About COPOLAD

What is COPOLAD?

COPOLAD is a cooperation programme funded by the European Commission through EuropeAid, with a total budget of €10.000.000 and a time frame of 48 months starting from January 2016.

The Programme is implemented between the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) and the European Union (EU) countries, helping to forge drug policies which are supported by objective monitoring instruments and based on reliable and effective strategies.

The EU Drugs Strategy 2013-2020 and its Action Plan aim at addressing the new challenges that arise from the many problems related to drugs, which make up an increasingly complex reality.

Its goals are to reduce drugs supply and demand and, this way, to also reduce the social and health-related risks and harms caused by drug use. These goals are achieved through an integrated, balanced and evidence-based approach, providing the basis and political framework for the EU external cooperation in this field.

COPOLAD relies on a crosscutting model, which ensures its internal coherence through the integration of two dimensions:

Theoretical dimension

  • Principles
  • Approaches

Operational dimension

  • Response to specific needs of the different groups of countries
  • Promotion of synergies, to avoid duplicities between stakeholders
  • Provision of a practical-oriented capacity building strategy
  • Development of working lines and tools to be sustainable beyond the end of the programme