Participatory Research for Effective Collaboration in Response to Non-War Violences
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Aberdeen
Department Name: Sch of Language and Literature
Abstract
UN Resolution A/73/338 which set up the International Year of Peace and Trust in 2021 lays an important foundation for building a 'culture of peace', recognizing that peace is not only absence of conflict but requires a positive, dynamic participatory process where dialogue is encouraged and conflicts are solved in a spirit of mutual understanding and cooperation. The proposed Network is about participatory forms of research and their capacity to build new forms of collaboration in particular contexts of chronic, non-war violences.
Contexts of violence outside of war are on the rise globally and challenge assumptions that peace is the opposite of war or conflict. This is still not recognized sufficiently in the international system. The number of violent deaths outside of war has long exceeded deaths in armed conflict. And violence is recognized to have many non-lethal as well as lethal expressions.
Latin America has one of the highest rates of homicides and non-lethal violences in the world, aggravated by the expansion of organized crime. Building 'dynamic participatory processes' in such contexts raises many challenges, but the academics proposing this project have been working for many years on how to enable communities and civil society groups to analyse these violences and the insecurity they live in their everyday lives, in order to develop practical propositions to address them and to then dialogue with state actors. The last few years they have focused particularly on Mexico, currently undergoing one of the most serious crises of violence in the world.
Building on previous research experiences, the Network will connect research participants in communities and civil society groups in Mexico with Mexican, UK and other academics and organisations working on global violences and crime, to evaluate how participatory research processes of varied kinds can contribute to more effective collaborations with state actors aimed at reducing violences and crime. While there is ample evidence of corruption among state actors, our research has shown that others can be encouraged to engage with civil society and community groups.
The Network recognizes the importance of an interdisciplinary lens, and will bring together expertise in law, history, development, human rights, religion and the arts, as well as social scientists, to engage with the Mexican community members and organisations. Spanish will be the working language, but we have partnered with academics and civil society who work in violence-torn countries beyond Latin America.
The main output will be a Guide to Participatory Research for Effective Collaboration in Response to Non War Violences aimed at civil society organisations and at generating debate beyond Mexico about how to engage with communities and state actors for effective collaborations to reduce non-war violences and crime.
Other Network outputs include a series of academic articles, a dataset deriving from the Mexico partnerships, and an interactive website that will host the Guide and incorporate users into a Network that will be sustained through future annual events, funded by U Aberdeen's Centre for Citizenship, Civil Society and Rule of Law.
Contexts of violence outside of war are on the rise globally and challenge assumptions that peace is the opposite of war or conflict. This is still not recognized sufficiently in the international system. The number of violent deaths outside of war has long exceeded deaths in armed conflict. And violence is recognized to have many non-lethal as well as lethal expressions.
Latin America has one of the highest rates of homicides and non-lethal violences in the world, aggravated by the expansion of organized crime. Building 'dynamic participatory processes' in such contexts raises many challenges, but the academics proposing this project have been working for many years on how to enable communities and civil society groups to analyse these violences and the insecurity they live in their everyday lives, in order to develop practical propositions to address them and to then dialogue with state actors. The last few years they have focused particularly on Mexico, currently undergoing one of the most serious crises of violence in the world.
Building on previous research experiences, the Network will connect research participants in communities and civil society groups in Mexico with Mexican, UK and other academics and organisations working on global violences and crime, to evaluate how participatory research processes of varied kinds can contribute to more effective collaborations with state actors aimed at reducing violences and crime. While there is ample evidence of corruption among state actors, our research has shown that others can be encouraged to engage with civil society and community groups.
The Network recognizes the importance of an interdisciplinary lens, and will bring together expertise in law, history, development, human rights, religion and the arts, as well as social scientists, to engage with the Mexican community members and organisations. Spanish will be the working language, but we have partnered with academics and civil society who work in violence-torn countries beyond Latin America.
The main output will be a Guide to Participatory Research for Effective Collaboration in Response to Non War Violences aimed at civil society organisations and at generating debate beyond Mexico about how to engage with communities and state actors for effective collaborations to reduce non-war violences and crime.
Other Network outputs include a series of academic articles, a dataset deriving from the Mexico partnerships, and an interactive website that will host the Guide and incorporate users into a Network that will be sustained through future annual events, funded by U Aberdeen's Centre for Citizenship, Civil Society and Rule of Law.
| Description | The Network's aim is to articulate principles for CSOs looking to collaborate with states and communities harmed by non-war violences, especially those aggravated by organised crime. We can report the following advances against the Network's 3 specific objectives: 1. Ensure the principles are of global relevance by complementing the Mexico partnerships with other global experiences and perspectives: The Network set out its findings in a) a 40000-word analytical document, developed by the 4 Mexican teams in dialogue with non-Mexican Network partners, b) a 10,000-word executive summary, which is now being converted into a coauthored article for Voluntas: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations, and c) a 5-page guide to "How to partner with government to reduce violences" directed at organisation considering partnering with government. Among other findings, we have determined that organizations contemplating collaboration with state should: - Understand that influencing through collaboration involves a complex process, full of challenges - Establish if there are conditions, or not, prior to attempting a collaboration and throughout the process - Create enough agency prior to collaborating, for a more balanced correlation of forces - Seek to understand institutions, including their interrelationship, to effect changes appropriate to chronic violence. With additional funding provided by Aberdeen University, Network members have travelled to Colombia - like Mexico a key context where societal violence has been exacerbated by organised crime - to develop the global significance of the principles for collaboration that we have identified. One of the Network members who travelled to Colombia is an expert on El Salvador, and we have discussed the significance of our findings for the Salvadoran context. 2. Enrich the principles by bringing arts and humanities perspectives to balance social science insights: Network members focused on arts and humanities have been involved in all our online and in-person meetings, including the forums and meetings held in Mexico in August 2022 and the additional activities (funded separately) in Mexico and Colombia in February-March 2023. In particular, Benjamin Smith (History, Warwick) participated in our Mexico activities and Chris van der Borgh (Humanities, Utrecht) in Colombia. Among other findings, the Network has drawn on arts and humanities perspectives to confirm the importance of the role of churches, legal strategies and arts-based research, although we require further analysis to define and develop those contributions. We are also considering how to draw on partners' arts and humanities expertise to communicate our findings to diverse audiences. 3. Engage with CSOs as potential users to ensure the Guide meets their expectations, and build a sustainable network with CSOs worldwide: We have engaged throughout with CSOs including in our in-person events and meetings in Mexico and Colombia, and we are in discussion with partners Global Initiative against Transnational Organised Crime and International Catalan Institute for Peace about using their platforms to disseminate our messages to CSOs, and to build sustainable networks with them. See Narrative Impact for more detail. |
| Exploitation Route | We envisage the outcomes will be of value to civil society organizations considering collaboration with state agencies with a view to reducing violences, especially in contexts of non-war violences including those exacerbated by organised crime. In the first instance, we have produced a Guide for organizations considering partnering with government to reduce violences, which is available online, and we are pursuing strategies to ensure that is put to use by organizations across Mexico and the world, including through our AHRC partner networks. To begin with, we have met with around 15 organizations in Mexico to consider how they might apply the findings summarised in the Guide to their strategies. |
| Sectors | Communities and Social Services/Policy Healthcare Government Democracy and Justice Culture Heritage Museums and Collections |
| URL | https://cisrul.blog/civil-society-collaboration-response-crime-violence/ |
| Description | Crime and violence have been identified not only as damaging to welfare, but also as major retardants to Mexico's economic development. It was evident from Stack's Newton, SFC-GCRF and AHRC projects that reducing violence is a complex task, especially when aggravated by substance abuse and by organised crime activities. As such, violence reduction requires complex strategies involving collaboration between different state institutions and societal organizations. Thus, our Network has sought to contribute primarily to SDG16 (especially Target 6.1 Significantly reduce all forms of violence and related death rates everywhere) but also secondarily to SDG3 (especially Target 3.5 Strengthen the prevention and treatment of substance abuse, including narcotic drug abuse and harmful use of alcohol) and to SDG17 (especially Target 17.9 Enhance international support for implementing effective and targeted capacity-building in developing countries to support national plans to implement all the Sustainable Development Goals, including through North-South, South-South and triangular cooperation, and Target 17.17 Encourage and promote effective public, public-private and civil society partnerships, building on the experience and resourcing strategies of partnerships). 1. Locally, our Network includes 4 teams - each including a Facilitator - in different locations in Mexico, each of which track attempts by civil society organisations to collaboration with government agencies in order to improve policies with the aim of reducing violences. The 4 Facilitators' role in the ground is primarily to track these attempts, but this research in turn can inform the organizations' attempts to collaborate. Further, they themselves play roles in the attempts in question. We can report the following impacts in 2 of the locations: a. In Zamora, our Facilitator working with Stack identified issues with how judges referred people under trial to substance abuse clinics, including referrals to non-certified clinics. Since then, referrals to the one certified clinic (Centro de Integración Juvenil Zamora) which the Director believes was because of the meetings that we held with judges in 2021-22. This is significant because this is one of only 2 certified clinics in the region, and previously judges were referring persons to clinics that were uncertified. In addition, we have been in dialogue since 2021 with the deputy mayor of Zamora and with the municipal chiefs of police, primarily about healthcare provision in police custody, which is a municipal responsibility. They have just introduced a new police custody regime (which we had supported) including a diagnostic process which we helped to facilitate. Stack confirmed in December 2023 that the municipal police had adapted a post-arrest questionnaire that he provided after the June 2023 practitioners forum. The mayor has agreed to add healthcare provision and we are trying to broker a meeting with the same Centro de Integración Juvenil Zamora, which would provide support for referrals for substance misuse and mental health treatment. b. In Apatzingan, after our activities there, our partner organization Observatorio de Seguridad Humana de Apatzingan expressed appreciation for the value of state-civil society collaboration - "The project literally changed the game for us". Among other actions, the OSHA has taken a lead in organizing the Local Participation Group which meets weekly with state officials in the local army barracks to discuss security matters. The Observatorio decided to focus its partnerships with government on the problem of forced displacement, which led it to engage not only with local authorities but also with state and federal lawmakers working on Forced Displacement legislation, and with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. 2. Nationally, as proposed, we held a series of forums and meetings with practitioners in Mexico in August 2022. In addition, we used a grant from funds held by the University to present our findings in February 2023 to practitioners and academics in Mexico, alongside further practitioner meetings. (Several Network members were funded to participate in these activities.) We have made available one of those presentations on YouTube. Further practitioner meetings were held June and December 2023, including with high-level officials such as a state Minister of Citizen Planning and Participation. Further, the Network Facilitators were trained in the steering and evaluation of civil society-state partnerships, which they continue to pursue beyond the project, and in presenting research findings in prestigious academic forum and in high-level policy and practitioner meetings. The Network completed work in October 2023 on the "How to partner with government to reduce violences" guide which is available on the website. In November-December 2023 Pearce and Stack, together with the Network Facilitators, met with around 15 organizations to get them to reflect on the strategies proposed in the guide for partnering successfully with government. 3. Internationally, the University of Aberdeen grant allowed us to travel in March 2023 to Colombia, a country affected by comparable levels of violence, to hold further presentations of our findings and practitioner meetings, again with several Network members. In one of the presentations, we presented in an innovative format to juxtapose government and civil society perspectives, and our presentation was followed by an artistic intervention to help the audience to engage with the idea of collaboration. Further, Stack coauthored an article in the leading Spanish newspaper El Pais, reflecting on the "total peace" proposed by Colombian president Gustavo Petro for Mexico, including with regard to state-civil society partnerships. We envisage developing versions of the "How to partner with government to reduce violences" guide for international audiences, and to disseminate this especially through our partners Global Initiative against Transnational Organised Crime and the International Catalan Institute for Peace. - Gender equality: More than half of the Network leads were women. Most meetings and activities were characterised by equitable participation between men and women. Since the project's conclusion, women and men have participated in dissemination and impact activities, including as beneficiaries. Gender-based violence was one of the violences considered in the Network and addressed in the analytical document and executive summary, and in the article to be submitted to Voluntas. As part of our study and impacts, we have engaged with women's rights and welfare organizations. However, we have yet to incorporate gender into the guide that is our primary output, and we have yet to carry out impact activities specifically directed at LGBTI+ communities. |
| First Year Of Impact | 2022 |
| Sector | Communities and Social Services/Policy,Healthcare,Government, Democracy and Justice,Culture, Heritage, Museums and Collections |
| Impact Types | Societal Policy & public services |
| Description | Committee to Draft Law on Forced Internal Displacement |
| Geographic Reach | Local/Municipal/Regional |
| Policy Influence Type | Participation in a guidance/advisory committee |
| Impact | The Observatorio contributed to improving the bill by adding a human security perspective, obliging state institutions to consider multiple kinds of security needed by victims of forced displacement. However, the law has not yet been passed. |
| URL | https://ocapatseguridad.org/ |
| Description | Grupo de Coordinación Local (Local Coordination Group) in Apatzingán, Michoacán |
| Geographic Reach | Local/Municipal/Regional |
| Policy Influence Type | Participation in a guidance/advisory committee |
| Impact | The role in the Local Coordination Group has primarily led to better attention to displaced persons in the region. In addition, it has helped to improve communication between state and society in a region characterised by deep mistrust toward state institutions. This has enabled societal actors including the Observatorio to dialogue with state institutions, including the Army, on other topics including the ongoing extortion of agricultural producers in the region. |
| URL | https://ocapatseguridad.org/ |
| Description | Red nacional por la paz (National Peace Network) |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Policy Influence Type | Participation in a guidance/advisory committee |
| Impact | The National Peace Network was established in September 2023 and produced a National Peace Agenda, which was presented to presidential candidates in March 2024 with frontpage coverage in national media. It is too early to say what effect this will have on public policy, but there has been widespread media coverage since September 2023. |
| URL | https://dialogonacionalporlapaz.org.mx/red.php |
| Description | AHRC Research Network |
| Amount | £53,314 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Arts & Humanities Research Council (AHRC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 02/2022 |
| End | 01/2023 |
| Description | Enhancing healthcare provision to detainees in police custody in Mexico |
| Amount | £2,919 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | CF10723-53 |
| Organisation | University of Aberdeen |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 04/2023 |
| End | 07/2023 |
| Description | How to achieve collaboration between organizations and institutions to improve the design and implementation of multi-sectoral policies to reduce violences |
| Amount | £18,453 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | RG16701-12 |
| Organisation | University of Aberdeen |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 01/2023 |
| End | 03/2023 |
| Description | International Science Partnerships Fund: Health and justice in international development: access to healthcare for minors in criminal justice |
| Amount | £25,300 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | SF10272-19 |
| Organisation | University of Aberdeen |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 02/2023 |
| End | 01/2024 |
| Description | Meetings with civil society organisations considering partnering with government to reduce violence |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Third sector organisations |
| Results and Impact | Stack, Pearce and 3 associates based in Mexico (Carolina Huerta, Julio Franco and Pablo Hernández) met to discuss strategies for partnering with government to reduce violence with around 15 organizations contacted through networks developed through our ESRC and AHRC projects. Our discussion was structured around the strategies set out in the booklet "How to partner with government to reduce violences" that was an output of the AHRC Network. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | Practitioner forums on healthcare for detainees |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | In June 2023, Maldonado and Stack led 2 practitioner forums in Zamora and La Piedad, Michoacan, Mexico, bringing together around 25 police, justice and health officials in each location, all based there, to consider how to improve healthcare for detainees, since health issues including substance misuse were linked to violence in those localities. In December 2023, Stack held follow-up meetings with police, justice and health officials in Zamora, Michoacan, Mexico, to determine improvements in healthcare for detainees. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | Public event series on Civil Society-State Collaboration to Reduce Violences |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Third sector organisations |
| Results and Impact | We conducted a series of public events and private meetings in August 2022 and February 2023 in Mexico, and in March 2023 in Colombia (ongoing), to present findings of our 2016-19 ESRC project and our current 2022-23 AHRC Research Network (which built on the ESRC project among others). The events and meetings were with primarily civil society organisations and state officials. The AHRC Research Network is still ongoing, but event and meeting participants have indicated informally that they were influenced by discussion of our findings, specifically with regard to the value of civil society-state partnerships to reduce violences. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022,2023 |
| URL | https://cisrul.blog/civil-society-collaboration-response-crime-violence/ |