About us

The Project

The Berghof Foundation in partnership with the Political Development Forum – Yemen (PDFY) is implementing the European Union (EU) and the Kingdom of the Netherlands funded project, Strengthening Community Safety in Yemen. The project is based on the rationale that in order to feel safe, communities need both access to and knowledge of the legal system (irrespective of whether this is the statutory or customary law), a sense of fair conduct, and a police force which they can trust and which serves the law and is non-partisan. As the perception of the police and of local law enforcement is key, the starting point for any effort to increase the effectiveness of the police and legal system is to enhance trust, transparency and accountability of these service providers, taking the needs and concerns of local communities into account. This, in turn, will create trust on the part of communities towards the police and legal system.

The overall aim of the project is to contribute to the stabilisation of the country through improved inclusive local security and community safety approaches. It runs until December 2021.

The specific objectives of the project are:

• to initiate and support a Yemeni-led inclusive discussion on local security and community safety principles;
• to strengthen capacities of key local security providers and selected community representatives;
• and to develop an information strategy to inform about and encourage follow-up on inclusive community safety concepts in the future.

Community Safety is a widely used concept describing modern forms in which state authorities and (local and national) communities work together in order to ensure safety and security within the state and in local and regional communities. Community Safety aims at promoting public safety by engaging all relevant parties who are important for ensuring safety whether at home, at work, or in public. This includes, therefore, not only the communities themselves, but also local governments, educational institutions, business communities, religious leaders, tribal leaders, and the security and justice providers.

The concept of Community Safety is based on various principles. A few key ones are presented here:

• Partnership as a two-way street: Public safety and security can only be achieved by intensive cooperation between police and community, supported by the local authorities, judiciary and prosecution. Partnership not only means that the community assists the police in various ways, including in providing information, but it also means that the police actively listen to the safety concerns of the people and then act upon this information. It is a two-way street, as partnership requires two partners taking each other seriously. One example of implementing partnership in practice is creating Community Safety Committees.
• Problem solving: Traditionally policing has been of a reactive nature: a crime occurs, and police officers try to arrive as soon as possible. This approach has proven to be less and less effective, as the criminals in the vast majority of cases have long since gone. A problem-solving approach aims at identifying 1) why particular crimes occur and 2) the root causes of various crimes. By identifying reasons for regular crime patterns, efforts can be made to eradicate these root causes so that safety can be ensured in a longer term. This requires intensive cooperation with many other partners, such as schools, the business community, representatives of neighbourhoods or apartment blocks, religious leaders, sport clubs, etc. Solutions are sometimes simple, such as providing street lighting in dark spots, or different patrolling schemes. Sometimes, however, solutions are much more complicated and require intensive and long-term partnerships with, for instance, school principals or shop owners. The value of involving the community in a problem-solving approach is immense: citizens are indispensable sources of information in identifying causes of crime, their cooperation in developing and implementing a plan of action is crucial, and finally they are key partners in assessing the outcomes.
• Empowering at the local level: This refers to empowering the officers in the street. If constables are supposed to address local needs from citizens, they need to have the mandate to act quickly. This is different from the traditional approach toward policing, which is highly centralised and where low-level officers rely on the consent of their superiors and cannot act on their own. The devolution of powers is usually very effective, as the beat officers or the neighbourhood police officers are well aware of what is going on in their districts and know the people (including the trouble makers), and therefore can act swiftly in addressing local concerns. This is, therefore, a major tool in building public confidence.
• Crime prevention: This refers to the identification and analysis of crime risk, aimed at making crime harder to commit. Crime prevention requires active engagement by various civilian partners with (local) governments, police and judiciary, usually based on national or regional crime prevention strategies.
• Safe environment: This refers to the identification and implementation – based on citizens’ concerns – of local initiatives which can improve the feeling of safety among citizens. These initiatives should be identified, designed and implemented in partnership with local authorities, police and judiciary. It is important to monitor the implementation of these initiatives and evaluate their impact, as their main objective is to create a safer environment.

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