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Security Sector Reform: Technical Assistance a. Assistance to government institutions in the design and implementation of public safety and security sector reform policies The Colombia Program is working on strategies to strengthen municipal and departmental policies aimed at the prevention of crime and violence. Crime and delinquency in Colombia have regional and local dynamics, therefore appropriate regional and local prevention policies are relevant in the context of a national security policy. Only recently, in light of decentralization efforts and increased priority towards solving the domestic security crisis, have local governments begun serious efforts to carry out their constitutional responsibilities regarding security issues. The main objectives in this area are: to provide technical assistance to the Government of Colombia for security sector reform (SSR), in particular to the Office of the President, the Ministry of the Interior and Justice, the National Police, departmental governors and city mayors. to develop applied research in the form of rapid assessments of sub-national security contexts. to work with the appropriate authorities in the design, implementation and evaluation of public policies in these matters, especially in the formulation and evaluation of security policies  to strengthen the coordinated efforts among local authorities, police commanders and other state security and justice institutions According to these objectives, the Program promotes the following strategies in Colombia: b. Programa Departamentos y Municipios Seguros (DMS) In March 2004, the Colombia Program launched a new, country-wide initiative called Departamentos y Municipios Seguros (DMS) in partnership with the National Police, the Ministry of Defense and the Ministry of the Interior and Justice. The DMS objective is to deepen and consolidate security policies at the sub-national level through a complementary strategy of citizen security plans and policies implemented by governors and mayors. The Program initiated a series of training and guidance programs for the authorities of the 32 departments and the 1,098 municipalities in Colombia on policies of citizen security and prevention of violence at the local level. The DMS program is headed by a committee comprised of the President of the Republic, the Minister of the Interior and Justice, the Minister of National Defense and the National Police.  USAID considers this program a model example of innovative initiatives in rethinking citizen security policies worldwide. As a part of the DMS program, the Colombia Program also gives advice and technical assistance to Colombian universities, think-tanks and government agencies to design training materials for governors and mayors. This initiative is embodied in the national journal Departamentos y Municipios Seguros, a joint effort with the National Police and the Ministry of the Interior and Justice that aims to present case studies, “lessons learned,” and best practices regarding citizen security policies at the sub-national level. The journal is distributed nation-wide, to municipal and departmental governments and various authorities from the different levels of government with interest in the development of security strategies. For further information visit: www.policia.gov.co c.  DMS Intensivo The Colombia Program provided technical and financial assistance to DMS Intensivo, a special program of concentrated technical consulting for short term period in areas with specific challenges of revitalization and strengthening of municipal policies of citizen security. In 2005, four intensive DMS programs were initiated in zones that have received a significant number of the relocated demobilized population: the four municipalities of the banana industry in Urabá, the city of Montería, the cities of the Cúcuta and Ocaña metropolitan areas, and Buenaventura. The overall goal is strengthening the public administration in the respective cities in the following areas in a 90-day timeframe: strengthening of the Consejo de Seguridad (Security Council) and the formulation of Action Plans addressing future goals, the creation (or strengthening) of municipal crime observatories (see below) as an administrative tool in the formulation of policy and decision-making in the area of local security and coexistence, the strengthening of Consejo de Seguridad capacity to work on society-oriented violence prevention issues expanding municipal and inter-municipal programs aimed towards “at-risk” youth, and the evaluation of “juvenile offender” programs for the respective territory. Each DMS Intensivo program was implemented in close coordination with USAID, the International Organization for Migration (IOM), the Colombian Ministry of the Interior, the National Police, and a variety of departmental governors and local mayors. d. Municipal Crime and Violence Observatories In cooperation with the Universidad del Valle (Cali) and its prestigious CISALVA Institute (Research Center for Health and Violence), the Colombia Program has designed a model for the creation and operation of crime observatories as a crucial policy instrument for effective sub-national security program implementation. The objective of this initiative is to build municipal capacity to efficiently construct and utilize crime maps in their jurisdictions. Municipal crime observatories are systems of crime data generation which are both low-cost and highly effective. The observatory aggregates national and municipal information on crime and mortality from sources such as police and hospital records. This allows municipal officials better access to such information in order to understand issues such as frequency, location, and rates of crime specific to their jurisdictions. The observatory works through two committees: an Operations Committee, responsible for collection and verification of information concerning external causes of mortality (such as homicides, suicides, traffic accidents and unintentional deaths) and an Analysis Committee, which interprets the data. Both committees then make recommendations for intervention to the mayor of the city. Thanks to the creation of these crime observatories, municipal security and violence prevention has received higher priority and has resulted in the formulation of more effective local prevention policies in these cities. The positive results of these observatories are evidenced by: i) improved inter-institutional coordination among agencies such as Medicina Legal, Fiscalía, the Transit administration, and the National Police, in the administration and interpretation of data, ii) improvement of the departmental and municipal decision-making process, based on better data, and iii) the adoption of public policy methods based on analysis of this data. This model has been implemented in nearly 20 cities, and has been presented to the international community, including to the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), the World Bank, and the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO). Further information on violence prevention and citizen security policies in Colombia is available at: www.prevencionviolencia.org.co