CICAD PROMOTES THE MEM PROCESS THROUGHOUT SEVERAL MEMBER STATES

The Multilateral Evaluation Mechanism (MEM) completed the first part of its Third Evaluation Round with the presentation of 33 national reports and a Hemispheric Report to the General Assembly of the Organization of American States in June 2005.

Since then, CICAD’s MEM unit has been extensively and aggressively promoting the MEM throughout the Hemisphere. The objective of the promotion process is to familiarize all the actors involved in the drug problem in the hemisphere: people that work in the development and execution of National Plans; those who work for regional and international organizations that develop projects and programs that address the drug problem in CICAD member states; and government officials responsible the collection and analysis of drug-related data, as well as those managing with the execution of policy.

CICAD recognizes that the MEM is an important diagnostic tool to formulate drug-related policy, and that through the published national reports countries can identify their strengths and weaknesses.

The promotion visits consist of meetings between representatives from ministries and national institutions/agencies involved in the MEM process and CICAD specialists. Moreover, in some cases, promotion visits also have hosted a workshop for the different government agencies involved in providing data for the MEM process. The purpose of this workshop is to strengthen each country’s capacity to participate in the mechanism.

ANTIGUA & BARBUDA

The first on-site visit within the context of the MEM process was carried out in Antigua on August 16-17. The visit sought to promote the importance of the MEM among government officials and agencies as well as highlight to policy makers the benefits to Antigua and Barbuda of its active participation in the process as well as build political support for the evaluation mechanism. The team met with principal stakeholders in the process and was invited to brief the Honourable Prime Minister and his Cabinet on the MEM.

Mr. James Mack, CICAD Executive Secretary, also participated in a press conference organized by the Minister of Housing, Culture and Social Transformation, Mr. Hilson N. Baptiste.

The visit concluded on August 18 with a workshop held by CICAD which informed all participants from the relevant agencies on the operational aspects of the MEM and the importance of timely accurate information on all aspects of the drug problem in Antigua and Barbuda.

SAINT KITTS & NEVIS

A three-day visit was carried out to St. Kitts and Nevis from August 22-24 to promote the Commission’s work among government officials and to encourage participation within both the MEM processes and the Inter-American Observatory on Drugs (OID). Representatives from various agencies including the Ministry of National Security, Ministry of Health, Police Department, National Council on Drug Abuse Prevention, Financial Intelligence Unit, Customs Department and Education Department participated in the workshop organized by CICAD while the MEM/OID team – represented by Ms. Angela Crowdy, MEM Unit Coordinator, and Mr. Pernell Clarke, OID Specialist – met with various agencies including the Chief Medical Officer and other representatives of the Ministry of Health in St. Kitts together with the Minister of Physical Planning in Nevis and the Assistant Secretary in the Premier’s Ministry of the Nevis Island Administration.

BELIZE

The objective of CICAD’s visit to Belize, similar to other country visits, was to promote the MEM and increase the level of participation of government officials in the process. With this objective, Ms. Sofia Kosmas, Specialist from CICAD’s MEM Unit, delivered a presentation on the MEM process to Belize’s national authorities. Attending this presentation were Mrs. Karen Bodden, Executive Director of the National Drug Abuse Control Council (NDACC); Crown Council Ms. Iran Dominguez, Solicitor General’s Office; Ambassador Moises Cal, Ministry of Foreign Affairs; Mr. Gerald Westby, Commissioner of Police, Magistrate Margaret Mckensy, Office of the Chief Magistrate; Mr. Keith Arnold, Director of Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU); Mr. Victor Romalho, Director of the Rehabilitation Center REMAR; Mrs. Sharon Anderson, Chief Pharmacist of the Ministry of Health; and Minister Vildo Marin, Minister of Health, Labor and Defense.

The presentation included: a brief background on CICAD, what the MEM process is and how it originated; its key participants; areas of the evaluation; official documentation that the evaluation is based on; general difficulties faced by the MEM regarding countries responses; an overview of the agencies in Belize that respond to the MEM Questionnaire and an analysis of their last responses; how the evaluation works; assigned recommendations to Belize in the Third Evaluation Round (2003 – 2004); the current MEM phase of Implementation of Recommendations; MEM benefits to the countries and Belize’s benefits in the past; and the Hemispheric Accomplishments of the MEM.

GUYANA

A two-day MEM Awareness Workshop was held in Georgetown, Guyana from September 7-8, 2005 to promote the Mechanism, its benefits and the different programs CICAD is currently implementing throughout the hemisphere. This workshop was organized, as part of the MEM Promotional Strategy, by the Guyana Ministry of Home Affairs and the MEM Unit from CICAD´s Executive Secretariat. The Minister of Home Affairs, Mrs. Gail Texeira, opened the workshop and thanked CICAD, which, as she noted, has been instrumental in expanding Guyana's efforts to promote cooperation and coordination in fighting drug trafficking, specially through the development of a recently launched five-year Drug Strategy Master Plan.

Participants were drawn from several ministries and agencies in Guyana, including the ministries of Home Affairs, Health, Foreign Affairs, and Human Services, the Guyana Police Force, the Guyana Defense Force, the Guyana Responsible Parenthood Association and the Salvation Army among others. During the two-day workshop participants worked in groups reviewing the progress Guyana has made in the fight against drug-trafficking during the last six years, analyzing the country's participation in the MEM Process and identifying critical weaknesses in their drug control policies that need to be addressed.

DOMINICA

In Dominica, Mr. Martin Cubas, Specialist from CICAD’s MEM Unit, met with government officials from institutions such as the National Drug Prevention Unit, the police force, the Ministry of Legal Affairs, the Ministry of Health, and the Financial Intelligence Unit, among others. During these meetings, he presented the MEM, its operational its operational procedures, and the benefits the mechanism has to offer to participating countries. Mr. Cubas also conducted a workshop in which the participants analyzed the obstacles that Dominica faced in providing information for the MEM, and the different options to solve these problems.

Mr. Martin Cubas, MEM Unit Specialist; Mrs. Jacinta Bannis, Principal Representative to CICAD from Dominica; and Dr. Joseph Bannis, Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Health in Dominica.

Once the workshop finalized, Mr. Cubas met with the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Health, Dr. Joseph Bannis; Dominica’s Principal Representative to CICAD, Mrs. Jacinta Bannis, and with CICAD’s Institution Building Specialist, Maria Beatriz Galvis, to discuss implementation by Dominica of Recommendations assigned in the Third Evaluation Round Report, and the upcoming Governmental Expert Group (GEG) meeting in November which will evaluate the progress made by countries in implementing Third Round Recommendations.