Wadih Maalouf

Wadih holds a PhD in Mental Health and Drug Addiction Epidemiology from Johns Hopkins School of Public Health. First worked in his home country Lebanon in 1998 on a joint programme between the civil society and the government on assessing the drug situation and orienting the national drug demand reduction strategy (funded by UNDCCP). Wadih joined UNODC (United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime) in 2005, based in the Regional Office for Middle East and North Africa (MENA) in Cairo-Egypt. His first role was a regional epidemiologist and drug demand reduction advisor, assessing the drug situation and service response infrastructure in the MENA region and accordingly orienting the national drug demand reduction strategies. He also built technical assistance on availing evidence-based prevention of drug use and treatment of substance use disorders. Since 2010, he assumed the post of global programme coordinator in the Drug Prevention and Health Branch of UNODC HQ in Vienna. His global programme is the main operational arm used by UNODC in promoting evidence-based prevention interventions and policies. His role is to develop, pilot and assesses the impact of family skills responses in preventing drug use, crime and violence as well as life skills education responses in schools and in sport settings. A contributor to the INSPIRE interagency initiative to end violence against children and the UNODC WHO International Standards on Drug Use Prevention and has several publications in the field of drug demand reduction.