NGO's and Policy Making: Role, Co-operation and Responsibility

Guðlaugur Þór Þórðarson

Ráðstefna NGO’s and Policy Making: Role, Co-operation and Responsibility

Laugardagur 13. október

Grand Hotel Reykjavík

Dear guests

Welcome to Iceland - welcome to Reykjavik to this conference arranged by the Nordic Alcohol and Drug Policy Network, NordAN.

The main theme of the conference NGO's and Policy Making: Role, Co-operation and Responsibility is a very important one a theme we always have to discuss and consider carefully.

Let me first underline that as Iceland's minister for health affairs, I have emphasised placing preventive action at the forefront in every field.

It is my conviction that we should approach discussions of the health services not merely with a view to illnesses, but also - and perhaps even preferably - with a view to health. Our goal must be to increase the healthiness of each nation and to minimise the probabilities of poor health. If we can achieve a reduction in drug use, we will enjoy a concomitant addition to public health and quality of life.

The new government of Iceland strongly emphasizes the fight against the use of drugs and sends a clear message by stating that the increased threat of drug abuse calls for a firm response with vigorous education and preventive measures, support for families facing such problems, diverse rehabilitation options and tougher policing. The Government underlines that sufficient rehabilitation options for addicts should be provided and that such services are integrated, purposeful and beneficial to all who need them.

This clear message is our contribution and could in my view serve as a new beginning in the close co-operation between NGO´s, experts and policy makers or politicians, a co-operation that is the main strategy for success.

The world is changing. Today the Bob Dylan phrase from the sixties ?For the times they are a-changin' ? has got a completely new and different meaning. No one could have predicted this new and globalized world we live in ? a world that we didn?t dream about fifteen or twenty years ago.

We live today in a time of tremendous changes - a time when constant change is one of the few things we can definitely count on. Our mode of life has been deeply affected by the opening of borders between cultures and nations. This ongoing change has had a huge impact on our daily lives as Europeans, and has affected us faster than before, as differing streams of culture have flowed together in a common channel. Nowadays, free movement of people and capital is the rule, not the exception. Here in Iceland, this has certainly attracted our attention.

A European culture has emerged - an international culture, bringing every advantage one can possibly imagine. Most of the trend is positive, with opportunities, freedom and equality that were hitherto unknown.

On the other hand, there is another side to this modern, exciting world of ours: a darker side - a side accompanied by pain and sorrow. The world of drug abuse.

We know that far-reaching social developments over a short time often have negative as well as positive aspects. The negative ones include the increasing use of drugs together with psychological turmoil.

In fact, it is alarming to observe the European developments in drug use during recent years. From 1995 to 2003, twenty-three out of twenty-eight countries that were involved in a European survey experienced a substantial rise in the use of alcohol and illegal narcotics among fifteen-year-old compulsory-school students.

Iceland, unfortunately, experienced similar developments. Throughout the nineties, Iceland witnessed a steady, continuous increase in young people's use of drugs.

We managed to establish a fruitful co-operation between NGO´s, policy makers and experts and together we decided to fight back.

In short, a group of people from varying backgrounds joined hands, determined to unite behind a mutual policy; they planned prevention work that would be based on reliable studies and have the objective of reversing this negative trend and succeeded.

They did this by addressing the subject in a different way. Experts in the field, public authorities, and everyone concerned formed a team, and formulated team policy for the long term.

The basic idea was to tackle the problem in reference to the local community, letting experts, politicians and drug-prevention workers collaborate in planning the methods. Last but not least, all operations were to be built on evidence-based approaches.

This focus - to initiate the collaboration of experts, researchers, politicians and drug-prevention workers - was innovative for the Iceland of ten years back.

Research went on to show us how stronger family bonds, participation in sports, more time spent together as a family, and general parental interest in bringing up children could help considerably in lowering the risks that face youngsters.

By turning this into common public knowledge, and by various measures intended to influence youth behaviour, we managed to reverse negative trends, to a degree which caught local and even international attention.

We share the conviction that by nurturing local society, we can decrease the use of drugs among youth. This will be managed by initiating extensive cooperation, learning from the experience of each other, and basing our activities on reliable research. Separate, isolated preventive measures will give us no results. Rather, we need a concerted effort that will extend to us all. This is not an easy job, but it?s possible.

(Talað orð gildir).