The World Federation Against Drugs (WFAD), together with the Parent-Child Intervention Centre (PCIC), is conducting a research initiative to better understand parental awareness of youth drug use across Africa.

At the centre of this work is the Pan-African Parental Drug Knowledge Index (PADK-Index), a standardised metric developed by PCIC and implemented as a joint initiative with WFAD. The index measures parental awareness of youth drug use and generates comparable data across countries to inform prevention efforts, policies, and interventions.

Data is collected through a Kobotoolbox survey and used to generate 0–100 scores per site, enabling analysis of trends and gaps across different contexts.

The survey takes only a few minutes to complete and includes 27 questions covering:

  • Demographic information (age, gender, education level, number of children, and location)
  • Drug identification (e.g. tramadol, codeine, cannabis, including recognition of images and names)
  • Parental awareness (e.g. red eyes, mood swings, weight loss, truancy, isolation)
  • Parental engagement and communication
  • Causes, risks, and prevention

The study aims to reach 500 parents across 20 African countries, using purposive sampling based on factors such as youth drug prevalence, urbanisation, enforcement, literacy, and policy context.

We invite parents living in Nigeria, Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, South Africa, Ghana, DR Congo, Zambia, Lesotho, Malawi, Rwanda, Ethiopia, Côte d’Ivoire, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Mozambique, Namibia, Botswana, Angola, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Gambia, Zimbabwe, and Egypt to participate.

By sharing your insights, you contribute to strengthening prevention efforts, supporting families, and protecting young people and communities.

Take the survey here: https://ee.kobotoolbox.org/x/b63HSX8V

This research is a joint initiative by WFAD and the Parent-Child Intervention Centre (PCIC).

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