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is produced on behalf of HRI by CJWellings Ltd, publishers of
Drink and Drugs News
(DDN) in the
UK. Reporting team: Claire Brown, David Gilliver, Ian Ralph. Design: Jez Tucker. For information please email
claire@cjwellings.com • www.drinkanddrugsnews.com
.
2 –
Daily Update
– Wednesday 12 June 2013
Key government figures gather at the conference for meetings
with the World Bank and UNAIDS. From left to right: Mezahir
Aliyev, deputy prime minister of Azerbaijan; Adil Alakbarov,
deputy of the Azerbaijan Ministry of Interior’s anti-drug
department; Olga Lavrova, minister of finance for Kyrgistan;
Nazullo Abibullaev, director of the Main Department for State
Budget, Ministry of Finance of Tajikistan; Elman Jahangirov,
deputy of the Azerbaijan Ministry of Interior’s medical
department; Marina Semeniuc, head of health and social
protection for Moldova’s finance division, and Zakaria
Darchiashvili of the chief prosecutor’s office, Georgia.
The ‘cold intersection’ of austerity and social exclusion
‘We all know why we need to worry,’
David Wilson of the World Bank told
delegates at yesterday’s
Financing of
harm reduction session
.
‘If we look at the prevalence of injecting,
there are very high rates in Eastern Europe
and Central Asia. The picture is alarming,
but we all know what works.’ The gaps in
NSP coverage globally, however, were
profound. ‘Since 2010 we’ve actually seen
NSPs scaled back in countries in Eastern
Europe and Asia.’
The Global Fund was the largest harm
reduction funder, and responsible for more
than half of the funding coming to the
region, he said. ‘But harm reduction is cost-
effective in every region, and the return on
investment is very positive.’ Total future
returns were estimated at up to $8 per
dollar spent, and the more interventions
were scaled up the more cost-effective they
became, he stressed, with figures from
Australia showing an estimated yield of $27
per dollar invested.
‘Inaction is costly,’ he told
delegates. ‘And it’s not the
equivalent of doing nothing.
Wherever we can, we need to
get upstream before infections
start.’ The returns accrued to
the whole of society, however.
‘It’s a global best-buy for public
health and development
money.’
Nonetheless, the trend for
investment in HIV prevention for
people who used drugs was
going the wrong way, Daniel
Wolfe of the Open Society
Foundations International Harm Reduction
Development Programme told the
conference. ‘The Global Fund is also likely
to be a lot less global and a lot less
prevention-focused than it has been,’ he
said, with countries in the region having to
compete for decreasing resources.
‘It’s very strange to sit
in a harm reduction
conference and realise
that the last needle
exchange programme in
Romania will close this
year. We in harm
reduction will increasingly
be at the cold intersection
of austerity and social
exclusion. We need to
press donors to do more
on coordination, and we
need to do better about
deciding who can pay
what the other can’t.’
Advocacy for funding at national and
regional levels would also be vital, he told
delegates. ‘In the same way that we taught
people safe injection techniques and how
to reverse overdose, we need to be able to
read budgets, understand budget cycles
and press for local funding.’
‘We all know.’
DAVID WILSON
Programme changes
WEDNESDAY 12 JUNE 2013
Sessions
P3
:
Carlos Arroyave
, deputy director of bilateral relations
for Europe, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Guatemala
will speak instead of vice minister
Carlos Raul
Morales
(MoFA of Guatemala).
P3
:
Recent developments in drug policy reform and why
they matter.
Jindrich Voboril
(national anti-drug
coordinator, Czech Republic) will present a video
message.
M7
:
Conference debate: Instead of
Meghan Ralston
(Drug Policy Alliance, USA) – new speaker:
Stephen
Rolles
, Transform (UK).
Damon Barrett
(Harm
Reduction International, UK) will speak instead of
Annie Madden
(INPUD and AIVL, Australia).
In CC25
: Regional track – funding for harm reduction in EECA –
Maris Jesse
, Estonian Health Development Institute
(Estonia) is not coming. New speaker:
Annika Veimer
,
Estonian Health Development Institute (Estonia)
Closing ceremony
:
Stephen Lewis
, co-director, AIDS-Free
World, will present video message. Hungarian Civil Liberties Union
will screen a video with highlights from this year’s conference.
Posters
Adeolu Oluwole
's poster
#629
: HIV-risk related behaviours
among young people who use drugs in two urban communities
in Nigeria, will not be presented.