To the left: Bjørg Månum Andersson, Director General of the Department of Seniors and Social Services; Oslo's City Hall, the meeting venue.

ECAD Advisory Board held its regular meeting on June 18 in Oslo. The Board discussed routine issues on the agenda with focus on the budget.

Once again, the Board would like to bring attention to the fact that the ECAD economy fully depends on the membership fees paid by the member cities.  Membership fees are charged in accordance with the city’s population. This model was introduced in ECAD in 1998 and is still considered as the most appropriate and fair. All contributions, larger as well as smaller, paid by the member cities of different size are essential for running of an international organization of ECAD’s scale. Besides the membership fees, ECAD’s economy is formed by the generous support received from the City of Stockholm in terms of providing the organization with premises and other office needs.

The volcanic ashes that clouded the European air space prevented ECAD from holding its 17^th Mayors’ Conference in April in Malta. That is why the Board went through the preparations remaining ahead of this postponed conference which will take place on 23-25 September instead. The Board is satisfied with the fact that the conference programme holds in general and only minor adjustments are needed. See more information in the menu to the left under "Conferences".   

The Advisory Board was presented an up-date on Youth in Europe (YIE) programme by its manager Jon Sigfusson, Reykjavik. The programme is prolonged until 2012 with a possibility of further extension. In short, the YIE includes two parts: a survey aimed at defining risk and protective factors in regard to drug prevention in each participating city; and a mobilization of society in order to use the knowledge in designing of municipal drug preventive action plan. To remind you, the YIE is an ECAD initiative based upon a successful programme Drug Free Iceland which resulted in a great improvement of the drug situation among the Icelandic youths. Now, the idea of the YIE is not to compare cities with each other – there are many sources enabling such comparison – but to give each interested municipality a tool and a methodology which is proven efficient in reaching targets in drug prevention among the young people.

When ECAD Advisory Board holds its meetings in different member cities, an important part of the agenda includes presentation of the anti-drug work conducted by the hosts. It gives the Board members a better understanding of the needs of the members which are spread though out Europe.

In Oslo, the Board enjoyed a meeting with Anniken Hauglie, the municipal commissioner, who gave a much appreciated reflection on the drug situation in Norway in general. In addition, Assistant Director General of the Department of Seniors and Social Services Nina Backer-Roed told about a collaborative model of crime prevention among youths which is successfully being implemented in Oslo since 2006: the SaLTo-model. For more information in Egnlish please click here  http://www.salto.oslo.kommune.no/statistikk_og_analyse/

ECAD Advisory Board expresses its sincere gratitude to the host, Director General Bjørg  Månum Andersson and the City of Oslo for the great organization of the meeting and for their warm hospitality.

ECAD produces a monthly newsletter which gives a review of the most important drug-political events of the month. You can subscribe by writing to us at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or read it as a PDF-newsletter here (“Newsletter” in the upper menu). Enjoy!

In the latest issue:
Volcanic eruption & 17th ECAD Mayors' Conference: New date 23-23 September
UNODC 2010 Report: The report shows that, in an unstable world, the information and expertise provided by UNODC are in high demand; partnership with NGOs increases and broadens to include more areas within the UNODC mandat;
Economic benefits of investing in prevention: an American calculation
Sweden allows school to use random voluntary student drug testing: a long way to reach this decision
Khat causes acute water crisis in Yemen: The capital city San'a might need to be relocated... 

... & other articles!

“Youth – Voice of the Future” 
 Reykjavik, Iceland
The conference is organised by Icelandic Ministry of Education, Science and Culture and the Nordic Council

Due to other Nordic events that take place at the same time - on May 20th – 21st 2010 - the Nordic conference Youth- Voice of the future will unfortunately be rescheduled.

The new dates for the conference are October 28th-30th 2010.  New invitations will be sent out in August 2010.

One of the major projects executed during the Icelandic presidency of the Nordic Council of Ministers in 2009 was a comparative research on the well-being and lifestyles among Nordic youth.
The research project was carried out in all the Nordic countries, including the Faroe Islands, Greenland and the Åland Islands.

Based on the results of the research, the conference will focus on lifestyle and leisure-time activities, language and culture, education, gender and equality, extra-curricular activities and participation, local community networks, adolescent mental health, substance use, values and attitudes of youth.

More information under Conferences in the menu to the left.

Picture: Gauti/AP

ECAD is glad to announce today that our Director, Mr Jörgen Svidén, safely returned home from the conference in Reykjavik which took place Thursday last week. A couple of extra days under the volcanic shade and a night drive from the Norwegian Trondheim (the very first open route to Europe) to Stockholm  -  this is how it was done.