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Insights from Social Lab Cúcuta

In March 2023, a Social Laboratory was established in Cúcuta. The meetings aimed to assess Cúcuta's current security situation, address challenges, and explore the potential impact of digital security solutions while working towards a practical proposal for the city.

During the month of March we implemented a Social Laboratory in Cúcuta with the Mi Sangre Foundation. The objective of this space was to rethink the social contract of the city from the perspective of security, surveillance and coexistence with representatives of the public and private sectors, social organizations and young people of the city. During these meetings we aimed to identify the current state of security in Cúcuta, highlight some challenges and analyze the impact that could bring the digitization of security to think of a feasible proposal in the city.

To identify the actors involved in the security and surveillance ecosystem of the city, we conducted a social presence theater. The dynamics sought to identify the actors, the role they were currently playing in the city and the way they were relating to others. Having a real image from the personification of the actors, the power relations were dispersed, there was a lack of articulation between the institutional actors and between the social and private sectors. Citizenship actors such as community mothers, artists and migrants find themselves in a position of insecurity as they walk and live the streets day by day, without the support and backing of actors such as the mayor's office or the police.

In the second part of the exercise we recreated an ideal theater, that is, how the actors should be situated in relation to height, distance and position between them. In this ideal plane, public and private actors are coordinated to seek the protection of civil and social sectors that are considered vulnerable due to the multiple conditions that provide insecurity in the city. We interconnect government and business actors to generate better social conditions and thus create employment and opportunities. The use of security technologies such as cameras was highlighted as a tool of great utility in this ecosystem, but the importance of having knowledge about their scope, effectiveness and possible ethical challenges was emphasized.

Then in a sculpture activity we prioritized the problems that the city must face in relation to security. The problems identified were:

• Use, bonding and recruitment of Children and Adolescents
• Gender violence
• Right to the city
• Child migration
• Trafficking in persons
• Sexual and commercial exploitation of children and adolescents
• Theft from persons
• Homicide

After the identification, we set ourselves the task of thinking about some of the reasons why we had this type of problem in the city. Among the causes we discussed were: the presence of armed groups involved in the armed conflict in the country, border dynamics that exceed the city's capacities, the lack of knowledge about the dynamics of the neighborhoods, the lack of institutional coordination, xenophobia towards Venezuelan migrants, distrust towards institutions and the lack of data management on the state of the city. This is why, in teams, sculptures were made portraying these problems and a possible solution thought from the collective knowledge and finding new ways to interact.

Photo: María Camila Roldán

To conclude the laboratory, we had to think and create concrete actions to which we could commit ourselves. Coincidentally, most of the participants came to the conclusion that the city needs an information system that unifies data from all government agencies and that can be fed with citizen data. This system would allow administrations to make evidence-based decisions and provide real answers to current problems.