrained by unstable funding. Accordingly, the recommendations emphasize the urgent need to integrate a gender perspective into public policies, ensure sustainable institutional funding for CSOs, reform punitive legal frameworks, and enable meaningful participation of both CSOs and young PWUD in decision-making. At the organizational and programmatic levels, priorities include diversifying funding sources, strengthening partnerships, preserving core services, expanding peer-led and gender-sensitive programs, improving outreach and communication, addressing violence, and investing in continuous monitoring and staff capacity building. Overall, a coordinated and gender-responsive systemic shift is essential to ensure equitable, sustainable, and effective harm reduction services in Serbia.

The report, in Serbian, is available following this link>>>.

Prevent also published a comparative report which is the result of collaboration between civil society organizations from three countries: Prevent from Novi Sad, HOPS from Skopje, and Sananim from Prague. It provides a comprehensive overview and comparison of three national gender analyses of harm reduction programs conducted in Serbia, North Macedonia, and the Czech Republic during 2025, using a shared methodology. The main objective was to identify gender-related barriers, gaps, and opportunities within existing harm reduction services, with a particular focus on the needs and experiences of young people who use drugs, including individuals of diverse gender identities and sexual orientations. The report examines the extent to which services are gender-sensitive, inclusive, and responsive to the specific needs of users, taking into account the influence of gender norms, identities, and structural inequalities on both access to and quality of services.

The analysis combines two key components: a desk review of existing strategies and policy frameworks, and qualitative insights gathered through semi-structured interviews with organizations working directly with marginalized communities, including people who use drugs, sex workers, LGBTI+ individuals, and youth. To ensure a standardized and evidence-based assessment, the evaluation of programs and policies was conducted using the World Health Organization’s Gender Responsive Assessment Scale (GRAS), which enabled the identification of levels of gender responsiveness as well as critical gaps across the three national contexts. This comparative approach not only highlights shared challenges but also provides a foundation for developing more inclusive, gender-responsive harm reduction policies and practices across the region.

The report is available in Serbian following this link>>>.

Gender sensitivity of programs to reduce harm from drug use among young people

Posted on by DPNSEE

How gender-sensitive are drug harm reduction programs in North Macedonia, Serbia and the Czech Republic? How gender-specific and gender-transformative are national policies in these countries? Find the answers to these and many other questions in the comparative report “Gender Sensitivity of Drug Harm Reduction Programs for Youth in North Macedonia, Serbia and the Czech Republic”.

In Macedonian here, in Serbian and in Czech.

The report is part of the Project – Creating Gender-Based Programs for Youth Who Use Drugs funded by the European Union (ERASMUS+ program).

The main goal of the project is to build the capacities of civil society organizations working with youth who use drugs to develop gender-sensitive drug harm reduction programs.

Struggle and Hope Beyond the Numbers

Posted on by DPNSEE

On 25 November 2025, the Eurasian Harm Reduction Association (EHRA), together with Correlation – European Harm Reduction Network (C-EHRN) and the Drug Policy Network South East Europe (DPNSEE), hosted a webinar to launch the new regional report “Beyond Numbers: Harm Reduction across South-Eastern Europe” (prepared by Irena Molnar et al) within the framework of the EU-funded BOOST project. The discussion brought together regional experts, practitioners, and community voices to examine the current state of harm reduction across 11 countries in South-Eastern Europe, with a strong focus on the Western Balkans.

Why “Beyond Numbers”

Speakers highlighted that regional data remain uneven, fragmented, and often outdated, making evidence-informed planning and advocacy difficult. The report responds to this gap by combining available quantitative sources with qualitative insights from service providers, peers, and people with lived/living experience, translating “coverage” into the realities of access, continuity, and quality on the ground.

Key findings presented from the report

In her presentation, Irena Molnar outlined a new comparative framework developed for the report, assessing each country across four domains:

  • Service provision (e.g., OAT/OST, NSP, HIV/HCV testing, overdose prevention, prison-based interventions),
  • Policy and financing (legal and funding environment, integration into health systems, community participation),
  • Epidemiology (availability and recency of key indicators), and
  • Data and monitoring (regular reporting, surveillance, transparency).

The findings reveal wide disparities in harm reduction system maturity across the region. While some countries maintain more comprehensive approaches, others face severe service gaps and closures—particularly after the withdrawal of external donor support, with shrinking coverage of needle and syringe programmes (NSP) and outreach in several settings. Across the region, services are frequently concentrated in capitals and larger cities, leaving rural areas and smaller communities with limited or no access. The report also underlines persistent challenges related to stigma and discrimination, weak institutional financing, and insufficient community involvement in policy design.

Country reflections: Slovenia, Bulgaria, North Macedonia

Country representatives echoed the report’s main messages and provided practical reflections:

  • Slovenia noted that strong scores can mask implementation gaps: certain interventions exist “on paper” but remain inconsistently available in practice (e.g., wider access to take-home naloxone; delayed implementation of drug consumption rooms).
  • Bulgaria highlighted progress driven largely by civil society innovation, municipal engagement, and crowdfunding—but warned about fragile sustainability when services depend on a very small number of organisations and lack systematic health-sector funding.
  • North Macedonia described a dramatic reduction in national NSP coverage following donor withdrawal, leaving only limited outreach capacity and uncertainty about continuity—illustrating how funding instability translates directly into increased health risks and reduced access to care.

EU and regional perspectives: future opportunities

On the panel, the European Union Drugs Agency (EUDA) representative recognised major disparities in harm reduction coverage across Europe, including persistent gaps in take-home naloxone availability in parts of the region. EUDA highlighted its role in strengthening evidence and systems through capacity building, training, and improved monitoring, and announced plans to start mapping harm reduction services in the Western Balkans to better understand gaps and inform future programming.

EHRA emphasised that strong language in strategies must be matched by implementation, and pointed to the EU enlargement process as a potential lever to push for sustainable harm reduction and broader health responses in candidate countries. The discussion also acknowledged the difficult broader context—shrinking civic space and shifting political priorities—while stressing the urgency of coordinated advocacy and community-led monitoring.

The webinar concluded with a shared message: harm reduction in South-Eastern Europe continues to survive largely through civil society resilience and community leadership, but sustainable progress requires political commitment, stable financing, and stronger integration of harm reduction into public health systems.

The report is published at the EHRA webpage here>>>.

The report launch event is available online
https://youtu.be/TbkH6KfqHfI

 

A civil society report on EU Drugs Strategy

Posted on by Milutin

Correlation – European Harm Reduction Network (C-EHRN) in cooperation with the Civil Society Forum on Drugs (CSFD) and building on previous work of the CSFD, published Implementation of the European Union Drugs Strategy 2021-2025. A civil society report.

To evaluate the implementation of the EU Drugs Strategy and Action Plans, the CSFD first surveyed civil society experts in 2018 (at the outset of the 2017-2020 Action Plan period) (Kender-Jeziorska & Sarosi, 2018), and subsequently in 2021 (after the end of the 2017-2020 Action Plan implementation period) (Jeziorska, 2022).

Present analysis focuses on the currently ending EU Drugs Strategy and Action Plan, addressing their demand and harm reduction aspects, and aiming to provide insights into civil society’s perceptions of the availability, accessibility and quality of fourteen key services in 2023/2024, as well as to identify any changes that occurred between 2018 and 2023/2024. Like the previous assessments, this project also examines the accessibility of specific services for several key populations.

The report is available following this link>>>.

 

Call for inputs – UNSR on Health’s report

Posted on by Milutin

The UN Special Rapporteur on the right to health is producing a second report on harm reduction this year entitled ‘Harm reduction for sustainable peace and development‘. The Special Rapporteur intends to explore the ways in which harm reduction intersects with the right to health and related human rights.

Most commonly, harm reduction refers to policies, programmes and practices that aim to minimise the negative health, social and legal impacts associated with drug use, drug policies and drug laws. For the purposes of this report, the Special Rapporteur defines harm reduction in a broader sense, including the policies, programmes, and practices that aim to minimise the negative health, social, and legal impacts associated with various behaviours and related policies and laws, as exemplified above.

A ‘Call for inputs’ is now available on the UNSR’s website.

The deadline for submissions (which can be made in English, Spanish or French) is Monday, 27 May 2024.

The report is a great opportunity to build on UN human rights experts’ increasingly supportive positionings on harm reduction and drug policy.

 

Global HCV elimination efforts through point-of-care testing

Posted on by Milutin

The International Network on Health and Hepatitis in Substance Users (INHSU), in collaboration with the Coalition for Global Hepatitis Elimination (CGHE), FIND, The Kirby Institute, UNSW, and Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI), announced the release of a comprehensive report stemming from the INHSU Hepatitis C Point-of-Care Testing Forum, held during the Global Hepatitis Summit in Paris in April 2023.

Despite advances in treatment, an estimated 57 million people are living with chronic hepatitis C infection globally, with 290,000 people dying from HCV-related cirrhosis and liver cancer each year. Scaling up testing and utilising innovative testing methods are integral if the World Health Organization’s (WHO) 2030 elimination targets are to be met.

The Barriers and solutions to increasing access to point-of-care HCV testing report, developed in response to the urgent need for effective strategies to combat the global burden of HCV, explores the underutilised promise of point-of-care testing in simplifying diagnosis, improving access to treatment, and ultimately reducing the prevalence of HCV.

The report underscores the urgent need for action to address challenges in these five key areas and provides practical solutions for implementation alongside real-world examples of successful Point-of-Care programs from Catalonia, Iran, Denmark and more.  It is a valuable resource for policymakers, healthcare professionals, and organisations committed to advancing global HCV elimination goals.

 

Drug consumption rooms in Europe

Posted on by Milutin

From the Correlation website

The European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA) and Correlation – European Harm Reduction Network (C-EHRN) have published the latest overview on the situation of drug consumption rooms (DCRs) in Europe. The purpose of the report is to encourage evidence-based discussions around DCRs and the implementation of varied DCR models in Europe.

The report is based on a mixed-methods approach, including a review of documents published by EMCDDA and C-EHRN up to 2020, together with a structured literature search for new peer-reviewed (MEDLINE) and grey publications, including relevant health and public-order outcomes of drug consumption rooms and covering the most recent years (2020 and 2021).

DCRs are a fundamental health and social response that fosters the well-being of people who use drugs by providing hygienic and safer spaces where to use substances in the presence of trained social workers and/or healthcare professionals. DCRs are usually located in areas where there is an open drug scene and where injecting in public places is common. The primary target group for DCR services are people who engage in drug use patterns that can result in dangerous health outcomes.

According to the report, in 2022, there were over 100 DCRs operating globally, with services in several EU countries such as Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal and Spain, as well as in Switzerland, Australia, Canada, Mexico and the USA.

Primarily, DCRs aim to prevent drug-related overdose deaths, reduce the risks of disease transmission through the use of unhygienic supplies and/or their sharing, and connect people who use drugs with support, health and social services. Besides this, they can also aim to minimise public nuisance.

In the report, two main operational models of DCRs in Europe are described: integrated DCRs, operating within low-threshold facilities, where the supervision of drug use is just one of the services offered, and specialised DCRs, offering a narrower range of services directly related to supervised consumption.

As frontline, low-threshold services, DCRs can support the monitoring of new and emerging local trends. For example, it has been found that in Europe, injecting heroin is less common in recent years, while the use of synthetic opioids and stimulants has increased in some countries. Over the years, following a dynamic drug landscape, many harm reduction services, including DCRs, have adapted to the needs of local clients. For example, some DCRs have started providing services for smoking as well as injecting and allowing the consumption of a wider range of substances within the facility.

DCR evaluation presents specific challenges, but currently available evidence support the positive impact of DCRs on the access to healthcare and harm reduction services among people who use drugs, and especially groups that are not reached enough by these services. DCRs do not increase crime in the areas where they are located and, instead, contribute to decrease of public drug use. Evidence also shows how DCRs contribute to reducing drug-related deaths.

In addition, an expert panel recently concluded that DCRs foster safer injecting practices and therefore can contribute to reduce the transmission rate of communicable diseases among people who inject drugs.

Among other measures to reduce cases of fatal and non-fatal overdose, the EU Drugs Action Plan 2021–2025 calls for DCRs to be introduced, maintained or enhanced ‘where appropriate and in accordance with national legislation’.

The report concludes that, despite the challenges encountered in conducting research in this setting, more studies are needed to support the work of DCRs by showing their contributions to reducing both individual and community harms.

Read the joint EMCDDA and C-EHRN Report on DCRs in Europe following this link>>>.

 

The path that ends AIDS

Posted on by Milutin

From the UNAIDS press release

A new report released today by UNAIDS shows that there is a clear path that ends AIDS. This path will also help prepare for and tackle future pandemics and advance progress towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. The report, ‘The Path that Ends AIDS’, contains data and case studies which highlight that ending AIDS is a political and financial choice, and that the countries and leaders who are already following the path are achieving extraordinary results.

The report highlights that HIV responses succeed when they are anchored in strong political leadership. This means following the data, science, and evidence; tackling the inequalities holding back progress; enabling communities and civil society organizations in their vital role in the response; and ensuring sufficient and sustainable funding.

Progress has been strongest in the countries and regions that have the most financial investments, such as in eastern and southern Africa where new HIV infections have been reduced by 57% since 2010.

Thanks to support for and investment in ending AIDS among children, 82% of pregnant and breastfeeding women living with HIV globally were accessing antiretroviral treatment in 2022, up from 46% in 2010. This has led to a 58% reduction in new HIV infections among children from 2010 to 2022, the lowest number since the 1980’s.

Progress in the HIV response has been strengthened by ensuring that legal and policy frameworks do not undermine human rights, but enable and protect them. Several countries removed harmful laws in 2022 and 2023, including five (Antigua and Barbuda, the Cook Islands, Barbados, Saint Kitts and Nevis, and Singapore) that have decriminalized same-sex sexual relations.

The number of people on antiretroviral treatment worldwide rose almost fourfold, from 7.7 million in 2010 to 29.8 million in 2022.

However, the report also sets out that ending AIDS will not come automatically. AIDS claimed a life every minute in 2022. Around 9.2 million people still miss out on treatment, including 660 000 children living with HIV.

Women and girls are still disproportionately affected, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa. Globally, 4,000 young women and girls became infected with HIV every week in 2022. Only 42% of districts with HIV incidence over 0.3% in sub-Saharan Africa are currently covered with dedicated HIV prevention programmes for adolescent girls and young women.

Almost one quarter (23%) of new HIV infections were in Asia and the Pacific where new infections are rising alarmingly in some countries. Steep increases in new infections are continuing in eastern Europe and central Asia (a rise of 49% since 2010) and in the Middle East and North Africa (a rise of 61% since 2010). These trends are due primarily to a lack of HIV prevention services for marginalized and key populations and the barriers posed by punitive laws and social discrimination.

Funding for HIV also declined in 2022 from both international and domestic sources, falling back to the same level as in 2013. Funding amounted to US$ 20.8 billion in 2022, far short of the US$ 29.3 billion needed by 2025.

There is an opportunity now to end AIDS by increasing political will by investing in a sustainable response to HIV through financing what matters most: evidence-based HIV prevention and treatment, health systems integration, non- discriminatory laws, gender equality, and empowered community networks.

In 2022, an estimated:

  • 39,0 million people globally were living with HIV
  • 29,8 million people were accessing antiretroviral therapy
  • 1,3 million people became newly infected with HIV
  • 630.000 people died from AIDS-related illnesses

To access the report, follow this link>>>.

 

‘Right to asylum in the Republic of Serbia 2022’ report presented

Posted on by Milutin

The Belgrade Centre for Human Rights (BCHR) presented its annual report Right to Asylum in the Republic of Serbia 2022 at a press conference in the Belgrade Media Centre on 28 February. The report was presented by UNHCR Representative in Serbia Soufiane Adjali, BCHR Executive Director Sonja Tošković, BCHR Asylum and Migration Programme Coordinator Anja Stefanović, Report Editor Ana Trifunović and BCHR Asylum and Migration Programme Senior Integration Adviser Jelena Ilić.

According to the data of the Serbian Commissariat for Refugees and Migration, over 119,000 refugees and asylum seekers stayed in the Serbian asylum and reception centres in 2022, or twice as many as in 2021, said the Report Editor, Ana Trifunović.

Serbia issued 1,115 rulings granting temporary protection mostly to Ukrainian nationals, in accordance with the temporary protection mechanism activated after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, said Trifunović.

“The arrival of Ukrainian nationals in Serbia was facilitated by the visa-free regime and they applied for temporary protection on arrival. In BCHR’s experience, the application of the temporary protection mechanism was relatively smooth. The people who fled Ukraine mostly stayed in private lodgings and many of them have friends and relatives, even spouses, here. The Serbian Government designated the Vranje Asylum Centre for the accommodation of exclusively Ukrainian refugees,” Asylum and Migration Programme Coordinator Anja Stefanović said, adding that most Ukrainian refugees wanted to return to their country as soon as circumstances permitted.

Jelena Ilić, a Senior Integration Adviser with BCHR’s Asylum and Migration Programme, said that 230 refugees in 2022 asked BCHR to help them pursue their education or access the labour market in Serbia.

She said that BCHR in 2022 represented 94 Ukrainian clients, as well as clients from Burundi, Iran and Libya, in procedures for accessing their economic and social rights.

“Only 23% of the foreigners between 20 and 56 years of age who asked us to help them access their right to work or education spoke Serbian. Four BCHR’s clients have enrolled in Serbian colleges since 2021,” said Ilić.

The report is available in Serbian and English.

 

EMCDDA new analysis on the drug situation in the Western Balkans

Posted on by Milutin

From the EMCDDA webpage

Drug-related health and security threats in the Western Balkans are highlighted in a new report published by the EU drugs agency (EMCDDA). Released in the framework of the agency’s latest Instrument for Pre-accession Assistance project (IPA7), funded by the EU, the report provides the latest picture of the drug situation in the region.

The report offers a top-level analysis of drug markets, their drivers, facilitators and consequences, as well as an overview of drug policy and the law, drug use, harms and responses. It concludes with a regional overview of each of the major drug types, focusing on use, production and trafficking. Additional challenges, such as corruption, violence and the internationalisation of organised crime networks are also considered.

The findings are based on EMCDDA data collected through structured questionnaires and complemented by information from studies, focus groups and scientific literature. It appears that drug-related information is overall relatively limited in the region, although this varies, to some extent, between the partners concerned.

The report presents a summary of ‘key findings’, including:

  • Available data show that overall drug use in the region appears to be lower than in the neighbouring EU, although notable differences in patterns of use can be observed between the Western Balkan partners. There is an ongoing need to better monitor harms associated with opioid and cocaine use in the region, as evidence suggests that use of these substances is evolving in ways that could have important implications in future.
  • Harm reduction services operate in all of the partners, but the provision of interventions appears to be generally insufficient and is often dependent on international funding. Data point to an overarching need in the region to increase the provision of treatment and other services for people with drug problems. In particular, responses targeting harmful patterns of use for non-opioid drugs appear to be currently underdeveloped, while, at the same time, demand for such responses may be growing.
  • Western Balkan criminal networks appear to have become key actors in both the regional and EU drug markets. This partly reflects the geographical position of the Western Balkans, which lie at the intersection of a number of major drug trafficking routes (e.g. Balkan route for heroin), but also, potentially, some emerging routes for other drugs, including cocaine. These criminal networks have a significant impact on security, governance and the rule of law in the region.
  • Some criminal networks from the Western Balkans have adopted a new business model of direct involvement in cannabis production within the EU. Their presence in a number of EU countries, primarily associated with indoor production facilities, has been noted. Patterns of cannabis cultivation in the region are shifting and diversifying. Significantly less cannabis is cultivated outdoors in Albania than in the past, while large-scale cannabis cultivation sites have been recorded in other parts of the Western Balkan region.
  • Violence associated with competition for drug markets and control of trafficking routes is a significant security threat. A number of homicides in the EU and elsewhere have been linked to Western Balkan criminal networks involved in the drug trade, particularly the cocaine business.

The report is available following this link>>>.