Building collaborative capability between law enforcement and civil society leaders to prevent urban violence.

OBJECTIVES: This research paper analyses how applying a Place-Based Leadership Development (P-BLD) programme adds value to an ongoing intersectoral Urban Violence Prevention Programme (IUVP) in Kenya building trust within collaboratives in the intersection between the historically adversarial law enforcement and civil society sectors. METHODS: Data on participants' experience of the P-BLD programme were systematically collected through detailed pre- and post-session questionnaires which included a series of challenging but open questions. A framework analysis was undertaken to draw out the common themes. RESULTS: By surfacing emotional, relational and structural tensions between law enforcement and civil society within the context of IUVP, the P-BLD programme has enabled leaders to become more open to and respecting others' perspectives as a first step towards a more collaborative mindset. CONCLUSIONS: The P-BLD programme is having a positive impact, explicitly addressing the tensions and enabling leaders to share their concerns and challenges in working towards violence prevention at the intersection between law enforcement and civil society. Moreover, this approach is replicable creating new knowledge and sustainable mechanisms for violence prevention within urban areas across the world.

Transforming Our World: Implementing the 2030 Agenda Through Sustainable Development Goal Indicators.

The United Nations' 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development recognizes violence as a threat to sustainability. To serve as a context, we provide an overview of the Sustainable Development Goals as they relate to violence prevention by including a summary of key documents informing violence prevention efforts by the World Health Organization (WHO) and Violence Prevention Alliance (VPA) partners. After consultation with the United Nations (UN) Inter-Agency Expert Group on Sustainable Development Goal Indicators (IAEG-SDG), we select specific targets and indicators, featuring them in a summary table. Using the diverse expertise of the authors, we assign attributes that characterize the focus and nature of these indicators. We hope that this will serve as a preliminary framework for understanding these accountability metrics. We include a brief analysis of the target indicators and how they relate to promising practices in violence prevention.

Reducing violence in poor urban areas of Honduras by building community resilience through community-based interventions.

OBJECTIVES: To examine the impact of a 3 year community-based violence prevention intervention on risk of violence and social capital in two poor urban communities in Honduras in 2011-2014. METHODS: A quasi-experimental design pre and post implementation of the intervention was conducted based on data from two randomly selected samples using the same structured questionnaire in 2011 and in 2014. RESULTS: Community members had a 42 % lower risk of violence in 2014 compared to 2011. There was a positive relation between participation in the intervention and structural social capital, and participants had more than twice the likelihood of engaging in citizenship activities compared to the general population. CONCLUSIONS: The intervention contributed to decreasing violence and increasing community resilience in two urban areas in Honduras. Citizenship activities and active community participation in the violence prevention agenda rather than social trust and cohesion characteristics was affected by the intervention. This research introduces important lessons learned to future researchers aiming to retrieve very sensitive data in a similarly violent setting, and provides strong research opportunities within areas, which to this date remain undiscovered.

Preventing violence and reinforcing human security: a rights-based framework for top-down and bottom-up action.

This article explores the violence reduction potential in the intersection between health, criminal justice, and development. It emphasizes public health, rule of law, and equality-driven socioeconomic development as principal concerns in preventing violence. In parts of Latin America, violence has become a serious public health and security problem. Prior studies have explored the risk factors associated with violence as well as experiences in its prevention. These studies and existing approaches to violence prevention provide evidence on where to direct attention and build prevention efforts. This article argues for integrated community-driven and national interventions to create cooperative national- local linkages and embed international human rights law at the national and local levels. Nations struggling with violence should be encouraged to apply an integrated framework to prevent violence and reinforce human security.

Preventing violence and reinforcing human security: a rights-based framework for top-down and bottom-up action / Prevención de la violencia y refuerzo de la seguridad humana: un marco basado en los derechos humanos para la acción en sentidos descendente y ascendente

This article explores the violence reduction potential in the intersection between health, criminal justice, and development. It emphasizes public health, rule of law, and equality-driven socioeconomic development as principal concerns in preventing violence. In parts of Latin America, violence has become a serious public health and security problem. Prior studies have explored the risk factors associated with violence as well as experiences in its prevention. These studies and existing approaches to violence prevention provide evidence on where to direct attention and build prevention efforts. This article argues for integrated community-driven and national interventions to create cooperative national- local linkages and embed international human rights law at the national and local levels. Nations struggling with violence should be encouraged to apply an integrated framework to prevent violence and reinforce human security.

En este artículo se analiza la posibilidad de disminuir la violencia en la intersección entre la salud, la justicia penal y el desarrollo. Se hace hincapié en la salud pública, el imperio de la ley y el desarrollo socioeconómico regido por la igualdad, como inquietudes principales en la prevención de la violencia. En algunas partes de América Latina, la violencia se ha convertido en un problema grave de salud pública y de seguridad. En estudios anteriores se han analizado los factores de riesgo vinculados a la violencia, así como las experiencias en su prevención. Estos estudios y los métodos existentes de prevención de la violencia aportan datos probatorios acerca de dónde debe dirigirse la atención y dónde deben emprenderse iniciativas de prevención. Este artículo aboga por intervenciones comunitarias y nacionales integradas, a fin de crear vínculos de colaboración nacional y local, e instituir la legislación internacional de derechos humanos en los ámbitos nacional y local. Se debe alentar a los países que luchan contra la violencia a que adopten un marco integrado con miras a prevenir la violencia y reforzar la seguridad humana.