I. Public Benefit
Americans face growing security threats, both at home and
abroad, from international terrorist networks and their allies
in the illegal drug trade and international criminal enterprises.
Illegal drugs impose a staggering toll, killing more than
19,000 Americans annually and costing more than $160 billion
in terms of law enforcement, drug-related health care, and
lost productivity. This is in addition to the wasted lives;
the devastating impact on families, schools, and communities;
and the generally corrosive effect on public institutions.
International crime groups also pose critical threats to
U.S. interests, undermine the rule of law, and enable transnational
threats to grow. International trafficking in persons, smuggling
of migrants and contraband, money laundering, cyber crime,
theft of intellectual property rights, vehicle theft, public
corruption, environmental crimes, and trafficking in small
arms cost U.S. taxpayers and businesses billions of dollars
each year. Experts estimate that non-drug crime accounts for
half of the estimated $750 billion of money laundered each
year globally.
The events of 9/11 and their aftermath highlight the close
connections and overlap among international terrorists, drug
traffickers, and transnational criminals. All three groups
seek out weak states with feeble judicial systems, whose governments
they can corrupt or even dominate. Such groups jeopardize
peace and freedom, undermine the rule of law, menace local
and regional stability, and threaten the United States and
its friends and allies.
To meet these challenges, the Department of State and USAID
support a robust and comprehensive range of public-private,
bilateral, regional, and global initiatives and assistance
programs to build up the law enforcement capabilities of foreign
governments to help stop these threats before they reach U.S.
soil. This includes working with other U.S. government agencies
and foreign governments to break up drug trafficking and other
international crime groups, disrupt their operations, arrest
and imprison their leaders, and seize their assets. It also
includes providing small farmers in drug producing areas in
the Andean ridge, Afghanistan, and Southeast Asia the means
to abandon illicit crop production permanently by developing
viable economic alternatives and improving social conditions
of farm families.
To expand the reach of government and help establish the
rule of law, which is critical to political stability in source
countries struggling against narco-terrorists, USAID strengthens
courts and prosecutorial offices, creates less corrupt and
more transparent national and local government structures,
and improves civil society advocacy.
II. Resources Invested
III. Selected Performance Trends
IV. Illustrative Example of Significant Achievement
Bustling commerce in Kabul has taken
root in places that once saw nothing but warlord battles.
Photo: USAID/Ben Barber
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USAID Plays a Key Role to Fight Afghan Opium
USAID plays a key role in the $780 million U.S. effort to
slow Afghanistan's expanding drug trade through programs that
eradicate opium poppies and help farmers to develop alternate
crops and livelihoods. The anti-drug plan, five months in
the making and coordinated with the Afghans, British, and
others, includes highlighting the dangers of drug use to growers
and others; building the justice infrastructure to bolster
enforcement; providing alternative livelihoods to encourage
poppy growers to try new crops; increasing interdiction efforts;
and eradicating poppy fields.
USAID's anti-narcotics plan for alternate livelihoods was
funded at $10 million as a pilot program, but was expected
to rise to
$130 million.
Reducing the Demand for Drugs in Tajikistan
Students light candles on the USAID-sponsored
HIV/AIDS memorial event "I Remember, But Do You?"
in Simferopol, Ukraine. Photo: Evgeniya Zav'yalova,
USAID/Kyiv
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Tajik officials have acknowledged the contribution of USAID's
Drug Demand Reduction Program (DDRP) to stem increasing demand
for drugs in Tajikistan. The program contributes to improving
the regulatory and policy environment related to drug demand
reduction. The three-tiered approach to drug demand reduction
encapsulates universal prevention, selective prevention, and
indicative prevention levels. DDRP is the only program in
Tajikistan implementing such a comprehensive approach to reducing
demand. USAID's DDRP program targets at-risk youth through
a variety of interventions, including youth centers, peer
education, activities to provide recreational and skill-building
alternatives for youth at high risk of initiating drug use,
educational materials on the risks of drug use, and skills
development for street kids. USAID's new CAPACITY program
will expand DDRP's focus on reducing drug use to address other
aspects of HIV/AIDS prevention for youth, building on past
activities related to condom social marketing, school-based
education, and education and outreach events targeting youth.
Stopping Trafficking, Saving Lives
The New Life Center in Thailand
has helped more than 1,000 women and children avoid
exploitation and make positive changes in their lives.
Photo: USAID
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The lure is steady employment and a better life, but the
result is often months or years of physical and emotional
abuse. It's a modern form of slavery called trafficking —
the use of fraud or coercion to recruit, transport, buy, and
sell human beings — and it entraps as many as four million
people each year.
Fortunately, awareness is growing. In fact, the combined
efforts of USAID, local government, and community organizations
recently rescued 250 women, many of them minors, from a "shipment"
bound for a prostitution den in Manila. Authorities also intervened
in an illegal recruitment scam involving 50 people who had
paid outrageous placement fees for factory jobs in Belgium
that did not exist. And a woman hired as a farm worker in
a remote village saved herself from trafficking when she recognized
the illegal recruitment practices from an awareness-raising
exercise she had attended.
With support from USAID, the Trafficking Watch Group (TWG)
was formed, comprising 17 national government agencies and
18 trade unions, civil society organizations, and advocacy
groups. Members of the Philippine government's Inter-Agency
Council Against Trafficking are represented and assist in
TWG's efforts to combat trafficking on multiple levels. It
has mounted a public education campaign, coordinated task
forces, planned interventions, and built capacity in national
government agencies, organizations, and citizen organizations.
The group developed a Web site (http://www.trafficking.org.ph)
and a database, along with a series of publications that include
primers on the Philippine Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act
in English and local dialects. To strengthen legal resources,
TWG developed a sample ordinance against trafficking, which
local governments have used as a guide to pass ordinances
in Bataan, Cavite, Eastern Samar, and Leyte — all provinces
identified as source, training, transit, and destination areas
for trafficking victims. TWG also trained judges and prosecutors
to improve their understanding of the Anti-Trafficking Act
and local ordinances.
For trafficking victims and their families, TWG provides
counseling, access to temporary shelters, and economic opportunities.
The organization is also among the forerunners in drawing
attention to the problems that many victims — especially
women — face in reintegrating themselves into their
communities and is producing a manual to assist them.
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