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Changing Drug Policy

WACD Outreach: Civil Society Workshop in Accra

In recent years, a massive growth of drug trafficking has progressively undermined the stability of West African societies. West African countries are now used as transshipment points between producers in Latin America and Asia and consumers in Europe and the United States.

They have also turned into drug producing and consuming societies themselves with dire consequences for public health. After the groundbreaking publication of the West Africa Commission on Drugs (WACD) report “Not Just in Transit: Drugs, the State and Society in West Africa” in June 2014, which tackled the problem and encouraged evidence-based political solutions, the Commission has been engaged in the promotion of the report recommendations through high-level country visits and civil society dialogues.

As part of this strategy, the West Africa Civil Society Institute (WACSI), the International Drug Policy Consortium (IDPC) and the WACD – in partnership with the Open Society Initiative for West Africa, the Kofi Annan Foundation and USAID – have organized a civil society workshop on drug policy in Accra, Ghana.

This two-day workshop, which will begin this Wednesday, is an opportunity to further develop the capacity of civil society representatives in the region on the issues of drug policy, drug prevention and treatment, harm reduction, security and governance and effective advocacy.

Our objective is to strengthen the capacity of CSOs to engage and advocate for better drug policies by sharing experiences and best practices, and to outline strategies for developing a West African civil society drug policy network.

The workshop will gather 40 representatives from CSOs, professional associations, coalitions and networks. Several WACD Commissioners will also participate: Dr. Idrissa Ba, Dr. Alpha Abdoulaye, Christine Kafando and Adeolu Ogunrombi.


 For further inquiries, kindly contact WACSI in Accra.

Charles Vandyck or Franck Sombo

Email: capacitybuilding@wacsi.org

Office: +233 (0) 302 550 222