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Rural development
Development-oriented drugs policy
Poverty, armed hostilities and a lack of other ways of generating an income force many small farmers to cultivate drug crops including poppies, coca and cannabis.
The lack of state control in isolated, undeveloped regions makes them an ideal environment for illegal drug cultivation and the drugs trade. Typically these areas have a very poor economic infrastructure (roads, markets, processing centres), where they have any at all, and at best rudimentary social services (schools, health facilities).
In these lawless areas, outwith government control, that are in the hands of violent criminals, the drugs mafia also finances armed hostilities.
Development in drug-growing areas
Although growing coca and poppies gives small farmers an important source of income, it makes them all the more dependent on criminal gangs in the long term.
The German government has a wide spectrum of activities with which it supports small farmers and their families, helping them grow and process legal products, such as cacao, coffee, palm hearts and oil palms. These programmes and projects aim to create new income-generating opportunities in both the agricultural and non-agricultural sectors, while also promoting fundamental social services such as schools and health facilities.
To reduce the dependence of small farmers and their families on drugs traffickers and to support investment in the legal economy, microfinance systems too are established.
Drug consumption and the drugs trade in developing countries
For a long time, developing countries were primarily held to be suppliers of drugs that were consumed in industrialised economies. Now they too are affected by drug abuse and the drugs trade.
The World Drug Report 2009 published by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) underlines the fact that drugs traffickers are stepping up their efforts to tap new sales markets in developing countries.
The drugs trade and drug consumption in developing countries is causing major problems, including worsening poverty and the spread of HIV/AIDS. The worldwide drug transfer today includes the transfer of the know-how required to produce synthetic drugs from industrialised countries to developing countries. Within the framework of development-oriented drugs policy in developing countries, the German government is supporting preventive measures and assistance for drug addicts at international level.
The German government is one of the UNODC's largest donors. In 2009 alone Germany contributed 12.4 million US dollars to fighting drugs and crime, which was a rise of more than 50 per cent over 2008.
Germany also plays an active part in shaping international drugs policy, for instance at the annual meetings of the United Nations Commission on Narcotic Drugs in Vienna. Worldwide, the Federal Republic of Germany is respected for the line it takes in advocating sustainable, pro-development and pro-peace drugs policy.
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