18 December - Countries affected by Afghanistan's opium cultivation have been urged to throw their support behind a range of programmes designed to reduce the supply, trafficking, and consumption of the world's deadliest drug.
At a recent two-day meeting of the Paris Pact in Vienna, UNODC outlined a series of measures to reduce the negative health, social and security consequences of opium and heroin in and around Afghanistan. The Paris Pact is a partnership of states and organizations, facilitated by UNODC, that works to combat traffic in, and abuse of, Afghan opiates.
Five measures were proposed by UNODC: a blue paper to increase the number of opium-free provinces in Afghanistan; a green paper to strengthen cross-border counter-narcotics cooperation, for example a Trilateral Initiative between Afghanistan, Iran and Pakistan; a yellow paper to secure Central Asia's borders through intelligence cooperation and border management; a red paper to reduce the smuggling of precursor chemicals into Afghanistan; and a purple paper - which is currently being finalized - to improve security around the Caspian Sea.
An important principle in the development of this regional strategy was to break it down into smaller components to allow local alliances to converge around shared interests. The proposed initiatives de facto surround Afghanistan, which makes it possible to engage constructively with its neighbours and prime regional actors.
View and download the regional strategy papers.