The European Monitoring Center on Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA), under COPOLAD Cooperation Program, is co-organizing a meeting in Chile on 25-27 April 2023, together with OEA/CICAD and with the support of Servicio Nacional para la Prevención y Rehabilitación del Consumo de Drogas y Alcohol (SENDA). During this meeting, training and technical support on complementary data collection methodologies, focusing wastewater and websurveys, as well as on earely warning systems (EWS) will be provided, along opportunities of sharing best practices on analytical capacity and EWS in the European Union and Latin America and Caribbean. On 27 April, the first meeting of working groups 1.2 (led by Chile) and 1.5 (led by Colombia and Uruguay), aiming at defining the workplan and objectives for the upcoming years. Representatives that manifested their interest in actively participating in working groups 1.2 (Improving the analytical and advocacy capacity of NDOs) and 1.5 (Development and strengthening of national Early Warning Systems – EWS) under Output 1 “Strengthened technical capacity and institutional role of the National Drug Observatories (NDOs)” of the COPOLAD III program were invited, along key international experts.
The EMCDDA became an official partner of COPOLAD III in July 2022. The programme promotes dialogue and bi-regional cooperation on drug policy between the European Union and Latin American and Caribbean countries. Funded by the EU, the programme is led by the International Ibero-American Foundation for Public Policies and Administrations (FIIAPP), in consortium with the Italian-Latin American International Organization (IILA). Also collaborating in the programme is the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit GmbH (GIZ).