What International Aid Agencies Can Do About Urban Violence

http://www.theatlanticcities.com/neighborhoods/2013/10/why-international-aid-agencies-are-starting-focus-urban-violence/7070/

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Medellín, Colombia
southamericatravel.com

In my continued effort to get through the backlog of articles in my dropbox folder, I pulled out an interesting article from The Atlantic Cities (http://theatlanticcities.com) about international aid agencies turning their attention toward urban violence.  In her article, "Why International Aid Agencies Are Starting to Focus on Urban Violence," Jordana Timerman looks at the city of Medillín, Colombia, which won the 2013 "Innovative City of the Year" award and is also on the cutting edge of a troublesome trend: an epidemic of urban violence that's turning cities into war zones.  A study released in September by a Brazilian think tank determined that the level of violence in the the second largest of Colombia is equal in intensity to that of traditional armed conflict, despite lacking the organizational infrastructure to qualify it for this designation.  All this sounds contradictory, let's examine why this is so.

Medillín neighborhood
everthenomad.com

 Medillín is hardly alone in this dubious distinction.  While, traditional conflicted-related deaths are falling around the world, urban violence is on the rise,  For example, in 2011, there were approximately 55,000 combat-related deaths globally, compared to 471,000 homicides outside of defined war zones.  The World Bank estimates that one out of four people around the world are affected by violence, and experts are sounding alarms about non-combat violence in cities in Latin America, the Caribbean, Central and South America.  Africa accounts for 37% of the world's homicides, the homicide rate in the America is more than double the world average of 6.9 per 100,000.  Latin American and Caribbean cities are particularly leading the rankings of homicides.  (Ms. Timerman notes one caveat: obtaining reliable data for cities in this region is often impossible).  In 2012, urban violence claimed the lives of almost 38,000 people, and forced thousands more to evacuate their homes, effectively making them refugees in their own country.  The World Bank calculated that a major spasm of urban violence can wipe out a generation of economic progress.

Medillín  slum
flickr.com

 These nebulous zones of urban conflict are slowly attracting the attention of the international community.  Robert Muggah, research director of the Brazilian Igarapé Institute and the coordinator of the HASOW project (http://www.hasow.org), which commissioned the report cited by Ms. Timerman, refers to the city as a "canary in the mine" for the larger urban violence.  Cities like Medillín could be a "prelude to new forms of organized violence," while being on the cutting edge of rapid urban globalization says Mr. Muggah.  Almost 80% of Latin America's population live in urban areas.  Mr. Muggah continues, "We've already passed the big moment of that massive shift of population.  And it happened very quickly, it happened in some cases, in an unregulated way.  It has generated all sorts of contradiction as city authorities have struggled to try to manage that massive transition.  And across Latin America, almost without exception, cities present much higher rates of homicidal and organized violence than virtually anywhere else on the planet."

Medillín neighborhood II
medillíntraveler.com

This conundrum has important implications for the international communities, including federal and local governments. HASOW is concentrating on what the changing face of violence looks like to humanitarian agencies such as the International Committee of the Red Cross, who in 2012, launched a new program in Medillín to curb violence in places that's different from defined combat zones where it's normally found. Medillín is not exactly the most violent city in the region, it has several variables that make it a good place to being examining these trends.  The city has a long history of violence, as does the rest of Colombia.  International aid agencies have a history of working in the country.  Medillín, which won an Urban Design award from Harvard, also has  very entrenched municipal and national institutions.  The later, in particular, is a key difference between the traditional and the grey war zones.

Plazuela San Ignacio
common.wikimedia.org

The intensity of violence in Medillín could come as a surprise to outsiders.  In the nineties, the city had a reputation of being one of the most notoriously violent cities in the world, under the control of Pablo Escobar's Medillín Cartel.  During this period, the homicide rate was a shocking 444 per 100,000.  Presently, the city is considered a major success story: in 2007 the homicide rate was 28 per 100,000.  About the same time, the municipal government began to implement initiatives under the umbrella of "social urbanism."  This was a series of programs that targeted the poorest neighborhoods with infrastructural investment and social program with a participatory element.  The results have garnered praise and include an architectural noteworthy library, kindergarten and school facilities, escalator and cable car lines for vertically isolated shanty towns and social outreach programs.

Skate borders
radcollector.com

However, between 2008 and 2011, the city's homicide rate more than doubled, and in some of the poorest districts of the city, that number was even worse.  One example, 2010, nearly 6,000 people were classified as internal refugees, displaced into the countryside because of urban violence, while another 5,000 moved into the city for the same reason.  It's more difficult to find accurate statistics on sexual violence, also a mechanism for territorial control or retaliation by armed groups in Medillín known as combos.  In 2011, there nearly 1,350 reports of sexual violence in Medillín, with hundreds of cases in the most violent neighborhoods.  Forced disappearances are also underreported, however official statistics cite at least 50 in 2011.  The HASOW study connects this increase in violence to the extradition of a Medillín paramilitary leader, which shift the balance of power between the city's numerous combos into flux.  At any given point in time, according to the study, there are about 300 combos in the city that can operate within a shifting larger organizational structure.

Medillín at night
adventurejo.com

"The problem with Medillín right now is the sheer number of armed groups," says Robert Muggah.  "The groups are very dynamic.  This creates a very difficult challenge:  What is the best approach to dealing with different groups, different levels of violence?"  Agencies such as the ICRC believe that urban violence trend in cities such as Medillín will increase in rapidly urbanizing countries in the future.  Thus they are developing strategies and coordinating with local authorities.  As the nature of conflict changes, the development of strategies may be of increasing in humanitarian aide.  Both the ICRC and Médecin San Frontières (Doctors Without Borders) are working in different cities around the region, and earlier in 2013, the European Commission's humanitarian aid arm approved two million euros in funding for violence effected slums in Central America and Mexico.

The danger these agencies and experts warn is, "mission creep," operating outside of international humanitarian laws, which governs war zones.  Further, national governments are worried about issues of sovereignty and extraterritoriality.  Nevertheless, the ICRC notes that many mayors already use the terminology of armed conflict when they speak of what's happening in their cities.  Further, the ICRC is looking at the idea that aid agencies can function as neutral parties in these settings, allowing them to work with the participants.  Mr. Muggah agrees that "their very presence can send a strong message."  However, he cautions that aid agencies must adapt to the institutional setting they find themselves: recognizing the public, private, and civil social actors that already work in the areas and empower rather than substitute for them.  Sage advice.  "They almost serve as intermediaries that can support, through influence and persuasion and some technical expertise, the direction of aid efforts, as opposed to actually carrying it out."  Aid agencies need to learn to lead from behind

Please show some love for Tower Records on Sunset Boulevard.  Time is running out for the Tower Records building on the Sunset Strip  A West Hollywood City Council meeting is back on Monday November 18, 2013 at 6:30 p.m.  Yours truly will be making an appearance and speaking on behalf the iconic record store.  Please go to http://www.change.org and sign the online petition.  Also email Council Member Stephanie Reich at sreich@weho.org to let her know why this building should not be demolished to make way for another high-end mixed used development.


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