ABOUT ALTERNATIVE DEVELOPMENT

In a meeting on 13-17 September 1993, the Alternative Development’s Group of Experts agreed that certain common themes formed a concept of alternative development that was sufficiently adaptable to fit each country’s situation. They decided to define the strategy of alternative development as:

“The gamut of activities aimed at generating legal income for the producers and preventing the expansion and inducing the elimination of illicit cultivation, within an environmentally sustainable framework an in a dynamic context capable of absorbing into the lawful society the affected population as identified by each country”. 

 The alternative development concept: a common definition, 1998

Various experiments carried out in the field in different contexts and conditions have led to the gradual acquisition of know-how and a precise formulation of the concept. It is now possible to speak of an officially recognized definition of alternative development, endorsed by the General Assembly of United Nations, at its twentieth special session, on International Drug Control, held in Vienna from June 8-10, 1998. In the Action Plan on International Cooperation on the Eradication of Illicit Drug Crops and on Alternative Development, resolution III E, adopted by the General Assembly, the concept was expressed as follows:

“Defining alternative development as a process to prevent and eliminate the illicit cultivation of plants containing narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances through specifically designed rural development measures in the context of sustained national economic growth and sustainable development efforts in countries taking action against drugs, recognizing the particular socio-cultural characteristics of the target communities and groups, within the framework of a comprehensive and permanent solution to the problem of illicit drugs”.

Basic principles and forms of implementation

The basic principles underlying alternative development

The action undertaken as an immediate response to the “invasion” of certain regions by the coca economy has highlighted three important aspects which can be considered as the basic principles of the AD policy:

1. The need to pacify and stabilize the zones subject to the domination and violence of drug traffickers from the socio-economic angle;

2. The expediency of offering real subsistence alternatives in exchange to the growers who are sometimes totally dependent on illicit crops for their livelihood in order to proceed with the eradication of coca cultivation and the reduction of drug supply;

3. The necessity of collaboration between consumer countries and producer countries in the above-mentioned tasks. 

The first point shows from the outset one of the particularities and, at the same time, one of the major difficulties of alternative development, that is, the simultaneous search for objectives linked with prohibition and “pacification”, on the one hand, and for economic development and social stabilization objectives, on the other, in the zones under study.

The second point, which is to some extent the keystone on which alternative development activities are built, lays down the principle of “necessary compensation” to help small farmers find and adopt “alternative” means of material subsistence** and economic and social development.

The third point is the basis of the “shared responsibility” principle, which lays down that the relevant activities will be co-financed by the drug-producing and drug-consuming countries.

Content and objectives of alternative development

In a practical and perhaps schematic manner, it can be said that the general objectives of alternative development intervention — namely, the main objectives to which activities contribute, without claiming that they can achieve them alone — are the following:

1. To reduce the supply of raw materials for drug production;

2. To consolidate a licit economy, allowing regions to return to the mainstream of the country’s economic and social development.

The two above-mentioned objectives are interrelated, since with all alternative development the first of them will be achieved through the second.

The particular objectives of alternative development projects—namely, those which are fully in keeping with its own resources—are more specific and limited and relate to various strategic components which are combined differently in each case, as adapted for the local situation. These components, which appear to a greater or lesser degree in all development projects, are as follows:

1. Income substitution (economic and productive strategy);

2. Establishment of conditions of peace and legality (political strategy);

3. Strengthening of farmers’ organizations (organizational strategy);

4. Improving the quality of life of the people involved (social strategy);

5. Dissemination of sustainable development models (environmental strategy);

6. Empowering women in the fight against drugs (gender strategy).

The first aspect, income substitution, is the central nucleus of projects, but the other aspects are considered to be priority means for achieving the principal goals of alternative development.

The three-fold dimensions of alternative development

By way of summary, the complexity of AD can be illustrated by the three interrelated dimensions which it cover:

1. The campaign against drugs;

2. The economic and social development aspect;

3. Participation by local people.