In 2016, INPUD commissioned a project that used in-depth, qualitative interviews with twenty
peer drug user activists and harm reduction specialists from a range of different countries to
develop a comprehensive set of seventeen key harm reduction interventions based on ‘best
and worst practices’ in these areas. The result was a “Harm Reduction Best Practices Tool
Kit”, intended for harm reduction service providers around the world (Newcombe & White,
2016). It is outside the scope of this brief to address all seventeen areas discussed by the
project’s participants. Instead, we make use of this forum to focus on three key harm reduction
interventions whose practices are widespread and sufficiently established enough to have
relevance to policy and programming experts around the world. These interventions are:
- Opioid and Stimulant Agonist Therapies (OATs/SATs )
- Needle and Syringe Programs (NSPs)
- Overdose Prevention Interventions (ODP)
The intention of this brief is to provide globally relevant recommendations for best practices
in harm reduction policy and programming while drawing attention to some of the main
obstacles that currently hamper these efforts. Peer-based expertise is utilised to provide
an insider inventory of best and worst practices in the three harm reduction interventions
identified above. These peer-informed recommendations are relevant to and centred around
the needs and priorities of fellow drug users working in and making use of these programmes
and services across the globe