Background

 The United Nations Human Settlements Programme , UN-HABITAT, is the United Nations agency for urban development. It is mandated by the UN General Assembly to promote socially and environmentally sustainable towns and cities and the achievement of adequate shelter for all. Under its Medium Term Strategic and Institutional Plan (MTSIP, 2008-2013), UN-HABITAT has the responsibility to improve knowledge management and reporting on urban development, shelter and poverty; to advocate norms for sustainable urbanization and urban poverty reduction; to create viable condition for technical cooperation in linking norms and campaign/programme goals; to establish innovative financing mechanism for urbanization and specific shelter needs of the urban poor; and finally to build strategic partnerships to leverage resources and coordinate international programme activities that work toward similar ends. For these reasons and based on the fact that sustainable urban development and  the improvement of the quality of life of urban poor cannot  be achieved without the enhancement of urban security, Safer Cities Programme is tasked with developing, promoting and building capacity of UN-HABITAT partners towards the advance of security within urban settlements, particularly in developing countries.The Programme is also increasingly interested to address forms of violence and conflict which are specifically related to urban development dynamics, and to urban management practices and needs. It also focus on situations of violence and illegality, which undermine particularly the poor, and related to access and management of services, access to land and housing, use of public, quasi public-private, and collective spaces, mobility, etc. Urbanization is an irreversible trend in most developing countries. It is posing huge challenges in terms of service delivery, provision of infrastructure and shelter, as well for the management of increasingly diverse and fragmented urban societies. The rule of law and prevention of conflict, violence and crime are key ingredients of sustainable urban development.

Objectives

To enhance the co-production of urban security through the facilitation of dialogue between the Police and other urban development actors, particularly decision makers and key stakeholders groups, including youth and women, to reduce social and situational factors of crime and violence.

Target Group

The main beneficiaries are national and local authorities in pilot countries, experts at the Regional Economic Commissions. Indirect target population of this project are women and youth groups through the establishment or strenghtening of collaboration mechanism between the Police and their groups