Participatory Approaches

UNGASS Mandate and UNODC Lessons Learned

UNODC has placed greater focus on the role and impact of participation in alternative development in line with the United Nations Action Plan on International Cooperation and Eradication of Illicit Crops and on Alternative Development, endorsed by Member States at the UN General Assembly Special Session (UNGASS) in 1998. UNODC promotes critical reflection and evaluation of alternative development projects, in an effort to identify innovative and more effective approaches.

As called for in the Action Plan, "participatory approaches that are based on dialogue and persuasion and that include the community as a whole" have been UNODC's favoured methodology and an indispensable instrument for sustainability. Encouraging the direct involvement and participation of farmer organizations, cooperatives and community-level committees has helped ensure that UNODC programme interventions and outcomes embody the aspirations of the local community and receive its active support and acceptance, particularly with respect to drug control objectives.

Opting for a participatory, community-based approach has been particularly relevant in areas characterized by limited government involvement. Community organizations play an important role in alternative development initiatives, not only as economic production units (e.g., cooperatives in Peru), but more importantly as 'influential' social institutions (e.g., Village Development Committees in Laos). In addition to the obvious economic benefits of improving economies of scale, gaining market power and access to services and lowering production and delivery costs, these organizations can also function as a cohesive platform for social and political action and for influencing individual attitudes towards illicit drug crop cultivation and illicit drug  trafficking.