"The present Practical Guide offers suggestions for mainstreaming gender into existing services for people
who inject drugs. At the same time, it acknowledges that, in some settings, women require services
provided separately from or in addition to services targeting men. The main purposes of this Practical
Guide are to:
• Assist harm reduction service providers to expand access to women who inject drugs through appropriate gender-sensitive and gender-specific services.
• Motivate and support harm reduction service providers to address gender issues within existing services and/or to develop gender-specific services.
• Provide advice on setting targets for scale-up to improve access to comprehensive HIV and care services, and thereby expand coverage among women who inject drugs.
This Practical Guide is intended for existing harm reduction and HIV-related service providers, managers, health-care workers and outreach workers, as well as those planning to work directly with women who inject drugs. Given the wide range of contextual variables (such as epidemiological factors, resource
availability, extent and types of structural barriers, sociocultural issues, staff experience, etc.) that may have impact on the provision of women-specific harm reduction services, this Guide does not prescribe specific sets of protocols to be followed for particular types of women-specific services. Instead, it presents key objectives, priorities and rationales that should inform the design and implementation of services for women who inject drugs." (p. 3 of this document)
United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC): https://www.unodc.org/
