Regional focus: Latin America, Colombia and Africa, South Africa
Time: June 2025-April 2026
Abstract:
This collaborative project brings together partners from Colombia, South Africa, and the United Kingdom, alongside local institutions leading violence reduction strategies in Medellín and Cape Town, and young residents from communities affected by poverty and criminality. The goal is to generate youth-centred evidence and actionable knowledge on how to improve security in cities in ways that respect young people’s rights and address the interconnected factors that make them vulnerable to violence and criminal groups. Using participatory research, the project engages young people to co-produce knowledge and meaningful pathways to develop inclusive design, implementation, and monitoring of local security strategies that align with democratic principles and extent their life chances. By engaging with local institutions and supporting the inclusion of young people’s voices and perspectives in public debates on urban security the project seeks to improve youth participation on local-level policymaking and local government’s accountability and responsiveness to young citizen’s needs.
Research questions:
- What are the context-specific mechanisms and processes that make young people vulnerable to violence and the influence of criminal groups?
- What impact do existing strategies have on young people’s rights and on the factors that make them vulnerable to violence and criminality?
- What measures can reduce youth vulnerability while simultaneously protecting youth rights and wellbeing?
- What indicators for the assessment and monitoring of security policies and violence prevention programmes are important from the perspective of young people and how can these indicators make local institutions more accountable to young citizen’s needs?
Researchers:
- Alexandra Abello Colak. UK Co-investigator. London School of Economics and Political Science
- Gareth A. Jones. Principal Investigator (PI). London School of Economics and Political Science
- Julián Muñoz. Co-researcher. Universidad de Antioquia, Colombia.
- Natalia Maya. Local researcher. Universidad de Antioquia, Colombia.
- Ashton Botha, Local researcher. University of Cape Town, South Africa.
- Julián Zapata. Youth Community Research Facilitator, Medellín.
- Rivonne Valentine. Youth Community Research Facilitator, Cape Town.
Project website:
The project was selected in response to the following call for proposals: https://icld.se/sv/artikel/call-for-research-proposals-from-local-to-global-challenges-and-opportunities-for-local-democracy-in-times-of-crisis/