NewtonRCUK-CONACYT Co-constructing Security Provision in Mexico: A Methodology and Action Plan from Communities to the State

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With more than 175, 000 lives lost between 2006 and 2014, 26,000 people disappeared, and the proliferation of ever more visible and brutal expressions of violence, Mexico's security has experienced a dramatic deterioration over the last decade. Violence and security are key dimensions of economic development and social welfare. An emerging economy with strong global potential, Mexico's current security crisis has exposed the weaknesses of state security responses with serious implications for investment, employment and poverty reduction. Trust in the state's security provision is very low, and this encourages vigilante justice, dependence on private security amongst those with resources to pay for it and also generates the impunity which further fuels violence and criminality. Local economies have succumbed to criminal actors, and a range of drug trafficking organisations have expanded and mutated their illegal activities. Extortion as well as threats of violence blight the lives of thousands of citizens. Many Mexican community, civil and state actors are searching for new options to reduce violence and criminality. This research and action project will develop and test methodologies for co- constructing security provision with these actors in four carefully selected case studies locations: Tijuana, Apatzingan, Acapulco and Guadalupe. It will work with community, civil society and state actors to both better diagnose the security threats they face but most importantly to build shared understandings of security as an effective and equitable public good in their localities. It will encourage understanding of the differential impacts of violence, insecurity and security provision according to income, gender, ethnicity and other social factors. It will use 'local security agendas' constructed from the ground up, to influence the national security approaches in Mexico and beyond. Finally, It will use the research to contribute to wider debates in the global South around security, violence and development.