Lions and UNODC: Partners in Prevention

A Sobering Reality

In early adolescence, when children advance from primary to secondary school, they face new and challenging social and academic situations.

• The teenage brain is still developing and especially vulnerable to substance use. The earlier substance use starts, the bigger is the risk of it leading to substance use disorder¹.
• Harmful drinking among young people is an increasing concern in many countries. Alcohol use starts at a young age: 14% of adolescent girls and 18% of boys aged 13–15 years in low- and middle-income countries reportedly use alcohol².
• Lack of a good education and poor classroom management set the stage for lower levels of cognitive functioning, poor social skills, high levels of stress, and high levels of perceptions of inadequacy and failure, each of which is implicated in risk of substance use³.

Building Healthy Communities

In 2015, UN Member States adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which includes a set of 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to end poverty, fight inequality and injustice, and tackle climate change. LCIF’s and UNODC’s joint collaboration on Lions Quest works toward realizing Goal 3: to ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages, by tackling Target 3.5 to “strengthen the prevention and treatment of substance abuse, including narcotic drug abuse and harmful use of alcohol.”

Leading the Global Charge

As a result of the Lions-UNODC partnership, LCIF has granted more than US$1.4 million to pilot Lions Quest in Serbia, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Guatemala, El Salvador, and Ivory Coast; UNODC has mobilized a similar amount. Together, the two organizations disseminated the data collected from the project at the United Nations General Assembly Special Session (UNGASS) on the World Drug Problem in 2016. One outcome of the session was a recommendation to “increase the availability, coverage and quality of scientific evidence-based prevention measures and tools that target relevant age and risk groups in multiple settings” such as Lions Quest.

As a result of the partnership, Lions Quest has positively impacted more than 10,000 students, 500 teachers, and 200 schools. Projects are ongoing in communities across all eight countries. To date, 20% of all schoolchildren have been reached in Montenegro alone!

Sources:
(1) UNDOC, 2014, (2) WHO, Fact Sheet on Adolescent health, 2015, (3) UNODC, page 32