The 4th GIZ/TNI Southeast Asia Informal Drug Policy Dialogue titled ‘The Future of Alternative Development in Southeast Asia’ took place on 18 and 19 December 2012 in Bangkok, Thailand.
An initiative of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH and the Transnational Institute (TNI) in collaboration with the Thai Office of the Narcotics Control Board (ONCB).
The informal drug policy dialogue initiative started in 2004 with annual dialogues in Europe. Since 2007 TNI has been organising policy dialogues in Latin America in cooperation with the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA). In 2009 GIZ and TNI collaborated for the first time to organise the Southeast Asian informal drug policy dialogue. Generally the dialogues are co-hosted by a government, in February 2013 TNI organised a dialogue in Warsaw in cooperation with the Polish government and in April 2013 a special dialogue on cannabis policy was organised in cooperation with the Uruguayan government.
Key issue on the agenda of the 4th GIZ/TNI Southeast Asia Informal Drug Policy Dialogue was the future of Alternative Development and how rural development oriented drug policies can be brought to the forefront in the region. Opium cultivation has steadily increased in Southeast Asia since 2006, mainly driven by poverty (in the widest definition of the term) and developments in the regional drugs market. The meeting discussed also policy responses to shifting patterns of drug use, and legislative reform initiatives and the debate about alternative drug policy options in the region and around the world.
Participants included government officials, NGO representatives and drug policy and rural development experts from Thailand, Myanmar, Laos, China, Malaysia, India, and Cambodia as well as from international agencies. The meeting was guided by the ‘Chatham House Rule’, to encourage both a free exchange of thoughts and confidentiality at meetings. Participants are free to use the information and views discussed in the conference, but no individual speaker or participant should be quoted -nor their identity or affiliation revealed-without their express permission. The meeting was informal and interactive, and for each section a number of people were requested to provide inputs. They were not asked to prepare and deliver full speeches, but rather p rovided some introductory remarks to spark the round-table discussion. Most of the time was devoted to an open discussion between all participants.
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