Dianova’s Most Read Articles in 2021

After another complicated period, let’s have a look back on the past year with the top ten articles that our readers found most interesting

Word Drug Report 2021

As we do each year, we presented a brief summary of the United Nations World Drug Report 2021, including its key findings and policy implications. In 2021, the illicit drug trade has continued to hold back economic and social development, while disproportionately impacting the most vulnerable and marginalized. Among other elements, the report showed that the pandemic-related crisis has pushed more than 100 million people into poverty, thus creating conditions that leave more people susceptible to drug use and to engaging in illicit crop cultivation.

Identifying and Overcoming Gender Barriers in Addiction Treatment

Published jointly by Dianova and the World Federation against Drugs, the “Way Forward” infographic had a twofold objective: to “make visible the invisible”, i.e. to highlight the many obstacles women face in accessing addiction treatment services, and to encourage professionals to play a more active role in mitigating those obstacles, for example by rethinking the design of programmes, improving training plans, questioning their own attitudes and beliefs during interventions, and promoting networking.

Download infographic (pdf) in: English – Castellano – Français – Català – Euskera

The Norwegian Drug Policy Reform Is Dead, but the Movement Has Grown

Norway’s decriminalization bill is officially dead, but it may be revived in the near future. This is the gist of this article by Kenneth Arctander, Director of RIO, who explained the different steps that led his country to lose a historic opportunity to decriminalize possession of illicit substances for personal use. Despite this major setback however, the reform movement has increased in size and things may change sooner than expected…

RIO is a Norwegian recovery-oriented advocacy organization, member of the Dianova network.

Spending Quality Time with One’s Family

This article is part of a series that accompanies the campaign “Together, We Grow, Families as Health Agents”. The article explains how quality family time has beneficial effects on children, with positive impacts on their well-being, sense of belonging and cognitive development.

It should be noted that, as part as the Together We Grow campaign, a drug prevention and education programme targeting families is currently underway, with interactive online sessions to begin in February, 2022 (project’s registration page – in Spanish)

Prevention

Preventing addiction and other risk behaviours, it starts in the family! – View campaign, Together We Grow

Access to Vaccines, a Question of Social Justice

Equity in COVID-19 vaccination is a necessity. On the occasion of World Day of Social Justice Dianova supported the call by several international organizations for pharmaceutical companies to share their technology and intellectual property so that billions more doses could be manufactured and safe and effective vaccines can be available to all who need them.

March 8, Women on the Front Lines!

On the occasion of International Women’s Day International Women’s Day, March 8th and as part of Dianova’s annual advocacy campaign for women’s rights and empowerment, we conducted brief interviews with several women. In a few key questions, those interviews aimed to highlight the impact of the pandemic on women’s personal and professional lives and on the women’s rights movement as a whole. “Women in leadership: Achieving an equal future in a COVID-19 world”

COVID-19 Takes Heavy Toll on 2030 Agenda

The COVID 19 pandemic represents a huge setback for the 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This is the assessment of representatives of UN member states and other experts at the 2021 High Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF). Our representatives in New York took stock of this setback and highlighted the initiatives successfully implemented last year by the members of the Dianova network to face the pandemic and pursue their operations.

60 Years of the War on Drugs: What Needs to Change?

In this article Marie Nougier from IDPC highlighted the useless war on drugs that most countries have been fighting for decades with appalling consequences, including record high prison populations and countless human rights abuses. As she put it, the time to change the punitive approach to drug control is now.

The International Drug Policy Consortium (IDPC) is a global network of over 170 NGOs that promote objective and open debate on drug policy at national, regional and international level.

Women imprisoned

Most of the women imprisoned for drug offences have no positions of power in the drug trade, nor have they committed violent crimes. They simply have been convicted for possessing, transporting, or selling small amounts of drugs – Read article by Marie Nougier

Position Paper on Addiction and Cannabis Policies

As part of our work to update the organization’s position papers gathered in the Dianova network Manifesto, we conducted a study on the regulation and legalization of cannabis which provided the basis for the revision of this document’s section on addiction and cannabis policies.

(Excerpt from document) With regard to cannabis, Dianova believes that the international drug control system should allow all countries to regulate cannabis use based on legal regimes adapted to their needs and respectful of individual rights and interests.    

Building your Child’s Confidence and Self-Esteem

As the saying goes, a good education gives a child roots to grow and wings to fly. It is true, a child needs the solid foundation of their family as well as the self-confidence to leave it one day. A critical part of this process consists in helping our children develop good self-esteem, i.e. the confidence in their ability to cope with life’s many challenges and the feeling that they are worthy of happiness.

This article was also part of a series dedicated to supporting the campaign “Together, We Grow, Families as Health Agents”.