Article: Inter-American Anti-Drug Agency Meets to Receive Reports

15 December 2000

Article: Inter-American Anti-Drug Agency Meets to Receive Reports

Reports based on new Multilateral Evaluation Mechanism

The Inter-American Drug Abuse Control Commission (CICAD) met at the Organization of American States (OAS) December 11-15 to consider and adopt national and regional reports on progress in anti-drug efforts throughout the Americas.

The reports are the first results of the new Multilateral Evaluation Mechanism (MEM), a diagnostic tool that uses 61 indicators to measure governments' success in curbing illegal drug-related activity.

Speaking at the opening session of the CICAD meeting, OAS Secretary General Cesar Gaviria predicted that the MEM will become "the fundamental point of reference for our countries' actions against drugs."

"The evaluation fulfills its purpose only if as a result of a precise diagnosis it can lead to policies and programs to strengthen what works and to correct deficiencies," Gaviria said, adding that the recommendations for action will be one of the most important elements of the process.

Speaking in support of the MEM, Barry McCaffrey, director of the U.S. Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP), said that "it will become increasingly apparent to policy people in the hemisphere that our national interests are better served by this evaluation mechanism than by a system based on confrontation." The MEM, he added, "allows the nations of our hemisphere to address our shared drug challenges through cooperative efforts, dialogue and shared expertise."

The MEM was designed to include all 34 OAS/CICAD member states. Throughout the past year, government experts from each country have been collecting, analyzing and compiling information covering all aspects of the drug problem. According to the OAS, the reports have gone through several drafts and government reviews, and the experts held four extended sessions during the year to work on the MEM.

"The MEM was conceived not as an end in itself but as a basis for our common progress and for mutual understanding," CICAD Chairman Lancelot Selman, of Trinidad and Tobago, said at the opening session. He stressed that the problem of illegal drugs threatens good governance, security and health throughout the region, damaging communities and families.

"The common enemy is a transnational borderless crime, requiring integrated, concerted action by a large number of countries," he said.

The MEM process stems from a mandate issued by the presidents and prime ministers of the region in 1998, at the Second Summit of the Americas in Santiago, Chile. The first round of completed reports will be presented to the Third Summit of the Americas in Quebec City, Canada, in April 2001, along with recommendations on how to improve the evaluation process based on the first year's experience.