Global Forum of Growers
CERAI is planning the First Global Forum of Producers of Illicit Declared Crops. The Global Forum is expected to bring together 200 producers, or their representatives, from 20 countries of Asia, Africa, and Latin America in January 2009 in an attempt to include peasant voices in the global drug policy debate.
Conclusions and recommendations from the forum will be collated in reports which will be presented to governments in order to influence discussions at the High Level Meeting in 2009. The event will address problems faced by peasants, indigenous peoples and small farmers, such as the balance of alternative development projects and the environmental impact of eradication. In preparation, 3 expert missions of 10 days are planned to South and West Africa and Afghanistan as well as 3 meetings by the International Promoting Committee, composed of 15 international experts who are engaged in finding funds and adherents for the event.
The project will also serve to inform general public opinion through extensive media activity surrounding the Forum and it is intended to establish a "World Observatory of Producers of Illicit Crops" to act as a coordination centre for liason and advocacy efforts. GDPp is not funding the forum itself, but the advocacy activities connected.