When you think about international aid, and what it pays for, you’re more likely to picture things such as schools and hospitals than armed police officers and prisons. For good reason: international aid funding is supposed to help end poverty and support development. It is not supposed to cause harm.
These essential principles are regularly repeated by donors in their own policy documents, commitments, and public statements. However, wealthy countries spent close to $1 billion of aid funding on the global war on drugs in the decade between 2012 and 2021.
Governments have used aid budgets in a way that runs counter to development aims: to train and fund police operations that support increased surveillance of citizens, drive up drug-related arrests of some of the most vulnerable people, and increase the numbers of people in detention.
About the author
Naomi Burke-Shyne
Naomi Burke-Shyne is the executive director of Harm Reduction International and has worked at the intersection of global health, drug policy, law, and human rights for the past 20 years. Naomi is deeply concerned with health as a public good, the right to health, and the related funding landscape.
