World leaders committed in 2015 at the UN General Assembly to achieve measurable and significant reductions in interpersonal violence by 2030 in Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 16.1, 16.2 and 5.2. But leaders, their governments, and the world are not on track to realize these achievable objectives. Much more decisive action is needed now.
A panel of experts will focus on what these decisive actions – ¨accelerators¨ – must include. It will take place as ancillary event 179 on March 7 at the UN Congress on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice online in Kyoto. It will focus on the science and successes that show the objectives to be attainable. It will share perspectives from different parts of the world, including high and low violence regions. It will explain some of the excitement of impressive city networks that are committing to achieving the necessary transformations and successes.
The science, and keys to its successful implementation, show that a 50% reduction in interpersonal violence is achievable with a shift to using resources for prevention that tackles causes, instead of only, or primarily, the reactive status quo of police and incarceration. A 50% reduction would annually save 100,000s of lives, protect tens of millions of women from gender based and sexual violence, and stop hundreds of millions of children from being victims of violence. This would save trillions of dollars in loss and trauma and increase GDP by several percentage points, particularly in high violence countries.
The ancillary event is entitled ¨Successful Actions to Reduce Violent Crime by 50% by 2030 – SDG16¨. Experts from Africa, Canada, Europe, Latin America, and the US will discuss progress made, and accelerators, in getting cities and governments to reduce violence significantly. It focuses on reducing the number of victims. It will include reducing the victims of homicide (in 2017, 464,000 surpassing ¨by far the 89,000 killed in armed conflicts and the 26,000 fatal victims of terrorist violence¨ (UNODC 2019, p.12). but also reducing common street violence, gender based violence (25 million or more women raped), and violence against children (close to 1 billion under 18).
It will highlight examples of actions proven scientifically to have reduced violence as well as the all important keys identified in multiple UN contexts for the successful implementation of national and city strategies. It will also share the progress made by UN-Habitat and exciting new networks of cities to spread the word and get winning strategies implemented.
The UN Congress is expected to endorse the importance of multi-sectoral and evidence-based prevention as well as those that focus on gender-based violence and youth violence. But real action is needed, not just more affirmations of solid principles. The ancillary event is likely to call for a significant but affordable and popular shift from the status quo, if those strategies are to be implemented in time. The SDG targets are attainable but only with a transformation towards a smarter way of doing things. This will require governments and major investors, such as the World Bank and Regional Banks, to ¨accelerate¨ the over-due transformations. The World Bank knows what is at stake and the Interamerican Development Bank knows the cost effectivess of smart investments.
Panelists at the event will explain a number of ¨accelerators¨. Raising awareness among decision makers, practitioners and the public of prevention and what works is a first step, such as the famous German crime prevention congress. Promoting the importance of key processes to get prevention implemented locally and nationally is another to foster support and decision making, such as in the high violence zones of Latin America. Widespread training on planning, prevention practice, and safety monitoring tools will increase the readiness to implement proven solutions, particularly among city networks, such as in Canada.
Adequate and sustained investment in effective and cost-effective solutions will reduce the impact of violence on people and reduce the need for oppressive responses that are costly in human rights and financial costs. Pathfinders will increase the momentum. Such investment nationally, locally and internationally must be proportionate to the loss from violence today and the benefits of success. It is likely equivalent to ten per cent of the operations of reactive services such as police and incarceration.
The event will share guidelines agreed at ECOSOC and across the UN from WHO and UN Habitat to implement prevention successfully. It will highlight city success stories that show what can be achieved. It will look at investments in winning strategies that have been proven to reduce violence at 50% better than the status quo. These will include specific projects in youth and family services, schools, health care, employment and smarter use of policing. It will focus on making lives matter for racial, indigenous and other vulnerable groups.
Panelists will discuss their successes in getting ¨transformations¨ to what will achieve these SDGs particularly in the high violence cities in the Americas, Africa and indeed worldwide. They will focus on the hope provided by a growing group of networks of cities. But, achieving the SDGs and their benefits to GDP, requires much more than talk. The road to hell is full of good intentions.
It is time for decisive action now with real investments to get real transformations and real measurable results. The number of lives saved, women and children protected, and increased GDP deserve real attention now.
