Presentations from the African Commission on Drug Policy, the International Drug Policy Consortium and the African Union presented three forward-looking documents:
Jane-Marie Ongolo from the African Union led the discussion and Adeolu Ogunrobi, Johann Strijdom and Maria-Goretti Loglo presented the documents. |
Adeolu Ogunrombi is a commissioner of the West Africa Commission on Drugs, a regional initiative convened by the former UN secretary General, the late Kofi Annan and chaired by former president of Nigeria, Olusegun Obasanjo. He is also the project coordinator of YouthRISE Nigeria, an advocacy and service delivery organisation and the 2016 UNAIDS Red Ribbon award winner He facilitated the formation of the West Africa Drug Policy Network, a coalition of over 600 civil society
organizations in West Africa promoting drug policy reform. He has served in many capacities including the Johns Hopkins-Lancet Commission on Drug Policy and Health. He has authored many papers on drugs, public health and human rights. He is also a speaker in many international meetings on the subject. He holds a BSc degree in Human Physiology from the University of Ilorin, Nigeria and Masters in Public Health from the University of Liverpool, United Kingdom. Adeolu presented the West African Commission on Drug Policy's Model Drug Law, which can be downloaded from here. |
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Maria-Goretti is the African Consultant for International Drug Policy Consortium. She represents IDPC at regional events, and also serves as a focal point for IDPC networking and advocacy work in West Africa. Maria-Goretti Ane is a lawyer with special interests in human rights and drug policy reforms. She has previously worked as a Research Assistant and later became a Project Coordinator with the Institute of Statistical Social and Economic, University of Ghana. Maria-Goretti has done numerous human rights volunteer work with reformed drug addicts and human rights groups including representing drug users who are in conflict with the law.
Dr Johan Strijdom is the former Head of Social Welfare Division at African Union Commission, Addis Ababa. The Division works with Member States and development partners to create and strengthen social protection systems that aims at reducing social and economic risk and vulnerability. After heading the division for more than eight years, Dr Strijdom has been contracted to draft the African Union Plan of Action on Drug Drug Control. He presented this draft for comment at the SA Drug policy Week 2018.