Regional Drug Control in the Western Hemisphere and the Multilateral Evaluation Mechanism
Overview
International cooperation is an essential component of U.S. drug control efforts. The U.S. is an active participant in the Organization of American States, Inter-American Drug Abuse Control Commission (OAS-CICAD). CICAD provides drug-related programming, technical assistance, training and advice to government anti-drug agencies throughout the Americas, and maintains databases of drug consumption, production, and seizures. One of CICAD's most important initiatives is the Multilateral Evaluation Mechanism (MEM), a multilateral, consensus-based performance evaluation system for drug control in the hemisphere.
Development of the Multilateral Evaluation Mechanism (MEM)
At the Second Summit of the Americas in April, 1998, thirty-four heads of state formally asked CICAD to develop MEM. After 18 months of discussion and negotiation, the MEM was inaugurated during the twenty-sixth regular session of CICAD in Montevideo, Uruguay (October 5-8), 1999. President Bush affirmed the U.S. commitment to the MEM during a speech at the Third Summit of the Americas in Quebec City, Canada in 2001. In the years since, the MEM has resulted in improved counterdrug efforts throughout the hemisphere.
How the MEM Works
MEM national evaluations are based on each nation's responses to a biannual questionnaire which asks countries to report data on drug consumption, trafficking, production, seizures, arrests, money laundering, chemical diversion, and corruption. The responses to the questionnaires are provided to a group of governmental technical experts. This expert group, consisting of one representative plus an alternate from each country, analyzes each nation's response and produces a summary National Report with recommendations. Experts do not participate in evaluations of their own countries.
Governments from each country must review the written national report and recommendations on their country and provide a formal, written response to the expert group describing how they will implement the recommendations. ONDCP is responsible for coordinating both the U.S. inter-agency response to the U.S. questionnaire and the U.S. responses to the MEM recommendations.
Evaluation Steps
At CICAD XXXIX in May 2006, changes were made to the MEM process that extended the cycle of evaluation from two years to three years. The MEM recently concluded its Third Evaluation Round, evaluating regional progress in drug control that was achieved during 2003 and 2004.
Related Resources:
Each of the 34 National Reports prepared as part of the MEM, as well as a MEM Hemispheric Report and information on CICAD's other programs are available at http://www.cicad.oas.org
