The Lost Decade: Neglect for Harm Reduction Funding and the Health Crisis among People who Use Drugs

In Harm Reduction International’s 2010 report on the state of global funding for harm reduction, we stressed, ‘more money is needed for harm reduction, and it is needed now’. Sadly, this statement remains true in 2018. Harm reduction interventions for people who use drugs—such as needle and syringe programmes (NSP) and opioid substitution therapy (OST)—are cost-effective, protect against HIV and hepatitis C, and save lives. Despite the potential for these interventions to contribute to healthier communities, funding for harm reduction in lowand middle-income countries (LMICs) has flat-lined over the past decade.