The conference theme for 2010 is ‘Harm Reduction: The Next Generation’. There are now two and a half decades of harm reduction experience. A substantial body of evidence shows the feasibility and effectiveness of harm reduction in a wide variety of social and cultural settings. But what is needed as we move through to the third decade of harm reduction? How adequate are the models of harm reduction that have been developed? Is the ‘comprehensive package’ of harm reduction for HIV sustainable in low and middle income countries? How can we expand harm reduction to cater for all psychoactive drugs? When we ‘scale-up’ harm reduction, should we just replicate and expand pilots and projects or work to integrate harm reduction into health systems? How does harm reduction intersect with, and change, drug control systems? What new opportunities are there for harm reduction in terms of human rights, security, development and other sectors?

This theme will be reflected throughout the conference programme, and has been carefully chosen to embody:

• Young People – who are both directly and indirectly affected by drug use around the world, and must be engaged in the global harm reduction and drug policy dialogue.
• New Populations – including regions such as Africa and Latin America, which have often been overlooked by harm reduction advocates and policies.
• New Interventions – including the need to address non-injecting use, and to move beyond a focus on opiates and develop effective responses for stimulant users and emerging drugs and trends.
• New Challenges – including the need to improve global resourcing for harm reduction, and to improve quality as well as coverage around the world.

In essence, IHRA plans to use Harm Reduction 2010 as an opportunity to look back over the last two decades and more and reflect on the successes and challenges that we have faced, in order to move forward.