Coca supply control, territorial transformation policy and new indicators for drug policy success

There are three main types of intervention to control the supply of illicit crops, as part of the war on drugs: forced aerial eradication, forced manual eradication, and alternative development. This document briefly presents the academic evaluations of each of these interventions, the elements that the Center for Studies on Security and Drugs (CESED) and the Center for the Study of Law, Justice, and Society (Dejusticia) consider should be included in alternative development policies geared towards territorial transformation, and the way in which the design of these new policies is linked to the objectives set out by the Colombian government and the holistic counter-narcotics strategy determined by the White House. This paper discusses the effectiveness of some of the Government’s proposals on the required features of the territorial transformation programs and on the reduction of the annual coca crop eradication target.