Identifying Europe’s information needs for effective drug policy

Lisbon, 6-8 May 2009

Plenary thematic session I: Policy

Information needs for policy – implications for monitoring and science

Title of the presentation: The International perspective

Name: Sandeep Chawla
Affiliation/Institution: United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC)
Address: UNODC, Vienna International Centre, Wagramer Strasse 5, PO Box 500,A- 1400 Vienna, Austria
e-mail:
Bio note:
Sandeep Chawla, Ph.D., is Director, Division for Policy Analysis and Public Affairs, at the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). He has been head of Research at the UNODC since 1994 and since then he has led the development of the Office’s research and analysis capabilities.
Abstract:
The presentation will (i) review how drug-related data is collected at the international level; and (ii) suggest ways and means of improving the collection and analysis of this data.
The bedrock of the present system is an annual questionnaire that is returned to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) by all parties to the International Drug Conventions. The information in this questionnaire is then checked, validated and aggregated into international estimates of illicit drug production, trafficking and consumption, and published annually in the World Drug Report. Poor response rates, gaps in information provided, and political sensitivities of some of the data make this a challenging task, particularly when considered in the context of UNODC’s obligation to provide annual global estimates and trends of how the problem is evolving.
The recent session of the United Nations Commission on Narcotic Drugs, which reviewed the UNGASS decade, adopted a Political Declaration and Plan of Action on International Cooperation towards an Integrated and Balanced Strategy to Counter the World Drug Problem. The Commission also adopted a resolution on “Improving the collection, reporting and analysis of data to monitor the implementation of the Political Declaration and Action Plan…”. The second part of the presentation will outline plans to implement this resolution, and suggest ways and means of improving collection and analysis of drug-related data, not only to monitor the Action Plan, but also to make the data more policy relevant at the international level.
Related publications:
“Multilateral Drug Control”, Chapter 12, pp.224-244, in M. Vellinga (ed) The Political Economy of the Drug Industry, University Press of Florida, 2004.
“How to develop more effective policies against crime: Some reflections on drugs and crime research in an international context” in European Journal on Criminal Policy and Research (Kluver Academic Publishers), Vol 10, 2004, pp.85-98.
co-author: “Drug Trafficking as a Transnational Crime” Chapter 9, pp. 160-180, in Philip Reichel (ed), Handbook of Transnational Crime and Justice, Sage Publications, 2005.
co-author: UNODC, The Opium Economy in Afghanistan (Vienna, 2003)
co-author and team leader: UNODC, World Drug Reports, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, and forthcoming 2009.
co-author: UNDCP, Amphetamine-type Stimulants: A Global Review (UNDCP, TS/3, Vienna, 1996)