Social Development and Public Governance > Social Development
Social Development - July 2000
From the Division Chief:
At a church meeting in South Los Angeles, after giving a coherent explanation on
the importance of violence prevention, an immigrant mother said how she would
like to take what she had learned in the US and help prevent domestic violence
in her home country of Guatemala. She was one of the people we met when early
this year we visited violence prevention programs in the city of Los Angeles,
CA.
We were guided by the Violence Prevention Coalition, a group of citizens who
coordinate these efforts, and the Educational Development Center, who organized
the tour for IDB specialists. We saw this woman's vision and leadership skills
replicated many times-- among others, in the chief of adolescent medicine at the
Children's Hospital, in the director of "Teens on Target," an outreach
program of the hospital, and in the coordinator of a vocational training program
for youth gangs in East Los Angeles.
It seemed apparent that there was something more at work than individual
leadership, charisma, and moral suasion. Leaders were nurtured by an enabling
environment for prevention which was fueled by a violence crisis (the Los
Angeles riots) and the awareness of the costs of violence --the direct costs
hospitals incur treating, for instance, spinal cord injuries from gun shots as
well as the non-quantifiable but very visible legacy of pain and suffering.
Key elements in this environment were the collaboration between enlightened
government officials and concerned private citizens, and the non-partisan nature
of the effort.
By documenting the costs of violence (see article on page 8) and disseminating
lessons from this and other efforts, we wish to help galvanize violence
prevention initiatives in the region. Other areas where we have been active this
first semester have included supporting-- with a meeting hosted by K. Burke
Dillon, the IDB Vice President, and a publication --the UN five-year review of
the agreements made at the Fourth World Women Conference in Beijing. And we are
gearing up to contribute to the forthcoming UN World Conference Against Racism,
Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance, with work on social
exclusion and its costs to nations in the region. In this fourth Social
Development issue you will find additional information on our current work.
Mayra Buvinic
Last updated: 06/01/07
