AKIPRESS.COM - During the second National Steering Committee meeting arranged by Central Asia Drug Action Programme – Phase 6 (CADAP 6) on October 27, a short overview of the current programme implementation in Uzbekistan in 2016-2017 and plan of activities for 2018 were presented and discussed with CADAP national partners, the EU Delegation in Uzbekistan reported.

The national partners from National Centre on Drug Control, Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA), State Department for Execution of Sentences under the MIA, Ministry of Health, Ministry of Public Education, Ministry of Higher and Secondary Specialized Education, Customs Committee, AIDS Centre, and NGOs took part in discussions.

Representatives of the EU Delegations in Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan, Commission of the European Union Technical Assistance Programme National Coordinating Unit, EU member states’ embassies in Uzbekistan and CADAP 6 team took part in the meeting to agree on future perspectives and planned joint efforts. The next steps in the programme implementation in Uzbekistan were discussed and agreements were reached with the state agencies present at the meeting.

During the current implementation of CADAP in Uzbekistan, CADAP handed over two sets of hematology analyzers for Tashkent City Narcological Dispensary and Bukhara Regional Narcological Dispensary in the amount of 24000 Euros. National trainings addressed to parents of schoolchildren under the prevention component, in psychosocial consultation and psychotherapeutic treatment of drug users, in treatment the disorders associated with psychoactive substances abuse and other workshops were conducted in Uzbekistan during 2017. These trainings were conducted by the EU experts for local medical staff, teachers, parents, experts in drug data collection and press services’ staff.

CADAP 6 represents continuity of the EU policy and long-term engagement with Central Asian partners to help further strengthen their national policies in drug policy and drug demand reduction. The programme is funded by the European Union and implemented by a Consortium from the Netherlands, Czech Republic, Poland and Germany led by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH.