Director General/Executive Director
Distinguished participants,
Excellencies,
Ladies and gentlemen,
I would like to begin by thanking the Government of Colombia for organizing this special event at the 60th session of the CND.
It represents - in my opinion - an excellent learning opportunity, and a chance to raise awareness of the efforts being made by Colombia to build peace, including through illicit crops substitution, sustainable rural development and a culture of rule of law.
UNODC has worked closely with Colombia on alternative development interventions since 1985, and together we have gained a lot of experience and knowledge of what works and what does not.
I am honoured that UNODC has been called upon in the peace agreement to provide support.
Cocaine production, along with other crimes such as illegal mining, extortion, arms smuggling and kidnapping, had long been recognized as one of the main sources of financing behind the conflict.
The peace agreement highlights the fact that the "illicit drug trade was essentially the gasoline of the conflict in Colombia".
It devotes a special chapter to "Solving the problem of illicit drugs", and importantly, also addresses challenges posed by drug consumption, money laundering and corruption.
The Colombian Government, with assistance of the international community, will now be able to promote alternative development and rural development strategies in areas where it was unthinkable to work in the past.
In our many years of working on alternative development in Colombia and other countries, we have learned is that if we want to help transform coca-growing areas into communities where the rule of law and sustainable licit economies can survive and thrive, alternative development interventions must be fully integrated in broader rural development strategies.
This is exactly what is being championed by the Colombian Government.
Key elements of such strategies include economic support, technical assistance and access to land through provision of land titles.
Strategies must be environmentally sustainable, and based on the ownership and participation of local communities.
Communities must also be supported to help ensure access to markets, both domestic and international, and to expand the outlets for products resulting from illicit crop substitution.
UNODC is committed to promoting such comprehensive approaches as part of our support to the implementation of the peace process.
Ladies and gentlemen,
Much hard work remains to be done. But the implementation of the peace agreement offers an historic opportunity to significantly bring down coca cultivation and dismantle drug production and trafficking networks, which otherwise threaten to become spoilers of the peace process, as well as the quest to implement the SDGs in Colombia.
UNODC remains fully committed and engaged in supporting Colombia to address these challenges.
I thank the Colombian Government for the trust it has placed in the work done by UNODC.
Our office in Bogotá, with some 450 men and women working hard to support Colombia in the areas under our mandates, remains the biggest UNODC field presence worldwide.
The Colombian people can count on UNODC as their strategic ally in the years to come, and I hope that the international community will join us in supporting these historic efforts.
The outcome document from the 2016 UN General Assembly Special Session on the world drug problem, reiterated the commitment of the international community to long-term, comprehensive and sustainable development-oriented and balanced drug control policies and programmes.
It furthermore called for strengthening sub-regional, regional and international cooperation to support comprehensive and sustainable alternative development.
I urge the international community to live up to this commitment, and help peace and security to take root and flourish in Colombia.
Thank you.