1- SC Communication
Strategy, June 2011,
Safer Cities
The Urban approach to
Crime and Violence
Saskia Sassen, 1992. The Global City: New York, London, Tokio.
Mike Davies, 2006. Planet of Slums.
Safer Cities
Overview – the Urban World
• For the first time in human history, as many
people now live in cities as in rural areas.
• By 2030, 60% of the world’s population will live in
cities – in what is defined as “The Urban Century”
• Conceptions of local and global governance are
changing
• With a third of all urban dwellers living in ghettos,
slums, favela, rapid urbanisation is also reshaping
the family, the school and the community.
Urbanization has regional character
Urban Population
Percent
Source: UN
Consequence of rigid zoning
Why?
Why we should focus on urban safety…
Safer Cities
Urban Insecurity – The Facts
• Violence and crime has soared in many urban centres
• Violent crime accounts for 25% to 30% of offences in cities
• Has deep impacts on individuals and communities, in particular the
poor
• Has strong social, political and economical implications
• Violence attacks the social fabric of cities
• The inability of the state to deliver efficient security services or to
implement violence prevention strategies contributes to feelings of
insecurity.
• With poor urban governance, it is difficult measuring crime as many
crimes go unreported
• Violence is reconfiguring social and spatial relations in urban areas
Safer Cities
Urban Insecurity – The Impact
• Economic costs of lost investments,
• Abandonment and stigmatisation of neighbourhoods
• A climate of fear that threatens the social and economic
development of the city
• Inequality, social exclusion and marginalization
• Vulnerability to crime and violence by those who make their living
in public spaces
 The poor are less likely to be able to insulate themselves from
crime and insecurity
 Institutional responses – police action and law enforcement may
increase levels of insecurity & break ‘safety networks’
Safer Cities
Urban Insecurity- The Realisation
• It is now known that delinquency rates are clearly
higher in the cities than in rural areas, and not
because urban areas create criminal surroundings
or because of the size of urban agglomerations,
but due to the poor urban management that has
characterized many cities and inadequate urban
services.
New ideas are emerging…
• New Urban Planning
• Open spaces
• The creative city
The 21st Century Urban Model – IPS21c
The city is made of
people, stones
and rules
Traditional response vs new approach
• Focusing on the criminal justice system (police,
tribunals, prisons)
• Focusing on major crime, leaving petty crime
and ‘incivilities’ without response
• Targeting effects instead of causes - reactive
instead of preventive
• Often short term and non sustainable results
14
• Safety as ‘common good’ and key to
good governance
• A role for everybody in building local
safety, respecting everybody mandates
• Need to target causes to reach lasting
results
• Prevention is better than cure
How?
How to achieve safer cities…
15
Safer Cities
The Urban Approach to Violence
• The urban approach makes possible to reach the
neighborhoods and to understand their meaning
for residents. It makes easier to understand all
types of internal conflicts, such as gender
conflicts, inter-generational conflicts, conflicts for
social integration, for entering the labor market,
for having access to consumption or to services,
for status, for values, for real territorial control
Safer Cities
UN support – The Safer Cities Programme
In 1996 UN-HABITAT established a ‘urban crime prevention
programme’ to assist cities to develop crime prevention
initiatives and thereby reduce incidence and impact of crime and
violence in cities.
The Programme operates through:
– Direct support to cities that intend to formulate and
implement crime prevention strategies
– Support to networking and city-to-city collaboration
– Development and dissemination of tools
– Advocacy and policy development on crime prevention issues gender, youth-at-risk, role of local government
Safer Cities
Three pillars of prevention
SOCIAL PREVENTION
LAW ENFORCEMENT
Youth and Women
AND CJS REFORM
• Youth empowerment
• targeted visible police patrols
• Victim support
• conflict resolution
• recreational facilities to
• neighborhood watch
occupy youth
• by-law enforcement
• developing victim support
• improve relationships and URBAN DESIGN
accessibility
• supporting street layout
•improving street lighting
• designing streets, buildings, parks etc.
to reduce opportunities for crime
• reorganize markets or terminals
Towards Human Settlements
New
multi-dimensional
integrated approach
Vulnerability
Reduction
Security of Tenure
• targeting land and housing
evictions and associated
violent conflicts
Natural Disasters
• targeting risk reduction, preparedness
and resilience
Crime, Violence & Social Cohesion
• targeting urban vulnerability reduction
to crime and violence
• building on social capital of communities
• focusing on social interventions
Safer Cities Process: Key Elements For Effective
Implementation
A security diagnosis
• challenges
• risk factors
• community resources
Regional and
(inter)national
networks for
exchange and
replication
A strategy and action plan
• establish priorities
• identify model for practices
• target actions on risk factors
• balance short & long
term actions
A COALITION
• with leadership
• assembling all key partners
• sensitive to age, gender &
cultural differences
• supported by a secretariat
• engaging citizens
• a communication strategy
Evaluation
& Feedback
• process evaluation
• impact evaluation
• tools development
Implementation
• training
• co-ordination of partners
• actions
Safer Cities
Achievements
• Formulated Prevention Projects in various cities in
Africa and Latin America
• Tools adapted, tested, documented and disseminated
on the local approach and on prevention issues
• Networks of cities active in this field
• Acknowledgment of the role of local authorities in the
international and national debate
• Enabling National policies in support to local
community-based interventions
• Growing understanding within the UN on the local
articulation of the prevention of violence and crime
Police – Youth Project in Rio de
Janeiro
Lessons learnt
Towards sustainable urban safety
• Institutional change is required – pay attention to take
advantage of restructuring processes
• National framework and support is important – legal
and political mandates – decentralization
• Multisectoral integrated approach requires coordination
– take advantage of existing mechanisms (IDP)
• Capacity and knowledge need to be built and ‘stored’
• Building a culture of prevention is a long term process
• Civil society, if involved, can greatly assist in
maintaining the momentum
• Exchange of experiences is vital for innovation
Safer Cities
Strategic Plan 2008 – 2013
• Upscaling fo the SC approach, leveraging
through partnerships
• Better integration of the safety approach in the
planning, management and governance systems
of the city
How?
Towards the Global Network on Safer
Cities…
25
Partners
The International Centre for the (Canada)
Prevention of Crime (ICPC)
Jagori (India)
European Forum on Urban
ITDG (Kenya)
Safety (EFUS)
National Crime Prevention
The Institute for Security Studies Council (United States)
(ISS), Huairou Commission
Crime Prevention Centre of the
UN Women
CSIR The World Bank Institute
UNICEF
The Royal Government of the
UNDP
Netherlands
UNODC
Italian Co-operation
WHO
Sida (Swedish International
UNESCAP
Development Agency)
United Nations Volunteers
Belgian Development Agency
(UNV)
German Development
CITYNET
Cooperation (GDC)
Slum Dwellers International
Small Arms Survey
(SDI)
Urban Sociology Laboratory
ACHR – Asian Coalition on
(Swiss Federal Institute of
Housing Rights
Technology Lausanne,
University Alberto Hurtado
EPFL/LaSUR)
(Chile)
Geneva International Academic
Women in Cities International Network (GIAN)
National Crime Prevention
Council (Canada)
Federation of Canadian
Municipalities)
Leo Lagrange (France)
World Scouts Bureau
Dutch Youth Council
(Netherlands)
University of Melbourne
United Nations Institute for
Training and Research
Institute of Public Safety and
Security (Barcelona)
Swedish National Police Board
Ville de Montreal Police
Inter American Coalition in
Violence Prevention (IACPV)
Darua Youth Platform
Specific Objectives and Key Products*
1. Make safer cities
know-how and
experience
accessible to the
whole international
community
2. Build capacities in
local and national
governments to
address urban
safety challenges
• www.safercities.org, Global Safer Cities Resource
Facilities and Networking Platform
• The Handbook of Safer Cities
• The Safer Cities Certification
• Measuring urban safety and prevention. Safer
Cities Ranking
• The Safer Cities Tool Box
• Safer Cities Training Modules
• Safer Cities Academic Formations
* For Consolidating Safer Cities Gains based on Lessons Learned
Specific Objectives and Key Products**
3. Build urban safety
through the
Reduction of Urban
vulnerabilities
• Framework for reduction of Urban Vulnerabilities
to crime and violence through a multirisk approach
• Analytical and Solving Problem Oriented
Framework on Urban Vulnerabilities Reduction vis
a vis different specific challenges
• Frameworks for addressing urban safety and
prevention through socio-cultural tools
• Strategies on migrations, urban vulnerabilities,
conviviality, public spaces and social inclusion
4. Build urban safety
through Urban
Planning and
Management
• Methodology and applications on developing urban
safety through urban planning
• Methodology for Safety and Conviviality Impact
Assessment for Urban Development Projects
• Empowerment for urban safety stakeholders
(youth, gender)
• Institutions strengthening for prevention and
safety management
** For Developing a New Cross-Cutting Agenda
• Framework for managing urban safety/conviviality
in particular cases/situations
Specific Objectives and Key Products**
5. Develop the
governance of urban
safety
• Urban Safety Governance Analytical and Problem
Solving Framework
• Decentralisation and Urban Safety Framework and
Best Practices
• Framework and Platform for Police Action in Urban
Development
• Methodology for addressing Fear of Crime in Urban
Environments
6. Develop Regional
Strategies and
Frameworks for
action on Urban
Safety and Social
Cohesion.
** For Developing a New Cross-Cutting Agenda
• Regional Framework for Action on Urban Safety
and Social Cohesion
• National Strategies on Urban Safety
• Strategies for Advocacy Messages and Support
Urban Safety Decisions and Policies
Safer Cities
Future key step
• Regional and national launches of the Global Network on
Safer Cities – with emphasis on the integration of safety
in National Urban Policies
• Road Map from 2012 to World Urban Forum 2014 in
Medellin to HABITAT III SUMMIT 2016
Thank You
UN-HABITAT
P.O Box 30030
Nairobi, Kenya
Tel: 254-20 7623771
Email: juma.assiago@unhabitat.org
http://www.unhabitat.org/safercities