Abeokuta joins ‘Peace in Our Cities’ global campaign

The historic city of Abeokuta, capital of Ogun State, South West Nigeria, has become the first city in Nigeria to sign into the global peace building initiative with the theme ‘Peace in Our Cities’ (PiOC).

The paramount ruler and the Alake of Egbaland, Oba Adedotun Aremu Gbadebo, performed the official endorsement of the global campaign being promoted by 22 international and local Non-Governmental Organisations under a global coalition known as +PEACE, on Friday, 11th of September, 2020 at Ake Palace in Abeokuta, thereby enlisting the city as one of the members of the global project which was launched in September 2019.

The signing of the PiOC document by the Oba Gbadebo, which was presented to him for endorsement by Michel Femi Sodipo, project coordinator, Peace Initiative Network (PIN), a Nigerian peacebuilding NGO, who is one of the global coalition of NGOs driving the campaign, commits the City of Abeokuta to a city-to-city partnership designed to reduce and transform urban violence worldwide.

The endorsement implies an official approval that the City of Abeokuta is now a signatory to the initiative designed to help the world achieve the global development goals, specifically, Sustainable Development Goal 16.1, to significantly reduce all forms of violence and help advance other targets on peaceful, just, and inclusive societies (SDG16+).

Based on this development, Abeokuta is now one of the 17 ‘early adopter’ cities on board of the global project. Like the C40 Cities Climate leadership Group, the PiOC seeks to become a preeminent organizing body that is uniting cities and local leaders to collaborate on city-level solutions to pressing global problems.

Peace in Our Cities’ vision

PiOC is a growing group of mayors and civil society organizations committed to significantly reducing levels of violence globally and building peaceful, just, and inclusive cities, in line with the commitments made in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

On September 21, 2020 International Day of Peace, the first anniversary of the establishment of PiOC, and as the United Nations celebrates its 75th anniversary, PiOC formally mobilized to halve and transform urban violence by 2030.

Goals and commitments

Recent study has shown that 9 out of 10 instances of lethal violence take place outside of conflict zones locations ostensibly considered ‘at peace’. While the precise statistic is not available, it is known that much of this lethal violence takes place in cities where the majority of humanity is projected to reside in the coming decades. It is also known that with targeted policies, programs, and public engagement models, cities can significantly reduce and transform urban violence.

One year after official launch, despite the global Covid-19 pandemic, PiOC has been welcoming new cities – an effort that will continue over the next year, with the 22 organizing partners that are experts in their field in order to halve urban violence by 2030, as evidenced by what has happened in Oakland, USA, one of campaign’s early adoption cities, which had recently cut its homicide rates in half, while Colombia, another early adopter, has also seen steady homicide reductions.

PiOC focuses on catalyzing actions to reduce violence and build peace, leveraging the political power of mayors, the community power of civil society, and the global imperative of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

As PiOC, the year 2030 was chosen as a key benchmark as it represents the conclusion of the UN Secretary General’s Decade of Action on the 2030 Agenda. Marking 10 years from today, Peace in Our Cities is setting a “high ambition timeline” critical to achieving SDG16, SDG5, and SDG11 to build peaceful, just and inclusive societies, end all forms of violence against women and girls, and make cities safer and more inclusive.

In recognition of the inherently integrated nature of both the 2030 Agenda and complementary efforts by the violence prevention and peace building communities, PiOC is also working towards the realization of the critical aspects of the SDG 16+ agenda:

Amplify the scale of urban violence and the promise of evidence-based solutions to save lives and heal communities. Accompany city leaders, community, and civil society to realize ambitious targets for violence reduction. Advance evidence-based policy solutions and peace building approaches to reducing violence in urban contexts.

Violence in cities

Just over 80% of global lethal violence occurs outside of conflict zones, much of it concentrated in urban settings. Cities today constitute half of the world’s population, a trend projected to increase as cities are expected to absorb nearly all new population growth over the coming two decades. The combination of rapid urbanization and high levels of concentrated urban violence will continue to impede growth, development, and prosperity for cities and urban areas around the world.

Unfortunately, urban violence often goes unaddressed, in large part because the majority of urban violence impacts those with the least political power. These are the same people who are on the losing side of growing inequality in cities around the world and those for whom access to justice and other public services remain elusive.

Incidents of urban violence often reflect the structural and systemic challenges of marginalization, exclusion, and oppression of communities.

Promisingly, there is a range of evidence and emerging best practices to address high levels of urban violence. Cities around the world are achieving significant reductions in their violence rates, typically through integrated approaches that involve a cross-section of actors hyper-focused on the goal of saving lives and increasing peace and safety. Civil society organizations around the world are key to bringing attention to the imperative of reducing violence and building peace in our cities and implementing programming that saves lives and builds peace.

Participating cities

PiOC city partners cover 13 countries, over 20 million people and feature cities with violence priorities ranging from homicide levels to violence against women, from group violence to economic violence.

As of September 2020, PiOC city partners include Amman, Jordan; Bangui, Central African Republic; Cali, Colombia; Chaguanas, Trinidad & Tobago; Colombo, Sri Lanka; Dayton, Ohio, USA; Durban, South Africa; Edmonton, Canada; Escobedo, Mexico, Mexico; Hargeisa, Somalia; Kemerovo, North Macedonia; Nairobi Municipality, Kenya; Oakland, California, USA; Palmira, Colombia; Tripoli, Lebanon.

Partnership

PiOC organizing partners include civil society active at the city level as well as international organizations committed to the idea of reducing violence and building peace.

As of September 2020, PiOC organizing partners include Partners Global, Peace Direct, Peace Initiative Network, Red Dot Foundation, Search for Common Ground, Somaliland SDG16+ Coalition, Stanley Center for Peace and Security, Strong Cities, UN Habitat, UN Office on Drugs & Crime, University of Dayton, and American Friends Service Committee.

Others are California Violence Prevention Network, Canadian Municipal Network on Crime Prevention, Conciliation Resources, Creative Associates, Dayton Peace Museum, Generations for Peace, Global Parliament of Mayors, Global Partnership for the Prevention of Armed Conflict, International Alert, and Life & Peace Institute.

In addition, we work closely in collaboration with other urban networks such as the Brookings Cities Network, DevLog, EFUS, and the UN Foundation.

Benefits accruable to member cities

i. To work with city partner to identify their violence priorities and commit to making 50% reduction in these forms of violence over the coming decade.

ii. To work with partner cities in addressing the most serious violence challenges taking place across cities in the world today. It has been identified that many cities have low homicide rates, but struggle with other serious violence challenges, such as high levels of violence against women. Similarly, many cities with high homicide also are struggling to confront violations of individual and community safety. By focusing on the relevant serious violence challenges for each participating city, through being both locally responsive and globally supportive.

iii. The campaign will be offering counselling and exchange experiences regarding these issues to partnering cities.

iv. One of the services to be provided to partnering cities is evidence-based briefs. Second is monthly webinars, exchange opportunities, political events that advance awareness of what a particular city is doing (i.e., with World Bank, UN, other international conferences and events for Mayors, Civil Society and others involved), and funding incentive to support violence reduction and peace building.

Expectations from member cities

The role of the member cities is to be supportive of the goals of the campaign, while the civil society partners are to represent communities beyond just the government. The endorsement is at no cost to the participating member cities, as the members of the global alliance driving the campaign are to offset the cost of adoption, and the travel expenses of cities officials.

Looking back, looking forward

In the past one year a brand-new PiOC Action Report which outlined how the initiative will go over the next several years, incorporating feedback from the strategy retreat held in Amman, Jordan, and subsequent conversations with city and organizational partners over the past year had been produced.

The Action Report which is currently being circulated as a roadmap for the future of PiOC is shaped by the leadership of partnering mayors, city governments, and frontline civil society organisations.

Together with the PiOC member, the Stanley Centre for Peace and Security, a research undertaking has been conducted, the first of its kind to examine chronic urban violence and identity-based mass atrocities. The research report and policy brief will be finalized by November in the year.

In addition, the UK Department for International Development is supporting research in the six areas prioritized by city leadership in Amman, with an emphasis on violence during Covid-19 and how responses have been influenced by the pandemic – Violence Against Women, informal Settlements, Organised Crime/Criminal Groups, National-Local Interaction, Social Media, Building Relationships.