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Location of the action: Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova, Russia, Ukraine
Total duration of the action: 36 months (2012 – 2014).
The project overall objective is to build the capacity of non-state actors (NSAs) to engage in advocacy and provide services to women drug users that increase their access to HIV prevention, testing, treatment and prevention of mother-to-child transmission services.
Specific Objective 1: To improve access to and quality of HIV services for women who use drugs by adapting harm reduction and other services to the needs of women drug users in 14 localities.
Specific Objective 2: To strengthen partnerships, cooperation and sharing of good practices between the project partners and the NSAs of the countries involved in the project.
Specific Objective 3: To improve national policy related to the needs of women drug users by building the capacity of harm reduction and women’s non-state agencies to constructively engage in policy dialogue.
Beneficiaries and target groups: Final beneficiaries are women who use drugs in six target countries. The project will be targeted at regional and national networks, local non-state harm reduction services and other local services (both state and non-state).
Estimated results: 4,000 women will be affected directly by improved access to high quality, gender adapted harm reduction services in the 12 (2 per country) local sites targeted. A further 527,990 women who use drugs in the 6 countries will be positively impacted by improved policy and policy dialogue.
Main activities: Training the trainers and technical assistants; strengthening local coalitions and referral services; ongoing technical support to service providers; technical support of national advocacy and policy assessment; facilitating best practice and exchange of lessons learnt; planning advocacy strategies countries involved in the project; promoting networking, information sharing and cooperation; establishment of the project advisory group.
The project will be implemented by EHRN and International Gender Policy Network (IGPN). EHRN and IGPN will be responsible for regional level activities, including development of methodology of policy assessments and trainings, providing training and technical support to national partners on harm reduction services for women and advocacy campaigns. EHRN will also organize regional information and advocacy campaigns to move rights and health of women who use drugs higher on the agenda of national and international stakeholders including UN human rights commissions.
Country-level activities will be coordinated by the following country partners:
The country partners will be responsible for:
- Completion of the national assessments and their presentation at roundtables,
- Design and completion of on-going advocacy campaigns at the national and/or local level,
- Logistics for trainings in their countries,
- Selecting and supervising advocacy and harm reduction site coordinators,
- Overseeing all aspects of the one-day seminars in their countries,
- Procuring supplies for harm reduction site coordinators to distribute to women clients,
- Organizing final roundtables to publicize results of the projects.
According to the project design, country partners will hire advocacy coordinators and harm reduction site coordinators.
Local partner advocacy coordinators will:
- Lead the national/local assessments
- Organize the writing and printing of the assessment reports and the roundtable to present them
- Conduct on-going advocacy activities using the assessment results
- Conduct advocacy-related trainings in their countries
- Conduct one-day seminars on human rights for women drug users
Harm reduction site coordinators will:
- Develop partnerships with other local providers working with women drug users in their locations
- Provide case management services and outreach for women drug users in their location
- Help their service sites to organize services in a more gender-sensitive way
- Organize and conduct some one-day seminars related to service provision
1. Project kick-off meeting in Tbilisi, Georgia, March 28 - 29 2012. The main objective of the kick-off meeting was to discuss implementation of the project Strengthening the response of non-state actors to growing needs of women who use drugs with among all the implementing partners, discuss financial, recruitment and reporting procedures and plan next steps.
Kick-off meeting in Tbilisi report
2. Training “Advocating for rights and health of women who use drugs in Eastern Europe”, May 14-16, 2012, Istanbul, Turkey. The advocacy training was organized by EHRN with involvement of its regional project partner International Gender Policy Network (IGPN), as well as Harm Reduction International, a London-based international network involved in harm reduction advocacy. The training was planned for 3 days, with the first day to be dedicated to gender theory and women’s rights advocacy and the second and the third days to practical skills needed to document and analyze human rights violations and to use international mechanisms for women’s rights protection.
Advocacy training in Istanbul concept
3. Advocacy instrument “Violations of reproductive and sexual rights”. Instrument was developed within the project “Strengthening the response of non-state actors to growing needs of women who use drugs”; it provides practical guidance on how to identify human rights violations, document them, and use documented cases for advocacy though submissions to local and national health committees and international bodies. The instrument contains two parts: “Information for women who use drugs on rights violations” and “How to document a human rights violations case.” Both harm reduction staff and women activists can use the instrument.
Инструмент для жалоб репродукт
Domestic Abuse and Gender-Based Violence tool
4. Country assessments. National advocacy coordinators, with the support of national partners/associates conducted assessments of women’s access to harm reduction, HIV, drug treatment, and social services.
Assessment Ukraine
Assessment Russia
Assessment Belarus
Assessment Georgia
Assessment Moldova
Assessment Azerbaijan
5. Training “Developing services for women who use drugs” for Russia service providers, working with women, who use drugs, November 27-29, 2012 Moscow, Russia. The training was aimed to increase individual capacity and quality by building upon specific skills, in order to ensure that providers can comprehensively scale-up services being offered to women who use drugs.
Training in Moscow Outline
Moscow training list of participants
6. Training “Harm reduction services for women who use drugs”, November 22-24, 2012, Minsk, Belarus. Aim of the training – to develop potential of NGOs in response to the increasing needs of women using drugs.
Minsk training participatns list
7. Training “Harm reduction services for women who use drugs”, 11-13 December, 2012, Kobuleti, Georgia. Aim of the training – to develop potential of NGOs in response to the increasing needs of women using drugs.
Training in Kobuleti program
Training in Kobuleti list of participants
8. Submission to UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women. On the 31st of October 2012, Eurasian Harm Reduction Network (EHRN) submitted a collective complaint on behalf of women who use drugs in Russia, Ukraine and Georgia to UN Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women. The submission focuses on testimonies provided by women themselves from Russia, Ukraine, as well as harm reduction service providers in Ukraine and Georgia.
Submission to UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women
9. Complaints to UN Committee on the Status of women. On the x of y, 2012, Eurasian Harm Reduction Network in partnership with international and national partners submitted complaints to UN Committee on the Status of women in regards to the status of women in Georgia, Ukraine, and Russia. All submissions are based on the complaints received by the EHRN and testimonies of women who use drugs or have used drugs during pregnancy.
Complaint Georgia [en];
Complaint Ukraine [en];
Complaint Russia [en]
10. Policy brief “Halting HIV by Reducing Violence against Women: the Case for Reforming Drug Policies in Eastern Europe and Central Asia”. The publication was developed on Submission to UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women basis. It was presented by Dasha Ocheret during 31st meeting of UNAIDS Programme Coordinating Board which took place on 11-13 December 2012 in Geneva, Switzerland.
Violance against women policy brief
11. EHRN‘s participation in CND and CSW
On March 12, two sessions addressing the issue of the systematic rights abuse of women who use drugs were held at UN venues on both sides of the Atlantic. Event, titled, “By women for women: new approaches to harm reduction,” organized by UNODC in the framework of the 56th session of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND) in Vienna focused on the issue of access to HIV prevention, treatment and care services for women who use drugs. EHRN deputy director for policy and advocacy gave a presentation „Drug policies, HIV and violence against women who use drugs“ at the event. You can find presentation here
At the same day, the parallel session titled, “Preventing and eliminating the violence against women: Drug policy reform as a way of violence elimination,” organized by EHRN and International Gender Policy Network in the framework of the 57th session of Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) in New York under the auspices of the Permanent Mission of the Czech Republic to the UN and addressed the issue of state-inflicted violence against women who use drugs.
Two representatives of the drug user community were rejected a United States visa, and could not join the event. However, the participants of the session were provided the testimonies of the two women from the region:
See the message to the participants of CSW from Ekaterina Gargaphadze, NGO Aceso Georgia: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TunsalM3trM
See the message to the participants of CSW from Viktoria Lintsova, Eurasian Network of People Who Use Drugs, Ukraine: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1eU21mjuZ3g
Please find press release here |
