Between March and May 2021, the EU4Monitoring Drugs (EU4MD) project supported the mapping of national prevention systems in European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) area countries (1 ).

This briefing describes the rationale and methodology of the prevention system mapping, presenting selected findings and highlighting key challenges encountered.

The following key findings (2 ) emerged from the mapping:

• in most of the countries, drug prevention is embedded in a framework of a broader national strategy or policy on drugs and/or crime and/or mental health;
• in the majority of the countries, strategic decisions about prevention are made at national level and funds for prevention are located and spent at national level;
• the most common workforce for delivery of prevention interventions includes teachers, psychologists, and staff from non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and relevant ministries;
• nine countries noted that UNODC/WHO International Standards on Drug Use Prevention are being used as part of quality control;
• prevention culture, interventions and discourse in the ENP countries are mostly dominated by informational approaches.

The findings may be useful as a baseline for future monitoring of national prevention systems. The experience may inspire and encourage national authorities to consider routine monitoring of prevention systems to inform development and updating of prevention strategies, policies and programmes.