The EU-funded Central Asia Drug Action Programme, 7th Phase (CADAP 7) conducted a National dialogue on drug policy to enhance interaction between state institutions and civil society to exchange good practices regional and international) and to discuss the drug situation and development on trends and responses including drug supply and demand reduction. The event has been conducted in hybrid format in Astana on June 07, 2023.The action’s main stakeholders were convened to the event, including the EU delegation to Kazakhstan, the Government partners, international organisations and NGO`s –Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Interior, Ministry of Health, Ministry of Justice, BOMCA, INL,UNODC, OSCE, and others.

In his welcoming remarks Mr. Youri Skaskevitch, representative of EU delegation to Kazakhstan, emphasized the role of cooperation between CA-EU, the importance of the programs like CADAP as the part of international development and through the years as CADAP and BOMCA are celebrating their 20th anniversary.

Mr. Rakhimkul Edyge, representative of MFA of the RK, highlighted that the Government of Kazakhstan support implementation of international development programs and pays high attention to the importance of fighting with drugs by referring to the annual Message of the President Tokayev K.K. to the People of Kazakhstan.

Ms. Omarova Dinara, MoI of the RK, emphasized that the Government of Kazakhstan put the efforts in fighting with drugs and thanked CADAP team in supporting Kazakhstan in it.

Result 1 of CADAP 7 – Drug Policy is aimed on enhancing the incorporation of an evidence-based approach and mainstream the Agenda 2030 into national and regional drug policies. CADAP continues the process of developing National and Regional Roadmaps to strengthen key items on national policy, monitoring, prevention and treatment. The institutionalization of good practices of key items of drug policy, monitoring, prevention and treatmentrequires detailed overview of national and regional drug policy papers. “That’s why we promote Drug Policy Dialogs on National and Regional levels, which creates excellent platform for wide participation of all stakeholders”, says Ernest Robello, CADAP 7 Director.
It should be noted that a wide range of activities are being planned for Kazakhstan for 2023, among which are – the development of a roadmap on drug control, production and dissemination of targeted studies upon the request of national partners, development of preventive and treatment programmes in accordance with European standards, expert meetings and internships at European Monitoring Center for Drugs and Drug Addictions (EMCDDA), field visit to Spain.
More information about CADAP, its activities and results achieved is available at: http://www.eu-cadap.org