Expert Group Meeting on Alternative Development: the most important international forum for development-oriented drug policies

Many people in remote rural areas live in extreme poverty. The lack of legal alternatives often leaves them no option but to turn to the illegal sector to ensure their day-to-day survival. They grow coca, cannabis or opium poppies. The Alternative Development concept gives these people the opportunity to earn a living legally and to escape poverty. It opens up long-term development opportunities. To strengthen the approach and implement it effectively around the globe, decision-makers need to talk to one another and act in concert.

 

The most important forum of this sort is the Expert Group Meeting on Alternative Development (EGM on AD), which has been organised annually since 2015 by the Global Partnership on Drug Policies and Development (GPDPD). On behalf of the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and in cooperation with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), the governments of Thailand and Peru, and Thailand’s Mae Fah Luang Foundation (MFLF), the GPDPD has made the EGM ON AD an established institution. The last (8^th) edition, which took place in Lima, Peru, was also co-hosted by the Executive Secretariat of the Inter-American Drug Abuse Control Commission of the Organization of America States (ES-CICAD/OAS).  

 

Every year, representatives of governments, UN institutions, non-governmental organisations and the science and research community meet to engage in open dialogue. The aim is to anchor the Alternative Development approach more firmly both in international drug policy and development policy. Interested governments are introduced to pro-development perspectives in addressing drug crop cultivation and processing. The increasing number of participating governments reflects the growing relevance and recognition of the meeting at international level. More and more countries can now report on projects in which they are implementing the principles of Alternative Development. The Expert Group Meeting thus also offers a platform for participants to discuss their experiences and to learn from one another.

 

The October 2023 meeting in Lima, Peru brought together 69 participants, comprising representatives from 22 UN Member States, representatives from international organizations, civil society, academia, as well as representatives from local and indigenous communities from Peru. The 8^th edition of the EGM on AD served to reflect about the progress and challenges for the Alternative Development approach since the adoption of the United Nations Guiding Principles on Alternative Development by the UN General Assembly. The meeting further discussed environmental sustainability, gender equality and ethnic communities’ inclusiveness within the framework of alternative development. The outcomes of the meeting, like its predecessors, were summarised and then submitted to the United Nations Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND) in the form of a Conference Room Paper.

 

Politically, the Expert Group Meeting is aligned with the outcomes of the 2016 Special Session of the United Nations General Assembly on the World Drug Problem (UNGASS). The first Expert Group Meetings on Alternative Development provided strategic groundwork for the Special Session, and drew up positions on development policy which can also be seen in the UNGASS Outcome Document. With the adoption of the UNGASS Outcome Document and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) laid out in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, drug policy has become increasingly development-oriented. Since then, the Expert Group Meetings have served to realise the innovations that are already proposed in many different documents. The GPDPD is thus supporting the direct implementation of the UNGASS resolutions and the SDGs. There is, however, still scope for honing our understanding of Alternative Development.

 

The regular Expert Group Meetings are GPDPD’s contribution to ensuring that Alternative Development becomes increasingly significant. At CND meetings, approaches of this sort are now attracting more political support. At national level too, more and more countries are integrating the concept into their own drug strategies.