Dr Mary Mangai from the School of Public Management and Administration was at the Institute for Peace and Development (INEF), University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany.  She collaborated with INEF on a research project that was co-funded by the National Research Foundation (NRF) and The World Academy of Science (TWAS)/Germany Research Foundation (DFG). The research is centered on the “Practical and innovative ways of achieving SDG 16 through the co-production of neighbourhood security in the city of Johannesburg, South Africa and Duisburg, Germany”. The research in South Africa and Germany examined how local governance through co-production that involves different roleplayers (police, citizen, community members, civil society organisations) can enhance community policing, interagency policing and the role of citizens in local security and safety matters.

Some of the key findings from both countries are (i) community policing is more effective when it involves different stakeholders; (ii) the findings identified 3 ways of crime prevention; (a) Primary crime prevention is about values, accepting norms and seeing responsible public order. The municipal council and other stakeholders such as kindergarten schools, education system, media, sports sector etc are involved in primary crime prevention.  (b) secondary crime prevention - has to do with city planning in the form of lightning of cities, organising green and recreation areas, but also employing the use of surveillance cameras, CCTV, access control to public spaces etc. (c) Tertiary crime prevention - is an aspect of prison management, it aims at rehabilitation and reconciling citizens back to the community. In summary, different actors can co-produce neighbourhood security and community policy by playing important roles to enhance safety and prevent crime.

“I am grateful to my funders for this immense opportunity and especially to the Dean of the EMS Faculty and the Director of the SPMA for allowing me to undertake the journey to Germany where the second phase of the research was conducted”.