Security Sector Reform and Citizen Security: Experiences from Urban Latin America in Global Perspective

While widely considered a core pillar of the peace and security architecture, Security Sector Reform (SSR) is coming under fire. SSR theory and practice are criticized for being overly focused on traditional conflict and post-conflict settings and for being unable to adjust to unconventional settings marked by chronic crime and terrorism. SSR tends to be disproportionately focused on national institutions and less amenable to engaging at the subnational scale. Drawing on the experiences of so-called 'citizen security' measures in cities across Latin America and the Caribbean, this paper offers some opportunities for renewing and revitalizing SSR. The emphasis of citizen security interventions on multiple forms of insecurity, data-driven and evidence-informed prevention, the promotion of social cohesion and efficacy and designing crime prevention into the social and built environment are all insights that can positively reinforce comprehensive SSR measures in the 21st century.

SSR Papers provide innovative and provocative analysis on the challenges of security sector governance and reform. Combining theoretical insight with detailed empirically-driven explorations of state-of-the-art themes, SSR Papers bridge conceptual and pragmatic concerns. The series is authored, edited, and peer reviewed by SSR experts, and run in collaboration with the Geneva Centre for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces (DCAF). Through in-depth discussions of governance-driven reform SSR Papers address the overlapping interests of researchers, policymakers and practitioners in the fields of development, peace, and security.

Robert Muggah is a specialist in security, migration, and cities. In 2011 he co-founded the Igarapé Institute - a think and do tank working on data-driven safety and justice across Latin America and Africa. He also co-founded the SecDev Foundation and Group in 2008. For two decades he has advised national and municipal governments, the United Nations, World Bank and tech companies on issues ranging from arms control and crime prevention to urban planning and smart cities. He has worked extensively with DPKO, DPA, IOM, PBSO, UNDP, UNHCR and other agencies on related issues. Robert is a fellow or faculty at the University of Oxford, the University of San Diego, University of British Columbia, the Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro, the Graduate Institute Switzerland and Singularity University in San Francisco. Robert has published eight books and hundreds of policy and peer-reviewed articles including Impact: Maps to Navigate Our Past and Future (with Ian Goldin, forthcoming with Penguin/Random House in 2020), Stability Operations, Security and Development (New York: Routledge, 2013) and Security and Post-Conflict Reconstruction: Dealing with Fighters in the Aftermath of War (New York: Routledge, 2009). Robert received his Dphil from the University of Oxford and his MPhil from the University of Sussex.

John de Boer is the Managing Director of the SecDev Group, a strategic research advisory firm that works at the nexus of technology and social change. John has worked with the Canadian government, UN and a variety of think tanks and universities. He has advised numerous organizations and governments and has served as an expert for the UK Government's Expert Panel on Illicit Financial Flows, the International Federation of the Red Cross' World Disasters' Report 2016, the OECD's States of Fragility Report 2016. He was also an adviser to the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, UN Department of Political and Peacekeeping Affairs, the UN Office of Counter Terrorism, UN-Habitat, the UN World Humanitarian Summit, the OECD and the World Bank. John has a Ph.D. from the University of Tokyo. He is author of dozens of peer-reviewed articles and books including Reducing Urban Violence in the Global South: Towards Safe and Inclusive Cities (Routledge, 2019) and Safer Cities in the Global South: Engaging Social Theories of Urban Violence (Routledge, 2018)