COPOLAD promotes the advance of Alternative Development with the involvement of 16 countries of Latin America and the Caribbean

Ciudad La Antigua, July 17, 2019. The "4th Intra-regional Dialogue Forum on Alternative Development" of the Cooperation Programme between Latin America, the Caribbean and the European Union on Drugs Policies (COPOLAD), a programme financed by the European Union and managed by the International and Ibero-American Foundation for Administration and Public Policy (FIIAPP), will be held on 17 and 18 July at the Spanish Cooperation Training Centre in Ciudad La Antigua (Guatemala). The objective of the Forum is to promote the exchange of experiences, identify lessons learned and work together on new approaches in the field of Alternative and Integral Development with representatives of public entities and local organizations of the countries participating in the Programme.

In the organization of this COPOLAD Forum, al0gn with FIIAPP, participate the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH, and the Executive Secretariat of the Commission Against Addictions and Illicit Drug Trafficking (SECCATID) of Guatemala have participated. At the Opening Session participate the Executive Secretary of the SECCATID, Juan Rafael Sánchez, the Head of the European Union Delegation in Guatemala, Ambassador Steffano Gatto, the Director of the Spanish Cooperation Training Centre, Ignacio Ayala Andrés, who are accompanied by Sarah David on behalf of GIZ, and Teresa Salvador-Llivina, Director of COPOLAD.

This Dialogue Forum once again include the participation of government representatives, farmers, representatives of farmers' associations and other members of civil society, as important actors in drug policy at the local level. Seventeen government institutions from Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador, Colombia, Mexico, Guatemala, Paraguay, Brazil, Costa Rica, Honduras, El Salvador, Chile, Uruguay, Bahamas, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica and Suriname, as well as representatives of producer organizations and associations and entities such as the Inter-American Drug Abuse Control Commission (CICAD) and the International Drug Policy Consortium (IDPC) are participating. 

The meeting focus on the incorporation of the gender perspective and its implications in the field of Alternative Development, including advances in the countries and the presentation of good practices in this field.

This meeting closes the series of COPOLAD II meetings, initiated in 2016 in Bogotá (Colombia), which were followed by those held in 2017 in Santa Cruz (Bolivia) and in Lima (Peru) in 2018, and whose objective has been to consider, integrate and exchange best practices on Alternative Development, and to promote lines of work in this field in new interested countries.

During the Forum, the Study on institutional capacities and exchange on different institutional scenarios for the implementation of Alternative Development, carried out in collaboration with the Governments of Guatemala, Paraguay and Peru, within the framework of COPOLAD, is presented. Through the case studies of these three countries in different situations in relation to Alternative Development, this study analyzes the institutional capacities necessary for a country interested in initiating an Alternative Development (DA) strategy to consider its implementation, as part of its drugs policies, in an effective and sustainable manner.

Within the framework of COPOLAD, the FIIAPP has been working with GIZ-BMZ in DA for nearly ten years. In 2010, only four countries were working with the programme in adopting alternative development approaches. A decade later, three times as many countries participate in the activities undertaken in this field, all of them with significant advances in the incorporation of this approach as part of their drug policies, advances in which European cooperation, through COPOLAD, is making a significant contribution.