How to turn violent cities into engines of growth

Can violent cities deliver economic growth? That question is being discussed at a seminar hosted by the Institute for Security Studies (ISS), a pan-African organisation that undertakes policy orientated research aimed at promoting human security on the continent.

The focus of the seminar is on the lessons learned from two of South Africa’s largest and most economically active cities, Johannesburg and Cape Town over the past 21 years of democracy. Both cities have deployed dedicated strategies over the years to tackle crime and violence. While there has been progress since crime peaked in the early 2000s, safety challenges persist with increased murder rates being recorded over the past couple of years. There will also be a focus on comparative lessons from South America where some cities have experienced some of the worlds most notable declines in murder and other violent crime over the past decade or two.

“South Africa has a lot of experience in developing and implementing city level strategies aimed at tackling urban violence, and can provide valuable lessons for other African countries on this score” said ISS Managing Director, Anton du Plessis who is a member of the Global Agenda Council on Fragility, Violence and Conflict.

By 2050, the African population is forecast to double to approximately 2.4 billion people with a vast majority living in the sub-Sahara region. High population growth coupled with high economic growth rates will resulted in unprecedented numbers of Africans migrating to urban centres. In 35 years it is forecast that 60% of Africa’s population will be living in urban areas.

Cities will therefore increasingly play an important role in human development. It is for this reason that promoting city level resilience to violence has emerged as one of the two priority focus areas of the Global Agenda Council on Fragility, Violence and Conflict that was launched in 2014. The objective of this initiative is to improve understanding of, and raise awareness as to the connections between fragility, violence and conflict, and the role of public-private collaboration for addressing such challenges.

As the country’s most populous city, Johannesburg has been at the forefront of various initiatives to promote resilience and improve public safety. These include participation in large-scale international initiatives such as the UN Habitat Safer Cities initiative (1997 to 2000). More recently, the city developed a specific “Johannesburg City Safety Strategy” as part of its long term 2030 vision for the city. This strategy aims to promote geographically specific and multi-disciplinary solutions, evidence based problem solving and the establishment of strong multi-agency partnerships towards enhancing city resilience against violence. While murder has declined overall by 22% over the past decade, it has started to rise in the past two years.

Cape Town has also implemented a range of safety initiatives over the years. Since 2000, the city of Cape Town has implemented a public-private partnership called the City Centre Improvement District (CCID). However, while a notable decrease of murder was recorded between 2008 and 2010, it has started to increase over the past five years with 2013/14 recording its highest murder rate in the past decade.

Beyond building resilience, cities must work to respond to other drivers of fragility and stimulate continued investment. In addition to traditional government responses, various stakeholders must work together to assess key challenges, underscore opportunities and develop evidence-based strategies to respond to this growing threat.

The evidence base for informing building city resilience in Africa remains thin. Without more precise measurement and critical analysis, nearly any intervention can be labelled as “resilience building.” However, some constructive examples exist by drawing from, amongst others, the work conducted by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) through its “Safer and Resilient Communities” projects across the world.

The key objective will be to contribute practical policy considerations to the Global Agenda Council on Fragility, Violence and Conflict initiative on strengthening cities against urban violence. Furthermore, the seminar, which will be hosted in the week immediately prior to the African Union (AU) Summit, aims to highlight a key issue that African governments and regional economic communities should be concerned with as they look to achieving the goals of Agenda 2063.

Author: Gareth Newham, Head of the Governance, Crime and Justice Division, Institute for Security Studies

Image: A man walks in a passage at Jeppestown men’s hostel in Johannesburg May 19, 2015. REUTERS/Siphiwe Sibeko