Dear chair,

Harm Reduction International, jointly with IDPC and Youth Rise, welcome the Working Group’s report. We support decision of, approving the full report of the working group and overall strategic direction set out in the report.  

 The work of the working group is a crucial step that set the strategic direction of the transition process and that must be followed by the Task Team. This transition is far from finished yet, and we would like to highlight four priorities that should inform the work of the Transition Task Team, in line with this strategic direction.   

• No function should move until the receiving agency is fit for purpose. Capacity assessments must look beyond formal mandates, to expertise, human rights competence and accountability, community trust and proven capacity to work with criminalised and marginalised populations. Their criteria and results should be public.  

• Responsibility for harm reduction and people who use drugs is still undecided.  Functions related to the protection of rights and health of people who use drugs should fall in institutions whose mandate prioritise public health and human rights approach to drug control as opposed to punitive approaches to it. 

• Welcoming the centering of community co-creation and leadership, we encourage the Transition Task Team to make this a priority of its work, ensuring meaningful participation of key populations in every step of the transition and ensure co-sponsor has institutionalised the mechanisms to ensure communities are just not consultees but decision-makers 

• Transition must do no harm. The costed plan requested in decision 3.3 must be based on real readiness, not deadlines. It must protect community engagement and harm reduction, not treat them as adjustment variables when resources shrink. 

We welcome further clarity on proceedings to make sure that the Task Team does not revisit what has already been agreed, risking undermining progress made in the last years and future transformation. 

UNAIDS has led the UN system on harm reduction and decriminalisation. This transition must strengthen that leadership. 

 Thank you.