Strategic Plan for Myanmar

Back to Newsletters Online

The Institute was commissioned by the United Nations Drug Control Programme (UNDCP) to prepare a $US300 million strategic economic development plan for the Government of Myanmar to be linked to government and community activities to eliminate the growing of opium and the local abuse of opiates.

Team members in Myanmar, (Back L-R) Joern Kristensen, Dr Amaya Gillespie, Wayne Haslam, John Leake, Jeanine Wright, Dr Bruce Walker, Doug Campbell, Dr F Jerry Murray and Police Colonel Ngwe Soe Tun, (Front L-R) U Tin Htut Ooo, Dr Ba Thaung, Prof Minoru Kiryu, (Absent) Dr Kitti Limskul, Richard Dickens

Ceasefires in the major opium poppy growing areas of Myanmar, the Shan and Kachin States, and market and policy changes in China have provided a new strategic environment in the region. This has enabled Government and UNDCP to collaborate in a plan to mobilise international support for development activities to open these opium-growing areas to the outside world through access to markets and new techniques, better health and education services and a more participatory local government.

Prof Minoru Kiryu from Japan, pictured in a poppy field in the Eastern Shan State, with Jeanine Wright

Myanmar occupies a zone between the Indian and Chinese cultural spheres. It has been fought over by empires as varied as the Ming Chinese, the Mongol descendants of Gengis Khan, the Mogul empire, the British and the Japanese, and it has spawned its own empire, the empire of Pagan which extended from southern Tibet to southern Thailand. Some 31 per cent of the present population is made up of minority or tribal groups from many language groups and occupying different ecological niches.

The region's history of conflict continued through the 'cold war' during which time its government returned to a traditional policy of isolation in the face of bigger powers. The present borders are a legacy of the British occupation but even in that period parts of the so-called 'Golden Triangle' were not 'governed' in the modern sense. Such zones of conflict are where the cultivation of illegal crops, like opium, gravitate. The resulting isolation, extreme poverty, endemic violence and lack of basic services, such as health education and law and order, is not something these communities would choose for themselves. Addressing these needs provides the opportunity for UNDCP and other interested donors to combat opium production through development which enables these communities to make different choices leading away from isolation and so the production and abuse of opiates.

Ruby miners are a significant heroin user group and AIDS health risk in Myanmar

It is not often realised that opiate abuse is usually (but not always) much higher among opium growers than in major urban centres in the industrialised world. Illicit drugs make up some seven per cent of world trade but the returns from the drug industry go overwhelmingly to traffickers and only three to five per cent of this money returns to the producing countries (World Drug Report Oxford 1998). Even this flow is considered to show little benefit in economic terms due to the distortions inherent in the resulting corruption and the negative health impacts.

Government officials explain logistical difficulties in market development to the team

The solution lies in a coordinated approach to opiate demand reduction in user countries, and demand and supply reduction in producing countries. The Institute's strategic plan for Myanmar featured $US300 million in investment to be made available to districts and communities for economic development where they have prepared a feasible operational plan and are prepared to participate in monitoring of opium production and abuse.

Dr F Jerry Murray, John Leake and Wayne Haslam in the Eastern Shan State

Implementation of the plan will depend on international political will to address these development needs in countries like Myanmar. Under the IID plan, the UN would implement the strategy proposed under institutional arrangements that would enable different donors to participate according to their differing policies and resources.

John Leake

Back to Newsletters Online