Strong commitment in Pakistan towards quality assurance in line with the UNODC-WHO International Standards for the Treatment of Drug Use Disorders

UNODC Pakistan, together with support from the Ministry of Narcotics, the Ministry of National Health Services Regulation and Coordination, the UNODC Prevention, Treatment and Rehabilitation Section and generous funding support from the US Department of State, organized a high-level event on “Quality Assurance for Drug Use Disorder Treatment” on 23 November 2021. More than 61 multidisciplinary professionals and high-level parliamentarians participated in a fruitful exchange on strengthening the national Drug Demand Reduction (DDR) drug use disorder treatment system and services to ensure quality interventions for relevant target populations in Pakistan.  

In 2020, UNODC and WHO launched with the International Standards for the Treatment of Drug Use Disorders, a global reference document for effective and ethical treatment of drug use disorders. On the basis of this, the UNODC-WHO drug use disorder services and system Quality Assurance toolkits were developed. These toolkits aim to help national and local drug use disorder treatment systems compare their current approach to the delivery of treatment with those outlined in the ‘The Standards’. 

UNODC Pakistan with support from the UNODC Prevention Treatment and rehabilitation Section, has conducted trainings on the System Quality Assurance toolkit with all provinces in Pakistan. Thus, Pakistan is the first country in the world, having worked with the systems toolkit.  

In follow up to these training capacity efforts, a one-day seminar was conducted on 23 November 2021 with the aim to contribute towards integrating health and social services into the substance use disorder treatment in the country. The event was attended by 61 multidisciplinary professionals and high-level parliamentarians from across Pakistan. The commitment from the Government of Pakistan, specifically from the Ministry of Narcotics Control (MNC) and Ministry of National Health Services Regulation & Coordination (MoNHSE&C) to make efforts to ensure quality of the drug demand reduction in line with ‘The Standards’ was confirmed. An overview of the analysis of the current national drug treatment situation, the roles, and responsibilities of the relevant stakeholders in the system, along with the existing monitoring tools were presented.  

As a follow-up to these national efforts towards quality assurance with technical support from UNODC, a pilot will be conducted by the Islamabad Health Regulatory Authority (IHRA) on the utilization of the evidence-based treatment interventions by the multidisciplinary teams ensuring quality and ethical standards to improve the health and well-being of patients and their families.