19 June 2025, Cairo, Egypt – Substance use throughout the Jap Mediterranean Area is rising amongst weak teams, together with migrants and displaced individuals. This silent disaster, happening within the shadow of battle, displacement, marginalization and financial hardship, is compounded by the lack of social help networks.
In 2022, 6.7% of individuals aged between 15 and 64 within the Area had used medicine, surpassing the worldwide common. Younger males are significantly affected, with practically 5% reporting hashish use up to now 12 months. The remedy hole is especially alarming. Just one in 13 individuals with substance use problems obtain care.
Substance use contributes to the unfold of infectious ailments like HIV, hepatitis and tuberculosis. It takes a heavy toll on psychological well being, group security and nationwide economies. In some nations, the financial influence has reached 2% of gross home product.
Recognizing the gravity of the scenario, on 1 June 2025 the Regional Well being Alliance (RHA), which brings collectively 18 UN businesses, led by the World Well being Group (WHO), to facilitate multilateral engagement and joint efforts to handle well being priorities, convened a regional technical assembly to strengthen coordination, discover joint interventions and align the response to substance use with the complicated realities on the bottom.
Below the management of WHO’s Regional Director for the Jap Mediterranean Dr Hanan Balkhy, the assembly gathered regional administrators and technical officers from the Worldwide Group for Migration (IOM), the United Nations Workplace on Medication and Crime (UNODC), the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), the United Nations Youngsters’s Fund (UNICEF) and the UN Refugee Company (UNHCR), and WHO nation representatives and technical focal individuals from WHO nation workplaces throughout the Area.
The assembly constructed on the momentum of the Regional flagship initiative on accelerating public health action on substance use, launched in 2024 and endorsed by Member States. The initiative promotes a public well being method centred round 3 pillars.
Promotion and prevention
Tackling stigma and fostering environments that cut back the initiation of drug use.
Well being techniques interventions
Integrating substance use remedy into common well being protection.
Coverage and regulatory reform
Supporting nations to undertake health-centred, evidence-based responses.
“Substance use just isn’t a problem that anybody sector or company can resolve alone,” mentioned Dr Balkhy. “That is the place the Regional Well being Alliance turns into a recreation changer – by aligning methods, coordinating technical help and maximizing our collective influence.”
In the course of the assembly, IOM Deputy Regional Director for MENA Ms Asmara Achcar drew consideration to the stark realities confronted by individuals on the transfer.
“Migrants concerned in irregular migration routes are sometimes uncovered to excessive bodily and psychological hardships through the journey. In such contexts, smugglers and traffickers could coerce or encourage migrants to make use of substances to endure extended journey beneath harsh and inhumane circumstances,” she mentioned.
Collaborative work is extra essential than ever to handle challenges on the bottom and tailor a small variety of high-impact interventions, grounded in international proof, to native contexts.
“We’ve got an more and more various and difficult scenario within the Area with regard to medicine. In fact, we have a look at medicine from the well being perspective – which may be very typically uncared for – however we even have to think about what’s taking place when it comes to manufacturing and trafficking. We have to step up throughout the Area,” mentioned UNODC Regional Director Ms Cristina Albertin.
At a time when the Area is going through shrinking assets and rising wants, collaboration is now not optionally available, it’s important.
The June assembly served not solely as a technical dialogue however a collective restatement of our dedication to make sure that substance use receives the eye it urgently wants, and that nobody is left behind.
