More than 50 countries and international organizations discuss the challenges of evidence based drugs policies

• The Cooperation Programme between Latin America, the Caribbean and the European Union on Drugs Policies, COPOLAD II led by Spain, organizes its 1^st Annual Conference: “From evidence to practice: challenges in the field of drugs policies”.
• More than 130 participants from 50 Latin American, Caribbean and European Union countries, together with international organizations from the field, discuss, in The Hague, around the challenges of evidence based policymaking.
• The Government Delegate for the Spanish National Plan on Drugs, Francisco de Asís Babín, joins the 1^st COPOLAD II Annual Conference’s opening session.
• The Conference provides an opportunity to CELAC and European Union government responsible for drugs related policies to jointly explore actions and strategies under a bi-regional cooperation framework.

The Hague, 14^th June 2016. The Spanish International and Ibero-American Foundation for Administration and Public Policies(FIIAPP) together with the Government Delegation for the Spanish National Plan on Drugs organize the 1^st COPOLAD II Annual Conference: “From evidence to practice: challenges in the field of drugs policies”, in The Hague, The Netherlands under the Dutch EU Presidency. The Conference promotes opportunities for information exchange, coordination and cooperation between competent authorities responsible for policies on drugs in the EU (European Union) and CELAC (The Community of Latin American and Caribbean States).

Jean-Paul Joulia, Head of Unit for Regional operations Continental Latin America and Caribbean, Directorate-General for International Cooperation and Development (EuropeAid-DEVCO), together with Luis Elizondo, Global Issues and Legal Affairs of the Mission of Mexico to the European Union and Victor Sannes, Deputy Director of the Health protection and prevention Department of the Dutch Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport, both countries holding the Presidency for the EU-CELAC Coordination and Cooperation Mechanism on Drugs, sharethe opening session together with Ignacio Soleto fromFIIAPP and Francisco de Asís Babín, Government Delegate for the Spanish National Plan on Drugs.

Key note speaker Paul Cairney, professor of Politics and Public Policy at the University of Stirling, UK, explores the main factors affecting policy making, providing insights about significant aspects to take into consideration when trying to define and implement an effective public policy. His key note speech, “The politics of evidence-based policymaking”, offers some central elements for an open debate with the audience providing some ground for discussing strategies for planning evidence based policy changes.

During the two days’ meeting, participant countries will present some examples on how progress towards the inclusion of human rights and public health principles and the gender perspective, are possible.

Representatives of collaborating agencies present their contribution in the framework of COPOLAD II: Cecile Martel, European Monitoring Center for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA); Francisco Cumsille, Comisión Interamericana para el Control del Abuso de Drogas, Organización de Estados Americanos (CICAD-OEA); Fernando Edmundo Pacheco Carvajal, Asociación Iberoamericana de Ministerios Públicos (AIAMP); Juan Fernández Ochoa, International Drug Policy Consortium (IDPC); and, Margarita María Sánchez Villegas, Red Iberoamericana de ONG que trabajan en Drogodependencia (RIOD).

Teresa Salvador-Llivina, director of COPOLAD, proposes the objectives and working model for the next four years of COPOLAD II.