World Bank Experience within Area of Gangs in Latin America and the Caribbean

Response to OAS Working Group Preparing a Regional Strategy to Promote Inter-American Cooperation in Dealing with Criminal Gangs

February 2010

  1. Overview of World Bank experience in the area of gangs in Latin America and the

Caribbean

In recent years, the World Bank’s Latin America and Caribbean Region has acquired significant experience within the area of youth and gang violence prevention, all of which could be utilized as input into the development of a Regional Strategy to promote Inter-American cooperation in dealing with criminal gangs. This experience can be divided into the following areas: (i) analytical work/research; (ii) project operations, and (iii) capacity building. Each of these areas will be described in more detail below:

Analytical Work/Research

1)The World Bank’s Latin America and Caribbean Region has carried out various rigorous studies on crime and violence in Latin America and Caribbean region, all of which haveincluded specific chapters on youth and gang violence prevention, these include:

  • “Caribbean Youth Development: Issues and Policy Directions” (2003)
  • “Crime, Violence, and Economic Development in Brazil” (2006)
  • “Youth at Risk in Brazil” (2007)
  • "Crime, Violence, and Development: Trends, Costs, and Policy Options in the Caribbean” (Chapter on Youth Violence: A Case Study of the Dominican Republic). (2007)
  • "Crime and Violence in Central America." (Chapter on Youth Violence and Gangs). To be published in 2010 - please do not cite or circulate).

The key policy recommendations to emerge from these studies include in terms of youth and gang violence prevention includes:

  • The need to design of integrated, comprehensive, holistic, and cross-sectoral youth violence/gang prevention strategies, carried out at simultaneously at the national and municipal level, that would combine both prevention (through human development programs) as well as control approaches (criminal justice);
  • Combine policies directed towards individualand community risk factors, but also strengthen with policies that try to modify structural conditions that can lead to the onset of criminal and violent behavior, such as quality and coverage of education, job/training opportunities, as well as judicial and police reform;
  • Link to the community in which the young person lives;
  • Respond directly to the risk and protective factors present in the young person’s life;
  • Be a joint effort between community assistance organizations and the police;
  • Incorporate the family of the young person being targeted, given that connectedness with the

family has been shown to be one of the strongest protective factors against youth violence; and

try to improve the socioeconomic situation of high-risk families.

  • Interventions must be evidence-based and efforts must also be made to learn from successful youth and gang violence interventions in the region, and if possible to rigorously evaluate these interventions to be able to assess their long-term impact, their impact on other sectors, as well as their cost-effectiveness.

*Links to all of the above studies are included in the main body of the email.

2)“School-Based Violence Prevention Toolkit” (to be published in 2010):

The World Bank has also designed a “School-Based Violence Prevention Toolkit,” with the purpose of providing schools and communities in Latin America and the Caribbean with information on how to plan, develop, implement, and evaluate violence prevention projectsin their schools and communities, and to ultimately design ‘safe schools,’ incorporating notonly youth violence and gang prevention, but also natural disasters, which equally affect poor and vulnerable communities in the region.

This Toolkit presents the concrete steps that schools and communities can take with varying investments of resources to prevent and reduce violence and to create safe schools. The Toolkit aims to help schools and communities identify and use their resources wisely, taking into account their unique circumstances and needs, and to form effective partnerships for action. The goal of this Toolkit is to offer schools and communities helpful—and above all, practical—advice and resources. This Toolkit brings together the most up to date information on best and promising practices, step-by-step approaches, and examples of international school and community violence prevention strategies.

The Toolkit includes five components:

  1. Manual: The Manual includes both a primer on violence prevention as well as a step by step methodology on how to create a school-based violence prevention strategy. To be used for training, advocacy and mobilizing on violence prevention for teachers and other school staff members, parents, students, community partners and others. To use as you lay the groundwork for violence prevention; carry out a safety assessment; and develop, manage, monitor and evaluate your violence prevention plan.
  2. Tools: This publication contains specific tools to assist in the implementation of the step-by-step process described above.
  3. Case Studies: This publication contains case studies from both inside and outside of Latin America and the Caribbean
  4. Safe School Spaces: Based on “Safe Urban Spaces”/Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED).
  5. Disaster Risk Management: Publication describing how to address disaster risk management in schools.

The School-Based Violence Prevention Toolkit is designed and targeted with the following audience in mind:

  • Members of the school community, including teachers and their representative organizations, students, staff, volunteers, parent groups, coaches, caretakers, and school-based health and social workers.
  • Community leaders, local residents, local providers, and members of organized groups interested in improving education, safety, and well-being in the school and community.
  • Members of nongovernmental agencies and institutions responsible for planning and implementing the interventions described in this document, including program staff and consultants of international education and development agencies who are interested in working with schools to promote safety.
  • Governmental policy-makers and decision-makers, and program planners and coordinators at local, district (provincial), and national levels.

Project Operations

The Bank’s operational experience in the area of youth and gang violence prevention has been primarily through its integration and mainstreaming intourban/slum upgrading, as well as intocommunity-driven development (CDD) projects.

Below is a brief description of three Bank-financed urban/slum upgrading projects currently under implementation in Latin America (Honduras, Jamaica, and Brazil) that include a crime and violence prevention component (including youth and gang violence prevention), as well as of the urban community-driven development project (Haiti).

*Links to all of the Project Appraisal Documents (PADs), with their respective monitoring & evaluation frameworks, are included in the main body of the email.

Honduras Barrio Ciudad Project (US$15 million): The Honduras Barrio Ciudad Project is an urban/slum upgrading project that includes an urban crime and violence prevention component (US$1.0 million), which seeks to take advantage of the project's social infrastructure investments and two-tier intervention (municipal and neighborhood) - to develop public works and prevention strategies that enhance community security and integration. This component does not intend to solve the country's crime and violence problems; rather, it seeks to mainstream prevention into the overall project through improved physical living conditions, community participation, and community program support. The urban crime and violence prevention component of the project focuses specifically on the reduction of homicide, youth violence, and associated risk factors in the most critical neighborhoods within the participating municipalities. The project adopts this municipal urban renewal approach with a preventive, multi-sectoral and local strategythrough activities that go beyond traditional police responses, but are complementary and coordinated. Particularly important are the synergies between the infrastructure, neighborhood upgrading, and the situational prevention and community-based social prevention activities. This component includes three subcomponents:

  • Situational prevention:measures that reduce opportunities for particular crime and violence problems through spatial interventions such as Crime Prevention through Environmental Design (CPTED). This method is mainstreamed in all the infrastructure works and neighborhood upgrading in the project through the training of the architects, engineers, urban planners and other technical staff in FHIS (social investment fund – implementing agency) and theparticipating municipalities.
  • Capacity-building, training and technical assistance in multi-sectoral crime and violence prevention (excluding police activities) to the participating government agencies, municipalities and community councils. The training and technical assistance includes the following themes: crime and violence diagnostics, community-based diagnostics, mapping and information systems; planning methodology, local crime and violence prevention partnerships, and the design of prevention strategies; situationalprevention (CPTED); preventing youth and intra-family violence; community problem solving; and, monitoring and evaluation.
  • Complementary investments and activities (excluding police activities): Includes a separate allocation of grant funds for urban crime and violence prevention. For the 11 municipalities in the project universe with the highest levels of crime and violence", an additional neighborhood selection criterion is added under the grant window so that the neighborhood selected for upgrading also presents critical problems of crime and violence. These critical neighborhoods will receive additional technical assistance and grant funds for complementary infrastructure and community safety programs. The supplemental crime and violence prevention grants will be US$lOO,OOO per critical neighborhood; the neighborhood residents will work with the local government to develop a plan for crime and violence prevention (as part of the neighborhood upgrading plan, so as not to duplicate planning processes) and use the grant funds to implement the prioritized subprojects and community programs. Supplementary grant funds for crime and violence prevention will be assigned on a first-come, first-served basis to critical urban neighborhoods participating in the project.

Jamaica Inner City Basic Services for the Poor (ICBSP) Project (US$30 million). The Jamaica ICBSP Project is an urban/slum upgrading project that includes a Public Safety Component (US$3.9 million), which aims to enhance public safety in project communities by financing integrated packages of consultant services, training and technical assistance focused on both short-term mitigation and conflictresolution, as well as medium-term social prevention and capacity enhancement interventions. Specifically, thecomponent finances the delivery of violence prevention services in five core social prevention areas, including: (i) mediation and conflict resolution; (ii)alternative livelihoods and skills development; (iii) family support programs; (iv) youth education and recreation; and (v) CBO capacity building. Each of the five social prevention activity areas are described in more detail below:

  • Mediation and Conflict Resolution: The component finances technical assistance services thatinitiate and manage mediation initiatives in communities that experience chronic or periodic gang conflictor intra-community feuding. It supports tested mediation and conflict management interventionscurrently being implemented in Jamaica to broker ceasefires and build confidence between rival gangfactions such as actions to:establish a community code of conduct;form and supervise conflict mediation groups;conduct peace-building meetings with inter-community groups;obtain signed peace agreements between local area gangs in all relevant communities;train and certify community residents as mediators to resolve interpersonal conflicts;conduct conflict resolution and anger management sessions with each community(individually and collectively); and train and build capacity in mediation, dispute resolution, and intra-personal conflictmanagement at the community level.
  • Alternative Livelihoods and Skills Development: Finances technical assistanceservices that respond to high levels of youth unemployment and of dropping out of the formal educationsystem, as well as limited access to vocational skills development and apprenticing opportunities, asnoted during the public safety audits of ICBSP communities. Specifically, this sub-component finances:vocational training (carpentry, cosmetology, service industry, information technology,etc); job skills development (basic literacy, personal presentation, etc.); and related job placement programs.
  • Family Support Programs: This sub-component finances technical assistance services that respond tothe needs of children, youth, and heads of household from the most vulnerable segments of ICBSPcommunities - with a particular focus on single-parent households. In particular, this sub-component provides access to:life skills programs;good parenting programs;family mediation services;reproductive health services; and interventions that address gender-based, sexual, and domestic violence;drug abuse and alcoholism prevention and rehabilitation;early childhood development and education and daycare services.
  • Youth Education and Recreation: This sub-component finances technical assistance services that deliver demand-driven and tested youth and adolescent educational and recreational programs through thecommunity centers and other community locations. Specific interventions may include:after-school homework programs;summer camps;community libraries; computer skills training;guidance counseling;sports programs and competitions; andcultural programs such as in music, arts, and theater.
  • Community Capacity Building and Public Awareness: This sub-component finances a series ofcapacity-building activities for community-based organizations in project areas. Technical assistanceservices for CBO capacity-building includes training in:the objectives, goals and mechanisms of social participation;financial management skills;fundraising;community-based contracting;community-based crime and violence prevention;situational crime and violence prevention;monitoring and evaluation; andtraining to perform routine operation and maintenance of basic infrastructure.Additionally, this sub-component finances a series of social marketing and public awareness campaignsaimed at improving awareness o f the importance o f sustainable use and management of public servicesand infrastructure, informing community residents on project activities and fostering participation andcooperation.
  • Lastly, this component supports the mobilization of community liaison officers (CLOs) assigned fulltimeto each ICBSP community for the duration of the project. CLOs staff the Community Centersand have expertise in community organization, basic infrastructure, and crime and violenceprevention. Specifically they:lead community consultations;monitor the incidence of crime and violence in project areas;update community safety plans and strategies;coordinate the provision o f technical assistance through external agencies;coordinate project activities with relevant agencies and associations active in thecommunity including public schools, health clinics, social programs, CommunityDevelopment Councils and relevant security agencies;facilitate the work of contractors of the infrastructure works to ensure integration ofCrime Prevention through Environmental Design (CPTED) principles;identify and work closely with youth at-risk in the community;organize and mobilize the community members around public safety campaigns; andfacilitate the implementation o f additional social programs in the Community Centerssuch as summer camps for at-risk youth, etc.

Brazil “Viver Melhor II” Project: The World Bank is operationalizing local crime and violence prevention in Brazil through the development of a specific project component in the Viver Melhor II Project in Bahia (an urban/slum upgrading project). The component seeks to take advantage of the infrastructure and social investments taking place and mainstream prevention at the local level into the overall project. The component focuses specifically on the reduction of the very high levels of homicide, youth violence, and associated risk factors in the participating neighborhoods. The component adopts a municipal/urban renewal approach with a preventive, multi-sectoral, and local strategy through activities that are complementary to, coordinated with, but go beyond traditional police responses. Particularly important are the synergies between the infrastructure, upgrading, and the ‘situational prevention’ and the community-based ‘social prevention’ activities. The overall objective is a comprehensive intervention at the neighborhood level that is also closely coordinated with other relevant municipal, government, and non-governmental programs addressing crime and violence and their associated risk factors in these neighborhoods. The component includes six sub-components:

  • Diagnostics: Crime and violence mapping of the micro areas using police statistics and where possible using GIS systems; victimization section in the baseline surveys; willingness to pay for increased safety; and community-based and situational diagnostics;
  • Situational prevention: measures that reduce opportunities for particular crime and violence problems through spatial interventions such as Crime Prevention through Environmental Design (CPTED) methodology and urban renewal. This method is mainstreamed in the infrastructure works of the projects through the training of the architects, engineers, and other technical staff.
  • Capacity-building, training, and technical assistance in multi-sectoral crime and violence prevention to the participating government agencies, municipalities, and CBOs.
  • Complementary investments and activities: Neighborhood residents work with partner agencies and the technical staff of the project to develop a plan for crime and violence prevention and use these funds to implement the prioritized subprojects and community programs that are not already covered by one of the other investments – such as recreation centers, community facilities, and public lighting not financed through the infrastructure work components; and social prevention activities – such as life skills, job skills, and parenting skills training, conflict resolution training, homework clubs, sports and arts-based recreational activities, victim support, and domestic violence prevention.
  • Community organizers: The role of these technical experts in community organization and crime and violence prevention is – at the neighborhood level – to: carry out community-based diagnostics; formulated participatory community safety plans and strategies; liaise and coordinate with other relevant agencies and associations, in particular with Community Safety Councils and the Police; coordinate closely with the work to ensure integration of CPTED principles; identify and work with youth at risk in the community; organize and mobilize the community around the concept of safety through community campaigns (e.g. community clean up, painting days, community safety festival, etc.), initiate additional projects such as summer camp for at-risk youth, etc.
  • Monitoring and evaluation component: Evaluations of the subcomponents have been designed and will be carried out.

Haiti PRODEPUR (Projet de Developpement Communataire Participatif en Milieu Urbain/Urban Community-Driven Development Project): Although PRODEPUR is not explicitly an urban violence prevention/youth and gang violence prevention project, the community-driven development (CDD) approach was selected for an urban development project in Haiti based on its potential in the following areas: i) CDD can contribute to service delivery and infrastructure needs; ii) CDD can promote social cohesion, thereby increasing the likelihood that crime and violence will be reduced; iii) CDD can foster and build capacity among existing and legitimate community-based organizations; iv) CDD can serve as an entry-point for community-based public safety and security initiatives; and v) CDD can serve as an entry point for strengthening of local government. Specifically, PRODEPUR, which is being implemented in five urban municipalities within Haiti, has the primary objective of improving access to, and satisfaction with (i) basic and social infrastructure and services, and (ii) income-generating opportunities for residents of targeted poor urban areas. This objective will be achieved through a participatory process in which community-based organizations propose, select, implement, and maintain subprojects within their communities.