The first forum of public initiatives of Central Asia, dedicated to the issues of evidence-based prevention of substance use, began its work in Almaty. More than 90 delegates from five countries are taking part in it, El.kz reports citing the press service of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Kazakhstan.
The forum is organized by the community of public organizations of the United States - CADCA, the International Foundation for Public Administration and Policy (FIIAPP) and the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Kazakhstan.
The main moderator of the forum, Head of the Department for Combating Drug Crime of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Haji-Gali Imazhanov, noted that Kazakhstan has been implementing a pilot project in six regions of the country for five years to organize the prevention of drug addiction with the involvement of civil society and all concerned citizens.
The driving force here should be non-governmental organizations that will unite all sectors of society: government and public structures, concerned citizens, youth, business, and the media. This principle of prevention is laid down in the Comprehensive Plan to Combat Drug Addiction and Drug Trafficking for 2023-2025. Starting this year, this format of anti-drug prevention will be introduced in all regions of the country.
The head of the Kazakh delegation expressed confidence that such a local approach to the problems of drug distribution will make it possible to properly build work to counter the use and spread of drugs in each region and use all available resources as efficiently as possible.
In addition to non-governmental organizations from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, the forum was attended by representatives of government agencies involved in the implementation of anti-drug policy.
International partners noted that Kazakhstan is the first Central Asian state to introduce a systematic approach to drug abuse prevention at the level of state policy.
The forum will last two days, during which participants will exchange experience in creating community initiatives for early prevention of addictions. They will discuss further steps to promote community efforts and increase their effectiveness.