“Prevention Strategy and Policy Makers”: An UNODC Initiative to Support the Adoption of Evidence Based Prevention Strategies World Wide

“Prevention Strategy and Policy Makers” is an Initiative of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime aiming to disseminate the UNODC International Standards on Drug Use Prevention and support policy makers in planning a national drug prevention system that is health-centred, based on scientific evidence and cost-effective.

It  was initiated in 2013 and has so far created regional prevention hubs connecting and training policy makers in 6 different regions through a series of regional training seminars that promote and support the improvement of the coverage and quality of national systems for drug use prevention in the participating countries.

The training aims to improve participants knowledge and understanding of prevention science, via lectures and interactive exercises, going through etiology of drug use, evidence based prevention approaches and their  characteristics, and the critical components of implementation of coordinated prevention systems at national level, such as data collection and evaluation or training of prevention personnel. During the training participants are also are guided through a process of using these International Standards, together with data on substance use related situation in their country, to take a critical look at what is going on in prevention in their countries and plan for improvement. The training seminars are followed up by video-conferences and increased co-operation with the national delegations, UNODC Country Offices and UNODC Head Quarters.

The training is delivered to country delegations of 2-4 national level policy makers in charge of planning prevention at the national level, coming from different governmental sectors relevant for prevention in the given countries, with an aim to support also internal networking for benefit of better national coordination. To date, over 250 policy makers from more than 35 countries have taken part in this training.

We will present data on the value added and impact of these trainings in directing efforts towards cost effective and evidence based prevention responses and policies. We will reflect quantitative data, that shows a change in attitude and knowledge of participants (based on pre-test and post-test questionnaires), as well as interviews and reports of practical action taken on the ground showing improvements in the national prevention responses as a result of these seminars. We will discuss the possibilities of using such training in improving the quality of prevention practices in low- and middle income countries. Finally, the barriers for implementing quality prevention reported by the policy makers, such as unsufficient available expertise on conducting evaluation and using it as a tool for improving the effectiveness of prevention, are presented, and potential ways and ongoing efforts to address these barriers discussed.