The first phase took place between 2011 and 2015.
Tamara Fariñas. Madrid
The FIIAPP will be responsible for the second phase of COPOLAD, a partnership cooperation programme in respect of drugs between the EU and the CELAC countries (the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States), for the next four years, after having already led the earlier programme on the same subject between 2011 and 2015.
After having improved the policies linked to drugs both in coherence and balance as in their impact through the exchange of experiences—normal practice in projects headed by this organisation— the coordination and the momentum at a multi-sectoral and integrated level, the Fundación Internacional y para Iberoamérica de Administración y Políticas Públicas (FIIAPP) will continue with this project in its second phase, COPOLAD-II, which will be taking place over the next four years (2016-2020).
During the first phase the FIIAPP, with financial backing by the European Union —which will be providing 10 million euros for the second phase— was able to consolidate the national drug observatories and support the creation of early warning systems in Colombia, Costa Rica and Uruguay. In addition the FIIAPP highlighted the achievements in the definition of the collection of indicators methods to enable data to be compared between countries, and the creation of the BIDA, the Latin American drugs and addiction resource centre.
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The first phase also assisted other countries by enabling them to develop their own strategies
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In this sense, Francisco Babín, the Spanish Government delegate for the National Drug Plan considers that “there is no doubt the the BIDA is going to constitute an aid in planning and decision making”. In addition, Patricia Reyes, Adviser at the Mexican National Drugs Commission is certain that this “is going to enable us all not only to have access to information but also to continue to increase the resource itself”.
Although other countries will be carrying out their own strategies, such as Chile, in the period from 2015-2025, the first phase of the project, “the experience and what has been discussed (…) has been relevant in adopting our own viewpoint “, according to Lidia Amarales, former Deputy Secretary of Public Health in Chile.
