Resource information
This report is about how to
progressively reduce over time Afghanistan's dependence
on opium - currently the country's leading economic
activity - by development initiatives and shifting economic
incentives toward sustainable legal livelihoods.
Specifically, the report identifies additional investments
and policy and institutional measures to support development
responses that can counterbalance the economic advantages of
opium. It analyzes ways to change the relative incentives
between licit and illicit cropping and to help enhance rural
livelihoods for the poor, under better governance and
security conditions. The report puts forward concrete
recommendations and the expected impacts on growth, poverty
reduction and the opium economy are assessed. The report
first briefly discusses the policy context (Chapter 1) and
provides an overview of the opium economy (Chapter 2),
focusing on how different segments of the rural population
interact with it. The report then analyzes the scope for
increasing value added, competitiveness and productivity in
agriculture (Chapter 3) and for promoting enterprise
development and off-farm employment (Chapter 4). The
complementary role of further investments in rural
infrastructure is examined in Chapter 5, and measures for
strengthening governance are analyzed in Chapter 6. In
Chapter 7 issues that cut across all counter narcotics
efforts are examined. A final chapter looks at
implementation, and at issues of prioritization, synergies
and phasing (Chapter 8). The recommendations of the report
are encapsulated in a matrix at the end of the Executive Summary.
