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Alternative development

Alternative Development programmes, aimed at encouraging peasants to switch from growing illicit drugs-related crops, play an important role in UN drug control strategies. The record of success, however, is a questionable one. Decades of efforts to reduce global drug supply using a combination of developmental and repressive means, managed to shift production from one country to another, but have failed in terms of global impact. TNI argues for delinking alternative development from the threat of forced eradication and law enforcement and guaranteeing peasants the support required for a sustainable alternative future.
    USAID's Alternative Development policy in Colombia
    October 2011
    Ricardo Vargas

    Alternative Development as practised by USAID and the Colombia government was always guided more by security rather than development considerations. This report examines the key aspects of USAID's alternative development policy and its implementation in Colombia during the last decade. A...

    Drug Policy Briefing Nr. 38
    Alternative Development from the perspective of Colombian farmers
    July 2011
    Susana Ojeda

    There is considerable debate on whether Alternative Development is successful from the point of view of experts and politicians, but what do Colombian farmers targeted by these programmes think and what are the implications for their daily lives?

    Drug Policy Briefing No. 36
    The ‘miracle of San Martín’ and symptoms of ‘alternative development’ in Peru
    December 2010
    Hugo Cabieses

    The Peruvian government has presented the “Miracle of San Martin Model” as the path to follow to achieve drug supply reduction. However a closer look reveals that the model is not replicable, not ecologically sustainable, and won't remedy the ‘symptoms of alternative development’.

    Drug Policy Briefing No. 34
    Alternative Development or Business as Usual?
    November 2010
    Drugs and Democracy

    The Chinese Government's opium substitution programmes in northern Burma and Laos have prompted a booming rubber industry, but the beneficiaries have been a small few with many others losing their lands as a result.

    Drug Policy Briefing, 33
    The security approach to the drugs problem
    December 2009
    Ricardo Vargas

    The drugs problem in Colombia is intertwined with structural factors at the social, economic, institutional and cultural levels. Moreover, its relationship to the armed conflict has had serious consequences for the socio-economic conditions of peasant and indigenous communities affected by the...

    Drug Policy Briefing Nr. 31
    Poppies and poverty in Afghanistan
    November 2009
    Martin Jelsma
    Tom Kramer

    The opium ban in Afghanistan's Nangarhar province has forced some farmers to move to alternative crops, but many poor farmers have difficulties finding alternative sources of income.

    Drug Policy Reform in Practice
    August 2009
    Martin Jelsma
    Tom Blickman

    The academic journal Nueva Sociedad recently released an issue to promote the debate in Latin America on drug policy reform. TNI contributed with the paper "Drug policy reform in practice: Experiences with alternatives in Europe and the US".

    From Golden Triangle to Rubber Belt?
    July 2009
    Tom Kramer

    In the Kokang and Wa regions in northern Burma opium bans have ended poppy cultivation, but have caused chronic poverty and food insecurity as a result.

    Drug Policy Briefing 29
    Crop spraying
    December 2007
    Drugs and Democracy

    The United States is putting strong pressure on the Afghan government to officially adopt the strategy of eradicating the opium poppy through aerial spraying of the crops with the herbicide glyphosate.

    Drug Policy Briefing 25
    Missing Targets
    September 2007
    Drugs and Democracy

    Despite efforts by the Afghan government and the international community to reduce poppy cultivation, opium production in Afghanistan has once again reached record levels in 2007.

    Drug Policy Briefing No 24
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