| Overview : Drug abuse is major public health problem worldwide. While an estimated 246 million people aged 15 to 64 years used at least one illicit drug in 2013, more than 1 in 10 of the drug users are either injecting drugs or engaging in long duration or regular use of opioids, cocaine and/or amphetamines. Furthermore, West Africa serves as a transit area for illicit drugs such as heroin bound for Europe and other regions. While communities in West Africa suffer from psychosocial, economic, and health consequences of drug abuse, unavailability of reliable data for monitoring the extent, patterns, and trends of drug abuse constitutes a major setback to prevention, and demand reduction efforts in the region. UNODC, in collaboration with ECOWAS is implementing the project - "Support to ECOWAS Regional Action Plan on illicit drug trafficking, organized crime related to it and drug abuse in West Africa (XAW/Z28 - SB-004586 - FED/2014/337-573)" funded by the European Union. Among the four outcomes of the project, Outcome 2 aims to ensure that harmonised information on drug abuse epidemiology and data collection are available in the region. Output 2.5 relates to the conduct of research on epidemiology of drug abuse (including HIV/AIDS within drug users groups) in selected countries in West Africa. |
