Action Plan on International Cooperation on the Eradication of Illicit Drug Crops and on Alternative Development (A/RES/S-20/4)

17. Alternative development is an important component of a balanced and comprehensive drug control strategy and is intended to create a supportive environment for the implementation of that strategy. It is intended to promote lawful and sustainable socio-economic options for those communities and population groups that have resorted to illicit cultivation as their only viable means of obtaining a livelihood, contributing in an integrated way to the eradication of poverty.
  • Alternative development
  • Development/SDGs

18. Alternative development programmes and international cooperation for that purpose should:

(a) Be adapted to the specific legal, social, economic, ecological and cultural conditions prevalent in a given project region;

(b) Contribute to the creation of sustainable social and economic opportunities through integrated rural development, including infrastructure development, that will help to improve the living conditions of the communities and population groups affected by the existence of illicit cultivation;

(c) Contribute to the promotion of democratic values to encourage community participation, and promote social responsibility to develop a civic culture that rejects the illicit cultivation of crops;

(d) Include appropriate demand reduction measures where there is drug abuse in the targeted communities;

(e) Incorporate the gender dimension by ensuring equal conditions for women and men to participate in the development process, including design and implementation;

31. In areas where alternative development programmes have not yet created viable alternative income opportunities, the application of forced eradication might endanger the success of alternative development programmes.

  • Alternative development

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