The inspiration for the Johannesburg conference came in 1996 during the Vancouver conference on crime prevention for practitioners. It was realised that South Africa had an important role to play in the international crime prevention debate, both as an example of successful initiatives, and as a learning opportunity for South Africans to become better informed about developments in crime prevention internationally.

The result was the second international conference for crime prevention practitioners, Urban Safety – Safety for All. This publication is a representation of the proceedings. It has been structured around summaries of papers in order to assist practitioners to find specific issues. Thus, the structure is thematic, based on the elements of crime prevention: crime information, the roles of national and local government, the police, communities and partnerships, and monitoring and implementation.

The aim of the report is to provide an overview of what is being done in crime prevention and by whom, in the hope that it will generate more discussion and debate to further the development of crime prevention strategies in countries around the world.

This Compendium has been compiled to accompany the Workshop on Strategies and best practices in crime prevention, in particular in relation to urban crime and youth at risk in the context of the 11th UN Congress on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice in Bangkok, Thailand from 18-25th April 2005.

The goal of this document is to make evident the situation of young people living at risk in Latin America and to propose policies to face this problem.

This policy paper forms part of UN-HABITAT’S Global Campaign on Urban Governance. The Campaign fosters the implementation of the Habitat Agenda goal of achieving sustainable human settlements in an urbanising world. Improving urban governance has been recognised internationally as one of the crucial steps towards the eradication of poverty.

The Campaign’s aim, therefore, is to raise awareness of, and advocate for, good urban governance around the world, and to increase the capacity of local governments and other stakeholders to practice good governance in urban settings.

This strategy paper has been developed in the context of UN-Habitat’s Safer Cities Programme, and the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD). It forms part of UN-Habitat’s work on urbanization, the inclusive city, the problems of urban youth, and issues of governance and youth participation.

It is in keeping with the Millennium Development Goal of achieving a significant improvement in the lives of urban slum dwellers by 2020.

In 2002, the Government of Papua New Guinea with the support of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and technical assistance from the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-HABITAT) launched the Safer Port Moresby Initiative with the express aim of addressing the underlying causes of crime that have accompanied the unprecedented urban growth of Port Moresby.

The Safer Port Moresby Initiative (SPMI) is a citywide crime prevention initiative that is built on partnerships with public, private and popular (sector) institutions that can contribute towards crime reduction in the city. The initiative is presently being run from the offices of the Department for Community Development, formally known as the Department of Social Welfare and Development and works closely with the City Government (National Capital District Commission – NCDC).