For English speakers

 General presentation

The increase in the production, distribution and transit of narcotics in Africa, and the diversification of products and uses (new drugs, medicines diverted from their intended purpose, new forms of consumption), linked to the globalisation of cultural models, represent a challenge for the definition of drug policies that respect human rights. While pilot addictology centres in West Africa offer harm reduction (harm reduction) treatment and prevention to drug users, the demand for treatment remains high (including tobacco, cannabis, alcohol, etc.). What tensions are created by these developments? What legal and social treatment models are being proposed? The aim of the conference is to provide an interdisciplinary perspective on these issues (social sciences, addictology) in response to the demand for change in drug policies in Africa.

Aims of the conference

Drugs and addictions are a relatively new area of research in French-speaking South-Saharan Africa, where few researchers are specialists in this field. The aim of the conference is to promote research into this threat to society and health, which is not confined to marginal populations, but concerns individuals and groups in many social areas in African societies exposed to globalisation.

- On a scientific level (knowledge production), the conference aims to :

- Bring together researchers, documentation, knowledge and experience on drugs and addictions, and their social, legal and health treatment, in French-speaking West Africa.

- Analyse the specific features of African contexts and the differences with global analyses, as well as recent developments and transformations in products production, circulation and consumption and in practices, in the social areas concerned, as well as sectoral and inter-sectoral responses, and their scientific approaches.

- Identify priority research questions for West Africa and include the region in transnational debates on the prospects for research to support drug policies.

- In operational terms (producing strategic advances), the conference aims to :

- Identify and discuss the factors favouring and the obstacles to the implementation of feasible, contextually appropriate, socially acceptable and ethically just policies, strategies, measures and actions in the legal, health and social treatment of drugs and the associated risks and harm.

- Taking account of the national and regional dimension in West Africa

- And by co-constructing the proposals through exchanges between scientists (in the social sciences and addictology), operational players, community players and PUDs in Senegal, West Africa and internationally.

Date and venue

Tuesday 21-Thursday 23 May 2024, Dakar (Université Cheikh Anta Diop and Agence Universitaire de la Francophonie) and remotely (videoconference).

The Call for abstract submission ended on March 17, 2024. The program will include:

• 1 panel: Current drug issues and responses in French-speaking West Africa
• 2 round tables:
  • On community-based RDR interventions and research in French-speaking Africa
  • Experiences and research priorities in the social sciences
• 5 oral presentations sessions:
  • Circulation of substances and social contexts of drug use
  • Drug use in life trajectories
  • Transformations, adaptations, innovations in Harm Reduction
  • Drug policies, legal and health systems
  • Gender, intersectionality and diversity
• 6 mini-lectures by guest speakers

Audience: researchers and students in the social sciences, addictology and public health, healthcare workers, institutional and community stakeholders, CBOs, PUD organizations.

Coordinators
Rose André Faye (CRCF/RESCIDAF), Alice Desclaux (IRD), Albert Gautier Ndione (UCAD), Idrissa Ba (CEPIAD), Mbissane Ngom (LER-DHDAJE).

Organising institutions and partners

Centre de Recherche et de prise en Charge de Fann (CRCF), REseau SCIentifique des Drogues en Afrique Francophone (RESCIDAF), Institut de Recherche pour le Développement durable (IRD), Université Cheikh Anta Diop (UCAD) in partnership with CEntre de Prise en charge Intégrée des Addictions de Dakar (CEPIAD), Laboratoire Droits Humains et Droit des Affaires de l'Université Gaston Berger de Saint-Louis (LER-DHDAJE), Harm Reduction Network (HARENE) and with support from ANRS MIE (Agence française de recherche sur le sida et les maladies infectieuses émergentes), IRD, Expertise France, French Embassy in Dakar, Coalition Plus, Agence Universitaire de la Francophonie.