Project Overview

In partnership with the GSSCPD and the Drug Control General Department of Kuwait’s Ministry of Interior, UNDP works on this project to reduce both the extent and effects of drug use, as well as death from drug overdose in Kuwait. The project is guided by the Kuwait National Development Plan (KNDP), and was developed in direct response to the identified issues, gaps, and needs in the country’s drug use problem. Situation-appropriate actions have been advanced for effect in improving drug use prevention, as well as treatment, rehabilitation, and community reintegration for users, with streamlined, decentralized policies and services, and capacity building to support the implementation of these, alongside parallel public awareness campaigns.

The project aims to develop a National Drug Use Prevention Policy and Management Program, one that is tailored to local problems and needs, in order to ensure a healthier, more productive, satisfied local population with a decreased prevalence of dependent drug use and related deaths. To this aim, the project works to support the formulation and implementation of policies that contribute to limit drug-related crimes (and decrease local crime rates as a whole), leading to a safer, more secure environment in both the short- and long run, towards the safety and security envisioned in the KNDP.

Some of the important points of the policies and programs being developed in alignment with the compatible Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), include: improved in-depth knowledge of drug use prevention-related services and familiarity of the national situation; establishment of a national policy and management body for national streamlined efforts for the problem; increased streamlining of needed services by working within an agreed upon Drug Use Prevention Policy and Management Strategy; establishment of a working operational plan that integrates considerations for gender equality, human rights issues, and local cultural sensitivities, for better, more efficient provision of services; and enhanced institutional services, human capacities, and implementation of targeted services and interventions, to reinforce national awareness of the problem and to reach the affected users and their families

Project Highlights

An UN-to-UN agreement has been signed with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) to develop and to implement the below objectives, in the start-up phase of this project:

• Conduct a national, in-depth assessment of drug use prevention-related services, to be published as a report
• Establish a national drug technical team and a technical working groups charter, as well as a functioning technical team and technical working groups
• Develop a Local Drug Use Prevention Policy and Management Strategy for 2018 – 2021
• Develop capacity building plan and related training programs