Strengthening Urban Safety In Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso

In Burkina-Faso and more specifically in the city of Ouagadougou, there is a political will to respect, guarantee and protect the rights of all citizens not only through ratification of international instruments concerning Human Rights, but also by constitutional provisions and other instruments and national policy statements. Existing statistics at the Police revealed that crime in the city of Ouagadougou is developing in various forms and at an alarming rate over the years (compare to itself not cities in the region). Between January 2000 and August 2007, 133,335 offences were reported to the national Police. The evolution is notable, from 12,901 cases in 2000 to 23,542 cases in 2004 and 21,188 cases in 2006. These same statistics show that petty crime (snatching and pickpocketing, burglary, receiving stolen goods and trafficking, minor frauds, vagrancy and incivility) represent 50.44% of reported offenses. Then there are traffic accidents 21.5%. In Ouagadougou, the fear of crime is increasingly present in the minds of city dwellers; this is partly due to the reform of the modes of commission of crimes. The offenders use more force and firearms, cutlass or knives. The weapons that are commonly used are Kalashnikov, pistol locally manufactured, automatice pistol, PA, G3.  This new situation justifies the choice of policy makers to intervene early enough to reduce the risk of spread of offenses committed with violence. Despite efforts to promote good governance the high level of poverty notwithstanding, government and stakeholders are faced since the mid-90s with urban violence and insecurity that traditional institutions such the police are struggling to contain . Thus, the prospects for improvement of urban safety from the traditional repressive methods of the police seem unlikely. As a result, state officials deserted their jobs due to organized crime; areas of economic interest were dispossessed of their development potential, public insecurity reached its height and as such the culture of assisting those in distress on the highway is in decline, even among officials of the security forces. In the light of these developments, the national and local governments decided to formulate strategies to restore the credibility of the security forces as well as find alternatives to traditional methods of managing public safety.The City council of Ouagadougou launched the municipal police services in 1997 to fight against minor offences in public places which are not covered by the national police. This unit has helped the city to increase the fluidity of mobility as well as reducing the number of abandoned public places in collaboration with the park and public places services at the City council. In addition, the Mayor of Ouagadougou has sought the cooperation and support of UN-Habitat to implement an integrated strategy for urban safety and crime prevention following the model of Safer Cities. Under the Cities Development Strategies of Ouagadougou a profile of public insecurity in Ouagadougou has been developed and validated by a local crime prevention committee. In September 2007, a bylaw was adopted to create a working group on violence and public insecurity prevention. All these efforts are not implemented under the framework of an integrated urban safety strategy and there are no indicators to follow up crime prevention activities. Besides, public insecurity is becoming a major problem that undermines social capital and negatively affects the local economy. According to data from the apparent crime (Rapid appraisal of public insecurity in Ouagadougou, 2007), there is a recent trend of rising crime in Ouagadougou. The average growth rate of reported crime is estimated at 9.73% from 2000 to 2006. Major offenses are listed flights in public places, the traffic accidents, crimes against property and crimes against individuals. Mob justice, offenses against morality and the abandonment of the marital home are becoming increasingly worrying in slums and neighborhoods located at the outskirt of the city.Over the last decade studies have been conducted to find ways of improving the effectiveness of public security services with a view to achieving public safety in Ouagadougou.  These studies stress the need to implement policy approaches that focus mainly on community participation, devolution of decision-making and a preventive approach to situations of insecurity and public unrest. Therefore community policing, which serves as an alternative to municipal policing as embodied in the Act No. 032/AN of May 14, 2003 is the primary means of organizing the participation of citizens in urban safety management. The objective of community policing, initiated by the Ministry of Public Safety with the support of UNDP, is to establish a partnership between public urban safety services, local governments and communities to improve safety and insecurity in Ouagadougou by solving problems of crime and disturbances to public order. It is a path for innovative urban safety services mechanism that used the following principles: reconciliation, partnership and solving local problems. Various institutions involved in promoting children's rights contribute to the prevention of delinquency at early age or reduction of criminal behavior within vulnerable groups through providing financial support for projects to fight against poverty, education for women and youth, access to care. Among these institutions, the United Nations Programme for Development (UNDP), UNICEF, UNIFEM; UNODC and UN-Habitat are helping to improve living conditions and education of children and youth at risk or water and sanitation conditions in their neighborhoods. The project Propolice launched by UNDP in collaboration with the Government and in line with the national policy aims to ensure the safety of persons and property is enhanced through improved activities of National Police with the cooperation of the entire population. Its aim is to consolidate peace and social harmony, indispensable to any sustainable urban development process. The project has been experienced in rural areas. Its launch in urban areas need a better understanding of communities as well as sociocultural context; this is the main reason why UN-Habitat would be involved to provide technical assistance to the National Police in collaboration with members of its Police Platform for Urban Development (PPUD). The Regional Programme ECOSAP based in Bamako aims to strengthen the capacity of Government of Burkina Faso to address the problem of uncontrolled presence of small arms and small arms. This joint program will enhance urban dimension of the programme through a pilot activity in Ouagadougou in considering the role of the Municipality in controlling the circulation and use of small arms. The initiative Violence Against Women (VAW) is a component of the joint programme of United Nations System in Burkina Faso. Its aims is to put in place a coherent framework for the consideration of gender issues including women's rights, violence based on gender and the empowerment of women in development programs and community safety. The list is not exhaustive and several other activities are being implemented by the Government to alleviate urban poverty and by the bilateral partners with the aim of improving the quality of life of vulnerable populations living most often in urban areas or using public places where the risk of victimization is high according to police and municipal authorities.Having considered the damaging impact of public insecurity on development, the Burkinabe authorities, including the mayor of Ouagadougou, made a request that has received a favorable response from UNDP and UN-Habitat, who have accepted to provide both technical and financial assistance to reduce public insecurity in urban areas. With his vast experience in promoting Safer Cities initiatives in Africa, UN-Habitat will use the knowledge gathered in Tanzania, Kenya, Cote d’Ivoire, Cameroon, South Africa and Madagascar to provide its expertise to the City council of Ouagadougou, the Naitonal Police and the National Commission of Small Arms and Light Weapon. Besides, the relevant normative framework develop by UN-Habitat through the two recent Global Reports on Human Settlements on Safety and Security (2007) and on Planning (2009) will be highly valuable as a basis for dialogue with key stakeholders both at national as well as municipal level to clearly highlight the role that effective and well regulated urban planning system can play in preventing crime committed in public places. Using theoretical orientations provided in the two latest Global Report on Human Settlements, UN-Habitat main role will consist of enabling the national partners to set up baseline data. This would be done using not only Police and Justice information but also victimization and crime prevention surveys with the aim to identify actions which could be taken to enhance urban safety and safety in Ouagadougou. Bearing in mind that various factors are determinants of crime, violence, and feeling of insecurity in Ouagadougou, as in many cities across the world, the joint programme will focus on innovative approaches in the field of crime and violence prevention such as ‘effective urban planning, design and governance, as well as community-based approach’ (UN-Habitat.2007. Enhancing Urban Safety and Security, Global Report on Human Settlements).