Dear readers, with great pleasure we present to you the 2021 assessment of the situation and response of drug use and its harms in twenty countries of the MENA region (Afghanistan, Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Iran, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Oman, Pakistan, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Tunisia, UAE, and Yemen).
The MENAHRA Regional Situation Assessment is to the public health sector in general, and the harm reduction community in specific. This is the fourth assessment of the situation of HIV and response of drug use and its harms in the region for the past ten years as it is a contribution to regional literature, and has been conducted as part of the information and knowledge building services that MENAHRA aspires to offer to civil society and the scientific community in the region.

This year’s report was a challenge, but we managed to overcome all the obstacles especially the ones linked to the COVID19 pandemic and too many other difficulties that we are suffering from in the MENA.

The evolution of harm reduction would not have been possible without the countless partnerships and tireless efforts of MENAHRA and the entire harm reduction community in this region. However, despite all these efforts, People Who Use Drugs (PWUD) are still criminalized and discriminated against in the region, limiting their access to life-saving services.

We look forward to building a more conducive environment to ensure a better quality of life for key populations and PWUD in MENA.

We hope that this regional report offers an added value to civil society organizations and decision-makers in their efforts to scale up the harm reduction response.