The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has called on member states to cooperate toward collectively tackling the menace of substance abuse across the subregion.

Fatou Sarr, ECOWAS commissioner, human development and social affairs, made the plea at a validation workshop of the 2024 Report of the West African Epidemiology Network on Drug Use (WENDU).

Ms Sarr, represented by Daniel Amankwaah, principal programme officer, ECOWAS drug prevention and control division, noted that ECOWAS had not only sustained the WENDU project but kept on improving its quality and relevance.

She announced that ECOWAS had commenced the process of developing a comprehensive WENDU digital platform to serve as a centralised system for data input by national focal points, data access and analysis.

 “The development of this platform underscores ECOWAS’s commitment to strengthening regional cooperation in combating drug abuse and its associated consequences, contributing to improved public health and security across West Africa.

“The platform is envisioned to be a robust, secure, and user-friendly system that caters for the diverse needs of its users, facilitating a more coordinated and effective regional response to drug-related issues.

“This year marks the 50th Anniversary of ECOWAS. As part of the celebration, we are happy to announce that the Commission is finalising a documentary on drug prevention and control in West Africa,” she said.

The commissioner said that a credible WENDU report was crucial to improving evidence-based drug prevention and control activities both at the national and regional levels.

She said that ECOWAS considered the collection, collation and validation of the WENDU data very important before it would be published.

According to her, the workshop will also be used to improve WENDU focal points’ capacity to collect, collate, analyse and disseminate drug-related data through their training on new data collection tools.

“I assure you that ECOWAS Commission is very committed and will continue to do its best with all Member States and Partners to effectively fulfil its role in making sure that the drug menace is effectively controlled. All of us working together shall succeed,” she added.

Also speaking, Henrietta Bakura-Onyeneke, director, narcotics and drug abuse division, ministry of health, Nigeria, said there was need for a renewed resolve and collective action to confront the region’s drug abuse and trafficking.

She said that the impact of substance use disorders which intertwined with poverty, crime, public health burdens, and social exclusion continued to pose significant challenges to West Africa’s development and stability.

“Our ability to build strong, coordinated national mechanisms for surveillance and reporting is key to shaping the future of drug prevention and control in ECOWAS Member States.

“This is not just a technical exercise; it is a call to action, a regional imperative to protect the health, security, and well-being of our communities.

“Let us seize this opportunity to collaborate, learn, and strengthen our collective resolve in addressing substance use and illicit drug trafficking across ECOWAS,” she said.

Alves Jorge, head of ECOWAS social affairs division, said drug abuse posed a serious challenge and all hands must be on deck to address it.

He added that WENDU symbolised the collective resolve to grab the challenge by the neck.

WENDU was established nine years ago to address social, health, and economic ramifications of drug use through the establishment of localised sentinel surveillance networks.

The three-day workshop aims to improve the capacity of WENDU focal points in the collation, collection, analysis and dissemination of drug-related data through training of the focal points on new data collection tools.

It also aims to validate the regional WENDU report based on the data transmitted by the NFPs on drug offences and promote inter-agency collaboration to strengthen mechanisms for real-time information exchange systems among the focal points.

National focal points of WENDU from ECOWAS member states and representatives of the relevant directorates of the ECOWAS Commission participated in the workshop.

(NAN)