Same script, different play: policy implications of the conceptual struggles around alternative development

The concept of alternative development suffers from its blurry, composite nature. Understood in different ways, the concept has also been reappropriated in various ways and has faced strong resistance, which has hampered its evolution into something more than an isolated instrument of drug-policy interventions, poorly connected to the development cooperation sphere and with a mixed record of results. The difficult balancing between short-term reduction of illicit cultivation and the longer time needed for sustained development efforts has limited the ability of alternative development to constitute a conceptual entry point to tie drug policy to a development rationale. Recent dynamics, however, suggest that the concept of alternative development has gained political momentum as a central component of “sustainable development-oriented and balanced drug control policies” [1]. Nevertheless, despite renewed interest in the drug issue in the development cooperation sphere, alternative development remains scarce in policy discussions. Applying concepts of policy transfer and agenda-setting, the present article examines the trajectory of the alternative development concept to better understand why, although in theory connecting drug and development policies, it struggles to be internationally accepted and integrated into a broad development approach to drugs.

Sustainable Development Goals:

Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions