Egypt, UN, LAS launch Arab Plan for Prevention and Reduction of Drug Dangers

CAIRO – 27 March 2023: Egypt, the League of Arab States (LAS), and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) launched on Sunday the “Arab Plan for Prevention and Reduction of the Dangers of Drugs to Arab Society: Towards Effective Handling of the Issue from a Social Perspective”.

Egypt’s Minister of Social Solidarity and Chairman of the Fund for the Egyptian Drug Control and Treatment of Addiction (FDCTA) Nevine El-Qabbaj, Secretary-General of the League of Arab States Ahmed Aboul Gheit, and Executive Director of UNODC Ghada Waly launched the initiative in a ceremony held in Cairo.

The Arab League and UNODC also signed the Regional Framework for the Arab States (2023 – 2028).

The Arab Plan for Prevention and Reduction of the Dangers of Drugs represents a “regional social framework for combating drugs in the Arab States by highlighting the social dimension of drug demand reduction in the context of its negative impact on social development in specific and sustainable development in general,” UNODC said in a statement.

The document, published in full on UNODC’s website, provides an “indicative vision for guiding Arab action towards a comprehensive and integrated response based on scientific evidence and consistent with Arab specificity of this phenomenon.”

The plan seeks to build national strategies in Arab countries and action plans and includes several initiatives, projects, and activities to achieve the Arab objectives in combating the supply of narcotic drugs via comprehensive actions, UNODC said.

“The Arab Plan’s dimensions showcase the methods of how to address this phenomenon from a social perspective and in line with Arab countries’ regulations and conditions in order to implement effective interventions including related multidimensional social and development consequences and to strengthen Arab efforts to implement the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development,” the statement added.

The dimensions of the Arab Plan include community prevention, rehabilitation and social integration, addressing drug-related harm and its consequences, as well as the dimensions and themes in support of the Plan's areas of action, UNODC noted.