On October 25-26, 2021, the annual meeting of the EHRA Steering Committee (SC) and the Advisory Board (AB) members was held in Tbilisi, Georgia, in a face-to-face format with online participation. The meeting was attended by 12 SC members elected and re-elected during 2021 and 2 of the 8 AB members.
During the meeting, the members of the SC and the AB got acquainted with the main programmatic and financial results of the EHRA activities in 2021 as part of the implementation of the Organization’s Strategy for 2020-2024. The participants discussed in detail the matrix of risk analysis and approaches of risks mitigating in the EHRA operation in 2022. Specifically, participants of the meeting reviewed and discussed the political, programmatic and operational risks caused by recent changes in the regulations concerning the NGOs activities and “drug propaganda” legislation in the Russian Federation and other countries in the region. EHRA program plans for 2022, fundraising and building new partnerships plans were presented and discussed. SC and AB members actively supported the idea to pay more attention in the coming years to advocacy to improve the quality of harm reduction in the countries of the region. The Association can and should play a key role as an association of professionals in the provision of such services. The Steering Committee, for its part, proposed a number of significant changes to the EHRA communication system, both between members and allies of the organization, as well as with the general population in the countries, through podcasts, various social networks, telling stories about the work of EHRA members.
This meeting was also important for the renewal of EHRA leadership. In connection with the completion of her term in the Steering Committee, Mari Chokheli stepped down as the Chair of the EHRA SC. The meeting participants sincerely thanked Mari for her work for the development of the Association in this difficult time.
At the meeting, Ala Iatsko, a SC member from Moldova, was elected by a majority of votes as a new EHRA SC
Chair for a three-year term. Irena Molnar from Serbia and Dominika Jasekova from Slovakia were elected as Co-Chairs for a three-year term.
By decision of the Steering Committee, Jurgita Poškevičiūtė from Lithuania will continue her work as EHRA Treasurer for the next three years. SC members supported the extension of the contract with the Executive Director of the organization Ganna Dovbakh.
It was also agreed to invite the distinguished Advisory Board members John-Peter Kools, Rick Lines, Julia Buxton, Pavel Bem, Damon Barrett and Peter Muyshondt, whose three-year terms at AB were coming to an end, to continue their work at Advisory Board for the next three years.
An overview about EHRA members’ participation in decision-making was presented and discussed. At beginning of 2022, EHRA Secretariat will review the EHRA members’ participating in General and Regional meetings. An association member who fails to attend two regular General and/or Regional meetings will receive an official notification letter from the Secretariat about the possible termination of membership in the association.
An important part of the meeting was an informal discussion with active EHRA members and key partners from Georgia the situation with harm reduction and drug policy reform in this country.