Juan Fernández Ochoa, Campaigns & Communications Officer at the International Drug Policy Consortium (IDPC), coordinates the Support. Don’t Punish campaign — a decentralised effort building sustainable alternatives to the 'drug war' — and IDPC's communications. Juan believes in harm reduction as anti-oppressive practice, prefiguring futures of safety, accountability and care.

ISSUE: Despite global progress in reducing HIV transmissions and mortality, people who use and inject drugs remain disproportionately affected due to punitive drug policies, inadequate access to harm reduction services and intersecting forms of oppression. Grassroots groups resisting this violence, particularly in low- and middle-income countries, are severely underfunded.

SETTING: Since 2013, the Support. Don’t Punish campaign has resourced primarily grassroots groups in over 300 cities of 125 countries to set the foundations for sustainable alternatives to the ‘war on drugs’. Organisations in these countries have mobilised to respond to their communities' needs and undo structural barriers to their wellbeing, including criminalisation and police violence.

PROJECT: With support from the Elton John AIDS Foundation, a lifetime (11 years) evaluation of the campaign was conducted to identify key outcomes and impacts. Data were collected via literature review, records of 2,100 activities, interviews with 16 campaign leaders, a survey of 198 partners, and 4 case studies. Contribution and Social Network Analysis assessed changes in capacity for mobilisation, political advocacy and influence on public opinion.

OUTCOME: The evaluation process documented hundreds of local partners’ experiences in achieving positive change. Partners leveraged the campaign’s shared identity and messaging, resources, and global network to potentiate impact. Most survey respondents (>70%) — particularly in the Global South — agreed engagement expanded their capacity to organise, network, and lead reform efforts. Notably, 73% of respondents credited their participation with contributing to positive changes in drug laws, policies and practices, if with regional variations (high: 89% - African continent; low: 58% - Europe). Despite providing strong evidence on the campaign’s role in promoting harm reduction among decision-makers, growing the involvement of people who use drugs in policy processes, and reducing stigmatisation, the evaluation identified weaker areas in relation to impact on media and public opinion, recommending dedicated strategies.