This Event Briefing explores why the development community has not engaged with the negative effects of illicit drugs and drug policy on development, and makes recommendations on how it can work more closely with the drug policy community to address these effects.
The briefing was prepared following the first Global Drug and Development Policy Roundup, new forum for discussing the nexus between the production, trade and use of illicit drugs, and development, hosted by IDS in early 2013.
Recommendations include:
- Making international development “drugs-sensitive”
- Building capacity for the development community to engage with drugs issues
- Developing a political risk mitigation strategy
- Identifying concrete objectives and common goals
- Tackling organisational inertia and funding constraints
- Addressing key political issues and structural constraints
- Broadening the base of those engaging with the issues
