The African Union has formally adopted a continent-wide drug strategy aimed at strengthening responses to the manufacture, trafficking and organised crime networks behind synthetic substances, the bloc announced on 10 September 2025. The “Gaborone Strategic Framework for Action on Strengthening Continental Responses to Address Illicit Synthetic Drug Production, Trafficking, and Related Transnational Organized Crime” emerged from a three-day continental consultation held in Gaborone, Botswana, from 25 to 27 August.
In a keynote at the Gaborone meeting, H.E. Advocate Duma Boko, President of the Republic of Botswana, described the spread of synthetic drugs as a “pandemic,” calling for increased cooperation between African states and international partners. Boko called for better detection tools, shared intelligence and stronger laws to dismantle drug trafficking networks.
The framework is explicitly tied to the bloc’s long-term development agenda, Agenda 2063, and sets out a multi-pillar roadmap. The AU lists the framework’s core pillars as:
- Strengthening laws and institutions;
- Improving cross-border cooperation and information-sharing;
- Strengthening public-health programmes and prevention campaigns;
- Tackling root causes and the organised-crime nexus that finances trafficking.
The AU also committed to working closely with member states and external partners – specifically the United States Department of State’s Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL) – to implement the plan. The commission framed the framework as more than a statement of intent, calling it “a shared commitment and a clear blueprint for coordinated action.”
Independent drug advisor to the UN, Rose Byrne, called the move “encouraging though lacking in clarity.” The specifics of the policy are not yet known, though the specific inclusion of health programs as one of the policy’s “pillars” is a positive step in the direction of harm reduction, she said.
Why now?
The AU’s timing reflects a wider global concern about the rapid growth and evolving sophistication of synthetic drug markets. The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) has warned that synthetic drug manufacturing has grown significantly in the past few years, with new potent synthetic opioids appearing in key African ports which act as distribution hubs for drug markets across the world.
Regional reporting and law-enforcement activity illustrate the shift from transit to local production and consumption in parts of Africa. In July 2024, South African authorities uncovered what they described as an industrial-scale methamphetamine lab; prosecutions of global organised criminal organisations in West Africa highlight how production and distribution is happening across the continent.
Public health observers have flagged worrying new products and local mixes. Investigations and UN agency warnings have documented the spread of locally produced synthetics — including mixtures known in some countries by street names such as “kush” — that contain synthetic opioids, and that have been associated with overdoses and growing treatment needs.
“The adoption of the Gaborone Strategic Framework signifies a new turning point in our collective endeavour to address the devastating impact of synthetic drugs on our continent,” said H.E. Ambassador Amma Twum-Amoah, AU Commissioner for Health, Humanitarian Affairs and Social Development.
Promises missing details
On paper, the Gaborone framework attempts to bridge security, justice and health: it names enforcement and institutional strengthening alongside public-health programming and prevention. That dual framing — supply control plus demand reduction — is central to the AU’s presentation of the document.
But the AU offers few operational details. It does not, for example, publish a budget, a phased timetable for implementation, specific indicators of success, or an accountability mechanism to track progress across the AU’s 55 member states. It also does not specify which AU organs will lead different elements of delivery beyond the commission’s broad oversight role. Those gaps matter: translating continental frameworks into sustained action typically requires clear financing, measurable targets and local capacity-building.
“What we see here is the very beginning of a beginning,” Ms Byrne said, “light on details but low on commitments.”
She continued that she and other experts will be looking to see whether the new policy tips in the direction of harm reduction, or towards punitive punishment, “as global drug policies have often tended to in the past.”
Experts and civil-society groups tracking drug policy have repeatedly warned that headline strategies can tilt toward punitive, enforcement-led approaches unless explicit safeguards are built in to protect health, human rights and harm-reduction services. A recent example of this is Kenya’s latest national drug policy, which fell short of enshrining harm reduction policies in law.
Global funding shortfalls for harm reduction, especially since the US slashed its international aid contributions, are well known. The AU will be facing these shortfalls as it tries to implement its policy, which still lacks details on how its plan is to be funded.
Growing urgency
Investigative reporting and research groups have documented the rise of potent synthetic opioids and locally produced mixtures in Africa, fuelled by easy access to chemical precursors and weak forensic capacity in some jurisdictions.
The growing use of synthetic drugs across the continent points to a constellation of needs: forensic-science upgrades, customs and port controls, anti-money-laundering work, health services for people who use drugs, and community-level prevention and treatment — each of which requires different kinds of investment and oversight. International bodies such as the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) and UN agencies have also warned about money-laundering methods used by synthetic drug networks, adding further concerns about the financial challenges to dealing with drug-related crime.
“The growing sophistication of trafficking methods means we need better detection tools, shared information, and strong intelligence to create effective laws,” according to President Boko.
Partnerships and politics
The AU’s naming of the American INL as a partner signals the involvement of established overseas counter-drug assistance programmes in the framework’s next stages. That kind of partnership can deliver technical support and funding – but it also raises questions about agenda setting and who defines priorities. International agendas have in the past shaped national approaches toward enforcement and interdiction; partnering with an American law enforcement institution guided by an administration that’s intent on violently crushing those related to the drug industry may come with concerning human costs. While civil society organisations typically advocate for stronger, better-funded health and harm reduction interventions, INL guidance may just push priorities elsewhere.
Data shows that in Southern and Eastern Africa, despite rising drug-use trends, most national funds remain allocated to law enforcement, while domestic investment in opioid substitution therapy (OST) and needle/syringe programmes (NSP) is minimal or zero, according to Harm Reduction International. In South Africa, the City of Tshwane has established the Community-Oriented Substance Use Programme, which provides OST and NSP services, but it remains one of the very few such programmes—and significantly, it is funded at the municipal rather than national level.
“Partnerships can be positive,” stressed Byrne, “but they must be scrutinised for whether governments will have effective space, resources and support to opt for health-oriented responses.”
What now?
The high-level policy is in place; now comes the hard part. There are some key questions for the AU to answer in the coming months: how will the framework be implemented? What will the cost be? What is the precise balance of prominence between its pillars? What role will its patterns play in shaping and enforcing the policy?
So far, the AU has not answered those questions, at least publicly. But in announcing this move, it has set the stage for a new approach to synthetic drugs and the problems they pose for Africa.
