Neighbourhood Peacekeeping: The Inter-American Development Bank's Violence Reduction Programs in Colombia and Uruguay

Abstract

The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) incorporated, nearly a decade ago, violence prevention in its lending portfolio. Since the first citizen security project loan was approved, the IDB has accumulated valuable experience on the design and implementation of violence prevention operations, placing the Bank at the forefront of this type of lending in the region. To date, the IDB has financed more than US$150 million for six citizen security loans, technical cooperation projects, and international seminars and meetings. In addition, several other citizen security projects are in advanced stages of design. This report overviews the Bank's work in this area, analysing, based on available data from completed projects, what works and the challenges that remain in reducing and preventing crime and violence. For example, Colombia (Bogotá) and Uruguay have completed their operations with success in the areas of community policing, institutional strengthening, community mediation units, domestic and youth violence prevention, and social awareness campaigns. This report also presents recommendations to maximise benefits and increase the effectiveness of the interventions in future project loans. Despite the accomplishments in this area, it is important to emphasise that crime and violence prevention is not a ‘one shot deal’ but a process that ought to be sustained over time and governments in the region must fully commit to combat it.

Notes

 1. The opinions expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official position of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB). The authors wish to acknowledge the contributions made by Tracy Betts, Hugo Davrieux, Rafael Hernandez, Beatriz López, Andrew Morrison, Maria Teresa Traverso, Ana Lucia Muñoz, and Juana Salazar to this article, and to helping shape the Bank's violence prevention program.

 2. Nicole Ball, ‘Transforming Security Sectors: the IMF and World Bank Approaches’, Conflict, Security and Development 1/1 (2001) pp.45–66.

 3. Founded in 1959, the IDB is the oldest and largest regional development bank in the world and the primary source of multilateral funding in Latin America and the Caribbean. The IDB's mandate is to promote economic and social development in the region.

 4. Mayra Buvinić and Andrew Morrison, ‘Living in a more violent world’, Foreign Policy 118 (2000) pp.58–72.

 5. Andrew Morrison and María Loreto Biehl (eds.), Too Close to Home: Domestic Violence in the Americas (Washington DC: Inter-American Development Bank and Johns Hopkins UP 1999).

 6. Soledad Larrain, Jeannette Vega and Iris Delgado, Re Latín Americaiones Familiares y Maltrato Infantil (Santiago, Chile: UNICEF 1997).

 7. Mayra Buvinić, Andrew Morrison and Michael Shifter, Violence in the Americas: A Framework for Action, Technical Study (Washington DC: IDB 1999).

 8. The Report of the United Nations (UN) Secretary General's High Level Panel on Threats, Challenges and Change backed up this assertion. See UN High Level Panel on Threats, Challenges and Change, A More Secure World: Our Shared Responsibility (NY: UN 2004) para. 44.

 9. In Chile, children who stated that they had been seriously abused performed considerably poorer in school than did children who reported never being victims of physical abuse. See Larrain et al. (note 6); Buvinić and Morrison (note 4); Pablo Fajnzylber, What Causes Crime and Violence? (Washington DC: World Bank 1997).

10. K. E. Leonard, ‘Drinking Patterns and Intoxication in Marital Violence: Review, Critique and Future Directions in Research’, in S.E. Martin (eds.), Alcohol and Interpersonal Violence: Fostering Multidisciplinary Perspectives (Washington DC: US Dept. of Health and Human Services 1992).

11. Buvinić, Morrison and Shifter (note 7); UN High Level Panel on Threats, Challenges and Change (note 8) para. 45.

12. Andrew Morrison and María Beatriz Orlando, ‘Social and Economic Costs of Domestic Violence: Chile and Nicaragua’ in Morrison and Biehl (note 5).

13. Buvinić, Morrison, and Shifter (note 11).

14. Londoño, Juan Luis and Rodrigo Guerrero. 1999. Violencia en América Latina: Epidemiología y costos. Research Network Working Papers R-375. Washington, D.C.: Inter-American Development Bank.

15. The Disability Adjusted Life Year measures the burden of disease, and reflects the full amount of healthy life lost, to all causes, whether from premature mortality or from some degree of disability during a period of time. DALY is composite of five variables, which include: (1) years of life lost to premature mortality, (2) degrees of incapacity associated with different conditions, (3) age weights, (5) time reference (e.g. discount rates) and (5) the idea of adding health across individuals. < www.who.int/mental_health/management/depression/daly/en/>.

16. Andre Medici, ‘Diagnóstico de la Situación de Salud en América Latina’, unpublished manuscript, Washington DC: Inter-American Development Bank 2005.

17. Mayra Buvinić, and Andrew Morrison, Economic and Social Consequences of Violence, Technical Note 4, Technical Notes: Violence Prevention (Washington DC: Inter-American Development Bank 1999).

18. Fundación Paz Ciudadana (Santiago, Chile 1999) quoted in Buvinić and Morrison, Economic and Social Consequences of Violence p.5.

19. Felicia Knaul and Miguel Ángel Ramírez, Family Violence and Child Abuse in Latin America and the Caribbean: The Cases of Colombia and Mexico, Social Development Division Technical Paper (Washington DC: Inter-American Development Bank 2005).

20. P.G. Jaffe, D.A. Wolfe, A. Telford and G. Austin, ‘The Impact of Policy Changes on Wife Abuse’, Journal of Family Violence 1/1 (March 1986) pp.37–49; G.W. Holden, and K.L. Richie, ‘Linking Extreme Marital Discord, Child Rearing, and Child Behavior Problems: Evidence from Battered Women’, Child Development 62/2 (1991) pp.311–27; J.D. Coie, ‘Toward a Theory of Peer Rejection’ in S.R. Asher and J.D. Coie (eds.), Peer Rejection in Childhood (NY: Cambridge UP 1990) pp.365–401.

21. Anthony Bottoms, ‘Crime Prevention Facing the 1990s’, Policing and Society 1 (1990) pp.3–22.

22. Laura Chinchilla and Jose Maria Rico, La Prevención Comunitaria del Delito: Perspectivas para América Latina (Miami: Center for the Administration of Justice, Florida Int. Univ. 1997).

23. Rachel Neild, The Role of the Police in Violence Prevention, Technical Notes on Violence Prevention No.9 (Washington DC: IDB 1999) p.2.

24. IDB, Guidelines for the Design of Violence Reduction Projects, Sustainable Development Department Best Practices Series, No. SOC 135 (Washington DC: IDB 2003) < www.iadb.org/sds/doc/SOC%2D135%2De.pdf>.

25. These restrictions are set out in a memorandum from the Legal Department, ‘Limits on the Activities Which May Be Funded with IDB Resources’ in accordance with the Bank's Charter 9 April 1998. Quoted in IDB (note 24) p.4.

26. Peter W. Greenwood, Karyn E. Model, Peter Rydell and James R. Chiesa, Diverting Children from a Life of Crime: Measuring Costs and Benefits (Santa Monica, CA: RAND 1998) < www.rand.org/publications/MR/MR699/index.html>.

27. IDB (note 24).

28. Operations in Chile ($10 million), Honduras ($22 million) and Jamaica ($16 million) are in the early stages of execution; a loan for Nicaragua ($7.0 million) has recently been approved, and a Guatemala citizen security project ($27 million) is in the approval stage. Projects in Guyana, Peru, and Trinidad and Tobago are in different stages of preparation and the Bank is identifying additional possible citizen security programs in Brazil, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Panama, and Venezuela (data correct as of Feb. 2006).

29. Authors’ calculation based on Latinobarometer data.

30. All citizen security operations incorporate the development of information, monitoring and evaluation systems. In the Colombia and Uruguay loans, a separate component solely financed this activity.

31. Ana María Sanjuán, ‘Situación de los Cuerpos Policiales en Latinoamérica’, unpublished manuscript, Washington DC: IDB 2004. Copy with author.

32. Paul Chevigny, Edge of the Knife: Police Violence in the Americas (NY: The New Press 1995); Rachel Neild, ‘Confronting a Culture of Impunity’ in Andrew Goldsmith and Colleen Lewis (eds.), Civilian Oversight of Policing (Oxford: Hart 2000).

33. John Bailey and Lucia Dammert, ‘Public Security and Police Reform in the Americas: Introduction and Overview’, in idem (eds.), Public Security and Police Reform in the Americas (Univ. of Pittsburgh Press 2005).

34. IDB (note 24) p.14.

35. Some of the key characteristics of community policing include community crime prevention; patrol deployment for non-emergency interaction with the community; active police solicitation of public service requests; and the provision of opportunities for community feedback regarding police performance. See Rachel Neild, ‘Community Policing’ in Themes and Debates in Public Security Reform: A Guide for Civil Society (Washington DC: Washington Office on Latin America 1998) p.7.

36. The Bank is starting to incorporate internal and external accountability mechanisms in the design of new operations in Guyana, Peru and Trinidad and Tobago.

37. $4 million was allocated for the project in Colombia and $1.03 for Uruguay.

38. María Victoria Llorente and Angela Rivas, ‘La Caída del Crimen en Bogotá’, unpublished manuscript, Bogotá, Colombia 2004. Copy with author.

39. For further information on COMPSTAT see Dennis C. Smith and William J. Bratton, ‘Performance management in New York City: COMPSTAT and the Revolution in Police Management’ in Dall Forsythe (eds.), Quicker, Better, Cheaper? Managing Performance in American Government (Albany, NY: Rockefeller Institute Press 2001).

40. Hugo Davrieux, ‘Program for Citizen Safety: Crime and Violence Prevention’, unpublished Project Completion Report Memorandum, Uruguay, 2004. Copy with author.

41. Mayra Buvinić and Andrew Morrison, Causes of Violence, Technical Notes: Violence Prevention, No.3 (Washington DC: IDB 1999).

42. Maria Lereto Biehl with Carla Ortiz, Destic Violence Against Women, Technical Notes: Violence Prevention, No. 7. (Washington DC: IDB 1999).

43. Jaffe et al. (note 20).

44. Greenwood et al. (note 26).

45. Centro de Proyectos para el Desarrollo (Cendex), ‘Estudio de Impacto de las UMC desde l a perspectiva de los actores de convivencia’, Documento Técnico AGDT/1038-03, unpublished manuscript, Bogotá, Colombia, 2003; Cendex, ‘Conflictividad e Impacto de las UMC’, Documento Técnico AGDT/1045-03, Bogotá, Colombia, unpublished manuscript; Cendex, ‘Estudio de Impacto de las UMC desde la perspectiva de los actores locales’, Documento Técnico AGDT/ 1036-03. Bogotá, Colombia, unpublished manuscript; Cendex, ‘Componente Fortalecimiento Ciudadano. Categoría Inversión Jóvenes en Riesgo y Resocialización’, Documento Técnico AGDT/ 1096-03. Bogotá, Colombia, unpublished manuscript; Cendex, ‘Componente Fortalecimiento Ciudadano. Categoría Inversión Comunicación para la Convivencia. Resultado Final de la Evaluación de las Campañas.’ Documento Técnico AGDT/1092-03, Bogotá, Colombia, unpublished manuscript; Cendex, ‘Impacto de las Unidades de Mediación y Conciliación en la transformación de Actitudes y Comportamientos frente al abordaje del Conflicto’, Documento Técnico AGDT/ 1084-03, Bogotá, Colombia, unpublished manuscript; Cendex, ‘Evaluación de los cambios propiciados en las conductas y actitudes de los usuarios de las Comisarías de Familia de Bogotá en la solución de sus conflictos intra-familiares’, Documento Técnico AGDT/ 1115-04, Bogotá, Colombia, unpublished manuscript. Copies of all documents with author.

46. Llorente and Rivas (note 38).

47. Cendex AGDT/1045-03 (note 45).

48. $75,000 and $70,000 were allocated to these activities, respectively.

49. $953,000 was allotted to this activity.

50. Davrieux (note 40).

51. 50 Davrieux (note 40)

52. 50 Davrieux (note 40)

53. Peter Witt and John Crompton, Recreation programs that work for at-risk youth: The challenge of shaping the future (State College, PA: Venture Publishing 1996).

54. Maria Loreto Biehl, Youth Violence Prevention, Technical Notes: Violence Prevention, No.10 (Washington DC: IDB 1999).

55. Davrieux (note 40).

56. Ana Lucía Muñoz, notes from audio conference interview at the IADB, Jan. 2005.

57. Cendex AGDT/1038-03 (note 45).

58. Cendex (please see documents in note 45)

59. Cendex (please see documents in note 45)

60. Cendex AGDT/ 1084-03 (note 45).

61. Davrieux (note 40).

62. Muñoz (note 56).

63. Cendex AGDT/1092-03 (note 45).

64. Carlos Bastón, ‘Programa de Seguridad Ciudadana: Prevención de la Violencia en Uruguay’ (Washington DC 2004) unpublished manuscript, copy with author.

65. Davrieux (note 40).

66. The percentage of funds allocated for this component was four and nine percent of the total loans for Colombia and Uruguay respectively.

67. Greenwood et al. (note 26).

68. Bastón (note 64).

69. Davrieux (note 40).