Project participant engagement phase

Following their nomination by the local shura, the selection and engagement of the active participants in a Poppy for Medicine project would be documented by representatives from Afghan state institutions, to provide official administrative oversight of the project. Once engaged, the Afghan National Police would support the shura in the training of these participants in any necessary additional security measures. This support from external security actors would ensure their visual familiarity with project participants, thereby enhancing the external security supporters’ capacity to assist the village in its exclusion of non-project participants from secure project zones.

Cultivation phase

Throughout the cultivation phase, the project village shura would distribute agricultural inputs to project farmers, and ensure that the seeds are sown only on project land. As part of a poppy licensing system’s legal requirements, relevant Afghan government monitors would measure and document this project land. Following germination of the seeds, the shura would supervise the destruction of excess seedlings, to ensure they are not re-planted on non-project land. Throughout the cultivation phase the shura would monitor the ongoing inputs necessary to limit crop losses through disease and environmental effects.

During the cultivation phase, Afghan government administrators would use the shura’s knowledge of project villagers’ agricultural outputs to implement an anti-diversion measure used in the Indian Poppy for Medicine system, known as the Minimum Qualifying Yield. This would involve recording the shura’s estimates of project farmers’ eventual yields of raw poppy materials. A failure on the part of farmers to then deliver this minimum estimated yield at harvest time would indicate possible diversion, leaving the farmer open to sanctions.

Penalties for cultivation phase offences Attempts by project participants to relocate excess seedlings to non-project land will be recorded by Afghan government administrators, and penalised accordingly by the shura. Attempts by drug traders to disrupt the project will be monitored and dealt with by the shura with the support of the Afghan National Police.

The policing of the cultivation phase by the shura and Afghan government administrators would be further enhanced through the integrated support from the Afghan National Police, who would monitor at the district level any ‘outside’ interest in the projects, pre-empting possible spoilers. In the final months of the cultivation phase, this external security support would be gradually built up to provide targeted security of the individual project villages as the crop matures. However, the primary safeguard against drug traffickers would be the villagers in a Poppy for Medicine project. Field research findings clearly show that the specific elements that comprise Afghan local social control systems are extremely active in protecting the best interests of their communities. If an activity, such as Poppy for Medicine projects, is in a community’s interest, the village community is completely willing and able to close ranks to secure the project against the influence of outsiders such as the Taliban, insurgents, or drug traffickers.

Project participant engagement phase

In terms of project security, the harvest period would be one of the most important phases in a Poppy for Medicine project. As such, all decisions and actions taken during this phase would need to be made under the supervision of external security supporters, and in consultation with all project stakeholders. The shura, in consultation with the project farmers and external security support would decide when to begin the harvest, would take delivery of and document the daily harvest, supervise the inspection of harvest workers at the end of each harvest day, and in conjunction with external security support, the shura would secure the harvest in special storage facilities. To facilitate the physical security of the project village, the shura would also share villagers’ ongoing reports of non-project participants and potential spoilers in the vicinity of the project village with external security supporters.

Penalties for harvest phase offences Attempted diversion by harvest workers will be treated extremely severely: the village project would lose its Poppy for Medicine licence Further, offenders would face a range of penalties from both the shura and the counter-narcotics authorities. To ensure respect for human rights, for project evaluation purposes, the application of these penalties would be documented by external monitors. Inexplicable failures to meet estimated final yields would be penalised as diversion.

Medicine production phase

The transformation of raw poppy materials into finished medicines would be another key phase in a Poppy for Medicine project. Careful documentation and supervision from trained project participants, in conjunction with central and district government administrators, would track the entire harvest to prevent diversion and to ensure that the medicines would not be further transformed into illegal drugs.

The process necessary to transform raw poppy materials into finished medicines would begin during the harvest period, during which trained project participants within the individual project villages would dry the daily harvest of raw poppy materials. These dried materials would then be tested within the village for morphine content, the result of which would determine payment to farmers.

Penalties for medicine production phase offences Any disruption of the medicine production process, intentional or otherwise by project participants will be penalised by the shura, and any attempted or actual disruption of the medicine production process by nonproject participants will be prosecuted under the Afghan counter-narcotics laws. Attempted diversion by laboratory workers will be treated extremely seriously, and offenders will face a range of penalties from both the shura and the counter-narcotics authorities. Failure to provide documentary evidence that the entire harvest, as received daily from the shura throughout the harvest phase is processed into medicines will be treated as diversion. Failures to meet medicine manufacturing quality control standards will be prosecuted under Health regulations.

With the support of external security actors, project villages would then securely transport their dried, tested raw materials to the district processing facility for transformation into medicines. The morphine content of these raw materials would then be tested again, and the results documented by government administrators. Under the supervision of pharmaceutical experts, the raw materials would then be processed into morphine medicines, and the entire production process would be subject to stringent quality control tests, administered with the support of experts supplied by international development agencies. The complete physical security of the district processing facility would be ensured through security support from the Afghan National Police.

Sale and export of medicines phase

Coordinated by the representatives from individual project villages managing the district processing facility, the finished medicines would then be sold directly from the district processing facility to the district branch of the Committee for Drug Regulation, on behalf of the Afghan government. Building on its records of a village’s medicine production output, these Afghan government administrators would verify the full purchase of all medicines manufactured in a village during one project cycle. With support from the Afghan National Police, district’s participating security guards would then securely transport the purchased medicines to Kabul by road or by air for local use in Afghan hospitals and as an international export commodity.

Penalties for sale and delivery phase offences With all locally-produced medicines to be sold to the Afghan government, a failure for sales documentation to match production documentation will be prosecuted as diversion by the Afghan government. Upon delivery, the failure of delivery documents to match sales documents will be prosecuted as diversion by the Afghan government. Attempted or actual interruption of the delivery process will be prosecuted as diversion and theft under Afghan counter-narcotics and criminal laws.

Receipt of medicine revenues, and economic diversification phases

Representatives from the individual project villages in charge of managing the district processing facility would take receipt of payments for the district-produced medicines from the Afghan government. Dispersal of these payments to each project village would be made according to the quantity and quality of medicines produced from an individual village-based Poppy for Medicine project’s raw materials.

Individual project shuras would then oversee the dispersal of this payment to individual project participants, according to the payment parameters set out during the project planning phase and would channel a proportion of these revenues into a special village fund for economic diversification. In this way, the shura would begin to discharge its co-guarantor duty to ensure that Poppy for Medicine projects result in economic diversification. With the support of external development experts from international development agencies, and documented by Afghan government administrators, the shura would identify, select, and arrange the funding and implementation of village-level economic diversification projects. Also with the support of external development experts, the shura would advance microloans to project participants to fund individual economic diversification activities.

Evaluation phase

At the end of each Poppy for Medicine project production cycle, the entire project would be evaluated. As well as evaluating individual project participants’ involvement in the project, the shura would evaluate the quantitative evolution of sales, losses and profit as well as the profitability ratios, with the support of international development experts. These would be used to assess the economic impact of the project. The Afghan National Police would be required to provide an evaluation of its involvement in the project, and to generate security related recommendations. The Afghan government would assess the capacity of the Integrated Control System to secure the project throughout each phase, and would generate overall recommendations to enhance the capacity of Poppy for Medicine projects to rein in illegal poppy cultivation.

Offences identified during evaluation phase Any offences by members of the Afghan National Police committed while controlling a Poppy for Medicine project and identified in evaluation would be prosecuted under Afghan counter-narcotics and criminal law.