United Nations
Office on Drugs and Crime – Youth Initiative – 23 December 2025
With the year 2025 coming to an end, it is a great pleasure to reflect on this year’s highlights and express our sincere appreciation for the support of all partners and collaborators of the Youth Initiative.
Friends in Focus
From the outset, 2025 has been a fruitful and exciting year for the Youth Initiative, with its reach expanding and its positive impact growing. Following the successful prototype development in 2024, UNODC’s new youth-based, peer-to-peer drug prevention programme, Friends in Focus, began its pre-pilot testing in 2025 with the support of local partners, UNODC field offices, and most importantly the youth participants across various countries. Friends in Focus is an evidence-informed prevention programme that equips youth with practical skills and knowledge in drug use prevention, encouraging them to act as positive peer influencers within their communities
The initial pre-pilot was launched in Serbia in February, marking the programme’s first transition from theory to practice. Building on this launch, the pre-pilot implementation expanded throughout the year to Italy (Trento and Piedmont, respectively) and Montenegro. In addition to these national and local efforts, UNODC also initiated regional trainings of Friends in Focus in Central Asia (involving youth from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan) and in Central America (with youth from Guatemala, Costa Rica, and the Dominican Republic). These regional pre-pilots have been particularly valuable in making Friends in Focus available in widely spoken languages such as Russian and Spanish, creating opportunities for further scaling of the programme in these regions.
These pre-pilot implementations stand among the key achievements of 2025, enabling the initiation of the assessment of the programme’s feasibility and applicability globally. Moreover, the wide reach achieved across the globe provides UNODC with a valuable opportunity to hear perspectives from youth in diverse cultural and societal contexts, and to evaluate whether Friends in Focus continues to resonate and remain relevant across different settings
Youth Forum on Drug Use Prevention
As in previous years, the Youth Forum took place on the sidelines of the annual Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND) in March 2025. With the participation of 32 youth from 25 countries, the Youth Forum provided a safe environment for the youth from diverse cultures to come together, learn, and exchange insights about evidence-based drug use prevention efforts in line with the UNODC/WHO International Standards on Drug Use Prevention. The youth participated in interactive sessions throughout the Forum, and also had the opportunity to get a glimpse of UNODC’s Friends in Focus programme.
Continuing a cherished tradition, the youth drafted and delivered their joint Youth Statement, underscoring the importance of their peers’ active involvement in prevention work. They emphasized that “Prevention efforts must not only be about us, but led by us,” and that “When prevention is a priority, resilience becomes a reality.” Watch the highlight video of the Youth Forum 2025 here.
DAPC Grants
In 2025, the Drug Abuse Prevention Center (DAPC) continued to provide steadfast support to NGOs around the world in implementing youth-focused prevention projects. This year, local implementing partners from Cambodia, Iraq, Sri Lanka, Zimbabwe, Guatemala, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, and the Philippines were recommended and selected to receive the DAPC grants. These new projects will be implemented in their respective communities, promoting health, drug prevention and peer support, through active engagement with local stakeholders and young people. These initiatives highlight UNODC’s commitment to fostering resilient and healthier communities shaped with the meaningful participation of young people.
This year, the Youth Initiative continued to thrive as Youth Alumni advanced their active involvement in prevention work. After her participation in the UNODC Youth Forum 2024, Habiba Raslan collaborated with the National Fund for Drug Control and Treatment of Addiction (FDCTA) in Egypt, delivering impactful prevention messages to children and teenagers. She also remained active in the UNODC MENA Youth Network, and was also involved in the launch of the Egyptian Youth Network, bringing together young people committed to substance use prevention.
In April, 2023 youth alumna Inês Costa Louro delivered a remarkable address at the ECOSOC Youth Forum 2025 on the role of youth in public health policy and the need to address the digital determinants of health, particularly in relation to substance use and mental well-being. In June, at the high-level conference commemorating 30 years since the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, Yeanoh Rukoh Bai-Kamara, a Sierra Leonean participant of this year’s Youth Forum, shared her perspectives as a young woman and highlighted her organisation’s efforts to empower women and support youth. She emphasized the inequalities women face in relation to drugs and the need to better address their specific needs. Later in the summer, Nathan Morris, another participant of the Youth Forum 2025 from Jamaica, contributed his perspectives as a youth advocate during the CND/CCPCJ joint side event at the 2025 High-level Political Forum, “Engaging children and youth in drug control, crime prevention and criminal justice efforts.”
Another key highlight of the year was the 2nd UNODC Youth Forum Alumni Reunion, which welcomed former Youth Forum participants from 20 countries. Notably, the event brought together participants from across the history of the Youth Forum, spanning from its early days in 2014 to the most recent cohort of 2025, marking over a decade of youth leadership. Through youth-led presentations and peer-to-peer discussions, the reunion reinforced the importance of mainstreaming youth perspectives and ensuring meaningful participation, strengthening young leaders’ roles as co-creators rather than merely beneficiaries of prevention efforts.
Looking Ahead
We extend our deep gratitude to all youth participants and alumni, DAPC grantees, local implementing partners of Friends in Focus, and supporters for their meaningful contributions to the Youth Initiative in 2025. This year was particularly significant, as we were able to reach far and wide through the new tools and resources, enabling youth to be more meaningfully engaged in prevention efforts. We look forward to continuing our collaboration with all partners and to the new possibilities that the coming year will bring, as we further strengthen youth engagement in prevention.
Source: https://www.unodc.org/unodc/prevention/youth-initiative/youth-action/2025/December/global-youth-leadership-in-drug-prevention_-key-highlights-from-2025.html