Urban safety for the poor through local-government capacity-building, with a focus on the most vulnerable groups in Asia and the Pacific

Project Summary Project code: 06/07S Executing entities: UN-Habitat Funding:  US$ 625,000 Duration: 2006-2009 Theme: Social development, social integration and statistics Status: Active Region: Asia and the Pacific   Implementation Rate:       7.6%     Updated:       06/06/07

Background:

Practices and approaches have been developed that enable local governments to play an active role in urban safety for the most vulnerable groups. However, in the Asia and the Pacific region, the application and development of these approaches has been rather limited, and there has been no focused capacity-building or development of relevant tools at the subregional level. Enabling local governments to understand the concept of community-based urban safety for the poor, and providing them access to practices and tools, will lead to development policies and programmes that can improve the safety and security of the most vulnerable and the poorest in urban areas.

The United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat), through its Safer Cities Programme, supports the implementation of the Habitat Agenda and the outcome of the International Conference on Sustainable Safety (Durban, 2003), which explicitly states that the local level is the most appropriate place to take action, with mayors taking the lead in promoting community safety.

                 The project will introduce Asia and the Pacific to the new thinking and practices now emerging on urban safety. The pilot cities involved in the region will be provided with and trained in the use of a comprehensive toolkit that has been developed to support local crime-prevention initiatives. The programme will make available the experience of cities in its network (including cities in Europe, Africa and North America, as well as Asia and Australia). The programme will operate through advocacy, tools development and knowledge management, as well as direct capacity-building at the local level. It will be implemented by UN-Habitat, in collaboration with ESCAP. The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime will ensure that the results feed into the broader debate on international guidelines and norms for the criminal justice system.

Objectives:

To strengthen the capacity of local governments to promote urban safety practices and nurture a culture of crime prevention in Asia and the Pacific.

Expected accomplishment:

(a)      Better access for key stakeholders and urban authorities to knowledge of successful practices   and tools for improving urban safety

(b)  Enhanced ability of urban local governments to form effective partnerships with their stakeholders, including the most vulnerable groups (such as youth at risk) to address urban safety

(c)    Enhanced skills and knowledge of stakeholders to develop effective community-based policies and programmes for improving urban safety

Implementation status:

Resources were received in September 2006, and therefore the project is in its initial phase. To date,  a detailed work plan has been established, and  as well as contacts with and interest of key partners regionally both from local government associations and from training institutions, as well as urban development actors. The project has mobilised interest on issues of urban violence and crime among selected actors in the region, and has identified suitable expertise within the region to carry out the documentation of practices. The two main partners have also agreed on implementation modalities and on a format for the Website. The contracting process has been initiated, with the development of ToRs and identification of expertise. For more information please go to:

http://www.unhabitat.org/content.asp?cid=4298&catid=375&typeid=13&subMenuId=0