People’s mobility and quality of life and their participation in public life and in sustainable development processes greatly depend on the safety of public spaces. South Africa’s safety issues are one of the greatest obstacles to the country’s development. Against this backdrop, the governments of South Africa and Germany are jointly implementing the VCP Programme which enables and promotes collaborative safety approaches between governmental and non-governmental stakeholders at national, provincial and municipal level. A particular focus is placed on inclusive governance of safety at local level.
A lack of access to public services, a high rate of unemployment and a lack of prospects, particularly for young people, are factors conducive to violence in South Africa. As a result South Africa is still among the top ranks of international statistics on violence and crime, and a general lack of perceived and actual safety is commonly regarded as having a profound impact on the quality of life and opportunities for citizens to participate in public life and developmental processes. The problem is particularly pronounced in South Africa’s urban areas where the combination of factors such as extreme inequality, low levels of education, and high levels of heterogeneity in densely populated informal settlements are all associated with higher levels of crime and violence. Despite this, there is insufficient priority given at a national policy as well as municipal level to responding to and preventing violence and crime.
Through VCP’s collaboration with key government partners significant progress has been made in elevating the urban safety agenda in South Africa. For example, this topic has been embedded within South Africa’s new national urban policy, the Integrated Urban Development Framework, and a peer-to-peer learning platform established by the South African Cities Network actively promotes knowledge exchange between community safety managers from South Africa’s largest cities, and national government institutions. To demonstrate how community safety aspects can be mainstreamed in relevant government-wide programmes, VCP and partners have managed to integrate violence- and crime-prevention measures in the national government’s Community Work Programme (CWP). A joint project with the programme’s pilot municipalities is furthermore focusing on building skills within municipalities for community safety planning as part of Integrated Development Planning processes, linked to strengthening the functionality of Community Safety Forums.
The projects as well as several pilot youth initiatives of the programme have enabled thousands of young people to play an active role in the neighborhood violence prevention work.
VCP on GIZ worldwide
www.giz.de/en/worldwide/17705.html
SaferSpaces – Onlineportal for practitioners of Violence and Crime Prevention in South Africa
www.saferspaces.org.za
Published: 18/08/2016
Terence Smith
Programme Manager "Inclusive Violence and Crime Prevention" (VCP)
Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH
P.O.Box 13732 333 Grosvenor Street,
Hatfield Gardens Block E Hatfield 0028,
Pretoria/South Africa