The Senlis Council

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REDIRECT# The International Council on Security and Development (ICOS)

The International Council on Security and Development (ICOS)

The International Council on Security and Development (ICOS), formerly known as The Senlis Council is an international think tank known for its work in Afghanistan and other conflict zones such as Iraq and Somalia. It is a project of the Network of European Foundations' Mercator Fund.

Within the framework of security and development, the Council tries to come up with new proposals for policies that may be more effective or better serve the needs on the ground. Recommendations of ICOS are often based on its field research operations in the conflict zones where the organisation has a permanent presence. The resulting reports are normally accompanied by videos that illustrate the security and development situation in a certain area and show what the local people think about their situation. The overarching objective of ICOS is to promote open debate in order to alleviate current governance, development and economic crises and ensure that future policy-making in these areas is informed, humanitarian and delivers impact.

ICOS currently runs three programmes: Global Insurgency, Public Security and Public Health & Drug Control. The Global Insurgency Programme builds on the experience gained in Afghanistan and elsewhere. Field research is combined with conducting opinion surveys to try to identify better responses to the security and development crises in conflict zones. Based in Rio de Janeiro, the Centre of Excellence on Public Security provides innovative research, advocacy and policy analysis to come up with responses to crises related to public security such as the interrelated issues of violence and poverty in shanty towns. Lastly, the Public Health programme of ICOS is based on the organisation's partnership with the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, ICOS co-chairs the Rome Consensus for a Humanitarian Drug Policy together with the Italian Red Cross. The Rome Consensus brings together 110 national societies of the Red Cross and Red Crescent to promote and implement humanitarian and public health-focused drug policies.

Advisory Board

• The work of ICOS is supported by its Advisory Board. Current Members are:
  • Mr Raymond Kendall, Honorary Secretary General of Interpol (Chair);
  • Dr Lloyd Axworthy, President of the University of Winnipeg, Nobel Prize Nominee and former Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs;
  • Dr Massimo Barra, President of the Italian Red Cross and President of the Development Commission of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies;
  • Mr Romesh Bhattacharji, Former Narcotics Commissioner of India;
  • Mr Tom Buruku, President of the Uganda Red Cross;
  • Mr Vitalino Canas , President of the European Affairs Committee, Portuguese Parliament;
  • Dr Rien van Gendt, Former Executive Director of the Van Leer Group Foundation (2002-2007);
  • Sir Keith Morris, UK Ambassador to Colombia (1990-1994);
  • Mr Philip Owen, Former Mayor of Vancouver;
  • Prof. John Charles Polanyi, Nobel Prize winner in Chemistry, Canada;
  • Lord Dennis Stevenson, Chairman of HBOS, Member of the House of Lords;
  • Mr Luc Tayart de Borms, Managing Director of the King Baudouin Foundation;
  • Prof Dr Brice de Ruyver, President of the Department of Criminal Law and Criminology of Gent University.

Poppy licensing

One of the major policy recommendations to come from ICOS is the licensing of opium in Afghanistan for pharmaceutical purposes. It is based on the premise that there are two problems that need to be solved:

1. Afghanistan's reliance on opium;
2. A lack of opiate-based medicines available for pharmaceutical purposes

They contend that this would be a short-to-medium term solution to address the opium crisis that is currently occurring in Afghanistan, since alternative livelihoods programs in the country will take many years to come to fruition and no crop matches the agronomic properties of opium. Meanwhile, there is a shortage of morphine in developed countries and this is an even greater problem in developing countries, compounded by the growing rates of HIV/AIDS and cancer around the world.

This kind of scheme already exists in the world. India, Turkey and Australia currently produce much of the opium used for pain medications through a licensing system endorsed by the International Narcotics Control Board.

Nobel Prize in Chemistry Laureate Dr. John Charles Polanyi has expressed his support for the poppy for medicines project.

Stéphane Dion, leader of the Liberal Party of Canada, has also backed this proposal.

Poppy for Medicine

In June 2007, ICOS launched its "Poppy for Medicine" technical dossier that proposes a project model for licensing poppy cultivation and producing essential medicines within Afghanistan at a local level. Village cultivated poppy would be transformed into poppy-based medicines, such as morphine, in Afghan villages. The project lays out an integrated control system that combines the involvement of strong local structures and state authorities such as the police and the Afghan National Army in order to limit diversion. The role of the village shura in defining the parameters of the project guarantees the participation of all levels of village society from farmers to laboratory technicians trained to elaborate the medicines in village-based laboratories. By making the medicines locally, value is added to the finished product, the proceeds of which will go towards the economic diversification necessary to break ties with the illegal opium industry and eventually phase out opium production. Furthermore, Afghan poppy-based medicines could provide a cheap pain relief solution for countries suffering from the acute global shortage of poppy-based medicines: the Poppy for Medicines proposes creating a second-tier medicine supply system that would complement the closed supply and demand system regulated by the International Narcotics Control Board that controls the provision of raw poppy materials and currently ensures that 77% of poppy-based medicines are used by only six countries (see Fischer, B J. Rehm, and T Culbert, “Opium based medicines: a mapping of global supply, demand and needs” in Spivack D. (ed.) Feasibility Study on Opium Licensing in Afghanistan, Kabul, 2005. p.85-86.) For more information on the Poppy for Medicine project, see the Senlis Council report, "Poppies for Medicine" [1]

Food aid in Afghanistan

ICOS has recently started carrying out food aid activities in informal internal refugee camps in southern Afghanistan, in the provinces of Kandahar and Helmand.

Partnerships and collaborations

ICOS has several partnerships with organisations working with health, development and security issues.

ICOS works in partnership with the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), and collaborates closely with the Italian Red Cross and its president Massimo Barra in raising awareness of issues relating to the treatment of drug addiction. The partnership between the IFRC and ICOS has resulted in the Rome Consensus for a Humanitarian Drug Policy, which was signed on 17 December 2006 in Rome by 22 national societies of the Red Cross and Red Crescent movements. The Rome Consensus calls for a humanitarian, public health-based approach to drug addiction treatment.

ICOS organised a joint conference with the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) in February. The attendance list included General David J. Richards, who was overall commander of NATO-ISAF until early February 2007.

Publications by ICOS

• Iraq: Angry Hearts and Angry Minds (June 2008)
• Chronic Failures in the War on Terror - From Afghanistan to Somalia (April 2008)
• Afghgan and Somali Views on the United States Presidential Elections 2008 (April 2008)
• Senlis Recommendations for US Policy in Afghanistan (February 2008)
• Afghanistan: Decision Point 2008 (February 2008)
• Recommendations to the Independent Panel on Canada’s Future Role in Afghanistan (December 2007)
• Afghan Poppy for Medicine projects - An Economic Case Study (November 2007)
• Stumbling into Chaos: Afghanistan on the Brink (November 2007)
• Peace in Afghanistan – Made in Canada (September 2007)
• A Lost Mandate: The Public Calls for a New Direction in Afghan Counter-Narcotics Policies (September 2007)
• The Canadian International Development Agency in Kandahar: Unanswered Questions (August 2007)
• Taliban Politics and Afghan Legitimate Grievances (June 2007)
• India’s Experiences in Licensing Poppy Cultivation for the Production of Essential Medicines. Lessons for Afghanistan (June 2007)
• Poppy for Medicine Licensing Poppy for the production of essential medicines: an integrated counter-narcotics, development and counter insurgency model for Afghanistan (June 2007)
• Countering the Insurgency in Afghanistan: Losing Friends and Making Enemies (February 2007)
• Hearts and Minds in Afghanistan – Zroona Aw Zehnoona (December 2006)
• Afghanistan Five Years Later: The Return of the Taliban (September 2006)
• Impact Assessment of Crop Eradication in Afghanistan and Lessons Learned from Latin America and South East Asia (January 2006)
• Feasibility Study on Opium Licensing in Afghanistan (September 2005)

External links

• ICOS
• Centre of Excellence on Public Security
• New Europe, "EU leadership on narcotics strategy in Afghanistan" (December 1, 2007)
• European Voice, "MEPs open door for a sensible opium strategy" (November 1, 2007)
• The Washington Quarterly, "Poppies for Peace: Reforming Afghanistan’s Opium Industry" (Winter 2006-2007, Volume 30 Number 1)
• The Guardian, "Opium war jeopardising Afghan future, report says" (September 6, 2006) on The Senlis Council's Five Year Report
• International Herald Tribune, "How to beat the Opium Economy" (November 30, 2006)
• New York Times, "Let A Thousand Poppies Bloom (13 July 2005)
• The Times, "The war on drugs is not the war on terror: save the Afghan poppy fields" (June 8, 2006)
• The Times, "Let Afghan poppies bloom" (September 6, 2005)
• The Times "At last some sense: Medicines for poppies"