UNODC Assistance in Alternative Development in Lebanon

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) has a long-standing relationship with the Government of Lebanon in the area of alternative development aimed at eliminating the cultivation of illicit crops. This assistance is provided by UNODC’s drug control arm, the United Nations International Drug Control Programme (UNDCP), in cooperation with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS) and other pertinent agencies.

Drug Production and Cultivation

In the 1970s and 1980s, Lebanon was the major producer of illicit drugs in the Middle East. Cultivation of illicit crops started in the districts of Baalbek and El-Hermel in the northern Bekaa Valley. Following the start of the civil war in 1975, illicit cultivation expanded as government authorities eroded. In the late 1980s illicit cultivation reached its peak. Cannabis cultivation was estimated as high as 11,000 to 16,000 hectares during the peak years and yielded up to 1,000 tons of cannabis resin. Opium poppy, which was introduced in the 1980s, grew rapidly from 3,500 to 5,000 hectares yielding 3 to 5 tons of heroin.

From 1991 to 1993 Lebanese and Syrian forces attempted to eradicate illicit cultivation in the Bekaa Valley. While significantly reducing the cultivation of opium poppy and cannabis, the eradication campaigns were not integrated into a more comprehensive programme. Eradication in the absence of alternative income sources had an immediate negative economic impact on the population.

Lebanon

UNDCP has completed three projects in Lebanon and is currently running two additional projects that include the second phase of the Baalbeck-Hermel Regional Development Programme.

A second project provides equipment for a law enforcement agency, the establishment of a licit control system, and the execution of a rapid assessment study on the extent and patterns of drug abuse in Lebanon. Further assistance to Lebanon will form part of UNDCP’s proposed subregional drug control programme for the Middle East.

In response to an initiative by the Cairo Regional Office, the government took part in the second Subregional Technical Consultations on Drug Control in the Middle East, held in July, 1999, in Cairo.

The Bekaa Valley

In 1994, UNDCP and UNDP started to support development in the Bekaa Valley by assisting integrated rural development. This assistance was provided in two phases in the framework of the Integrated Rural Development Programme (IRDP). The phases were designed as part of a wider infrastructure and development programme of the Lebanese Government.

The major achievements of phase I were:

- to establish a revolving credit scheme to address cash flow problems of farmers;
- to set up a network of local development and credit committees to build up a participatory structure;
- to rehabilitate water supply systems for Baalbeck and to expand the agricultural irrigation scheme;
- to establish agricultural extension and research facilities and support pilot alternative crop cultivations;
- to rehabilitate and equip the government hospital in al-Hermel;
- to train nurses in primary and advanced health care; and,
- to provide alternative income for women through handicraft cooperations.

Phase II has resulted in the following achievements:

- to maintain and enhance the credit scheme;

- to integrate the development and credit committees and other stake holders in an enhanced participatory development planning process;

- to start the operations at primary health care centres in Aarsal, Nabi Shit, Chmistar, Deir Ahmar and support the Public Hospital in Baalbeck and the Public Hospital in Hermel;

- to implement an education programme including awareness raising activities in twenty high schools;

- to organise a youth working camp with 60 participants in collaboration with non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and the municipalities of El-Ain, Labwe, Zabboud, Bajjaje, and Jabboule; 

- to provide computer training for 210 students for 18 months;

- to provide vocational training for 50 school drop-outs;

- to provide literacy courses for 400 adults; and,

- to support local women NGOs in handicraft production and food processing activities.

These achievements have improved both the standard of living and income opportunities for the population in the Bekaa Valley. However, given the size of the problems at-hand and the funds needed to address these problems, the first two phases have remained insufficient in generating sustained development in the Baalbeck-Hemel Region. Consequently, the poorest strata of the society are resorting to cultivating illicit crops to complement their insufficient income.

UNDCP has consequently designed a programme to address the socio-economic conditions in the Bekaa Valley. This programme, which is currently awaiting funding, aims at successful and sustained eradication of illicit crops in the Bekaa Valley and reduced recurrence of such cultivation in the north-western Bekaa Valley.

Availability of International Funds

UNDCP’s assistance in alternative development is part of its global drug control programme. As such, technical cooperation in alternative development is designed within the wider framework of the global priority setting of UNDCP.

UNDCP’s technical assistance activities are financed through a trust fund replenished by voluntary contributions of member States. UNDCP’s actual implementation of technical assistance is therefore subject to donors’ willingness to fund an activity in a specific country or area.

Currently, Lebanon is the only country in the Middle East and North Africa receiving alternative development assistance. Limited activities in Morocco in the early 1990s were not continued. UNDCP has invested a total of US$ 5,584,000¹ in alternative development assistance in Lebanon since 1994.

Based on annual assistance per capita over the last decade to the recipient country, UNDCP’s alternative development assistance to Lebanon ranks second on the list of drug producing countries. At the top of this list is Bolivia with average annual assistance per capita amounting to 0.45 US$, followed by Lebanon, where average annual assistance per capita amounts to US$ 0.29.

Conclusion

The above data and analysis indicate the importance UNDCP has given to technical co-operation with Lebanon. This co-operation has yielded good results. Future UNDCP activities will focus on its drug control mandate and will be placed in the context of sizeable rural development activities of both the government of Lebanon and international rural development agencies.

Sources: 

Alternative Development Projects Database, UN-UNODC. 

World Drug Report 2000, UN-UNODC (2000), United Nations: Oxford University Press. 

Human Development Report 2000, UNDP (2000), United Nations: Oxford University Press.

 ¹ Alternative Development Projects Database, UN-UNODC

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