2.1 LA COOPERACIÓN INTERNACIONAL EN ECUADOR 2.1.1 Ecuador como receptor de AOD

Website: <www.unodc.org> and <www.unodc.org/youthnet>

Contact person(s): Mr. Gautam Babbar at [email protected] and Ms. Giovanna Campello at [email protected]

Introduction and background

School-based activities including both education and policies are essential components of any drug abuse prevention strategy. The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) aims at developing and disseminating good practices in this field so that its Member States, including civil society, are in a better position to develop and implement evidence-based and effective activities. In specific countries, dissemination has included the direct support to the development of the curricula as well as training of teachers. UNODC supports the FRESH framework The components of FRESH on substance abuse prevention are taken from materials developed by the UNODC Global Youth Network. Please see <www.unodc.org/youthnet>.

Activities and programmes

UNODC promotes the development and use of age-specific curricula that provides young people with the personal and social skills to make healthy choices in the field of substance abuse (discussing also HIV&AIDS in this context). Depending on the context, it promotes the delivery of curricula through teachers or peers (i.e. in- and out-of-schools). In any case, interactive training techniques are key and whoever delivers the curriculum should be supported by adequate training and/or supervision. When UNODC directly supports the development of such curricula, they have often been developed in collaboration with other UN agencies covering reproductive health and HIV&AIDS issues. However, curricula for younger children would discuss more general health issues. UNODC also promotes the development and implementation of constructive school policies that have been developed in cooperation with all relevant stakeholders and covers both licit and illicit substance use by both students and staff. Good referral to youth-friendly services is an essential component of a good drug abuse prevention policy. This would also include referral to reproductive and sexual services, although UNODC would not be directly involved in supporting such services.

Topics on policy and advocacy work

Topic Topic

Human rights, discrimination and stigma reduction

Services for students with special needs

School feeding programmes Violence prevention _✔ Immunization, vaccination Gender and sexual diversity

Ethnic and religious diversity Environmental concerns Skills-based health education including

reproductive health/HIV&AIDS prevention ✔ Access to safe water Tobacco, drugs, alcohol prevention _✔ Promotion of adequate

sanitation/latrines Health and nutrition services, including

deworming Partnerships and participation ✔

Promotion of a safe school environment _✔ Malaria care and prevention

Partnerships, advocacy, research and participation

UNODC promotes a comprehensive approach to drug abuse prevention. Its basic premise is that there is not one factor that causes drug abuse in any community. Interventions will therefore have to involve a range of sectors/actors in the community to address the relevant range of risk and protective factors.

UNODC promotes, as good practice, that drug abuse education curricula should be tested with teachers and students and that policies on substance abuse in the schools should be developed collaboratively including students, parents, teachers, and other school staff. Wherever UNODC has been involved in the development of such curricula/policies, UNODC has endeavoured to put this into practice.

UNODC has been involved in the FRESH initiative. The work of the UNODC Global Youth Network has been to connect and work with youth groups and community- based organizations in developing and identifying good practices in drug abuse prevention, including school-based drug abuse prevention (see <www.unodc.org/youthnet> for a short description of the process). The Global Youth Network to date connects some 700 organizations in more than 100 countries. Wherever UNODC has been involved in the development of school-based drug abuse prevention curricula this has obviously been done in close cooperation with relevant government authorities and with the participation of civil society to the extent possible.

The activities of the UNODC Global Youth Network in identifying good practices could be seen as an operational research activity. UNODC have been identifying good practices on the basis of discussions on reviews of the academic literature by a group of practitioners and youth from all over the world who have contributed their practical global perspective. The result of this work is in the publications that can be found in the website of the UNODC Global Youth Network <www.unodc.org/youthnet>, some of which have found their way in the materials of FRESH.

Future plans

Funding levels are likely to remain the same. No expansion to new geographical areas is planned. UNODC intends to concentrate on the monitoring and evaluation of drug abuse prevention activities, including school-based activities, as well as on the link between drug and crime prevention. UNODC intends to continue to work with its members in its Global Youth Network and other agencies in the UN system.