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Reducing urban crime and violence253• whether goals are being achieved;• whether individual projects are succeeding given thedifferent timeframes to which they relate;• whether the implementation process is effective;• whether partnership structures continue to be fit forpurpose; and• whether the partnership process itself is operatingappropriately. 45The importance of identifying this multiplicity of evaluationactivities is that it sees evaluation not just as a set of activitiesat the end of the process, but as something that isintegral to the process itself at several stages, and whichprobably operates as a series of iterations, rather than as alinear process.This is an important corrective to the all-too-commonview that evaluation is something that only happens at theend of the process. The fact that there are many differenttypes of evaluation, and that these can contribute in variousways to an effective process on an ongoing basis, challengesthis view. The experience of evaluation activities alsosuggests that these are best done if they are built into theprocess from the beginning, with the intention to evaluatesystematically helping to structure how the process and itsvarious stages are conceived. An important point that is byno means always recognized is that valuable lessons can belearned from what has not gone well, as well as what hassucceeded. Indeed, it can be argued that the need toidentify what is not working as quickly as possible in orderthat consideration can be given to changing it is one of themost important tasks of evaluation, especially when it isseen not just as a task to be carried out at the end of aprocess, but as something integral to that process at severalstages.This often raises issues about what gets published byway of evaluative material, especially on websites, wherethere seems to be a tendency not to include material aboutwhat has not worked well for what appear to be publicrelations reasons. It is understandable that organizationswill look at their websites in this manner in the contemporaryworld; but they do need to reflect on how credible thisstance is among those stakeholders who are aware thatthere have been issues and expect them to be covered inpublished evaluative material. It is also more helpful foroutsiders looking at material of this nature in an attempt tolearn from it to see a ‘warts and all’ presentation. The factthat these are still relatively rare, and that a presentationwhich only highlights the positive aspects is much morecommon, may have contributed to the phenomenondiscussed above of the uncritical borrowing of ideas fromelsewhere. The need, therefore, is to move towardshonest, open and transparent reporting – and if organizationsfind this difficult from a public relations perspective,one action that they can consider is publishing alongsidesuch material a statement of how they intend to addressthe issues raised.THE CHALLENGES OFIMPLEMENTATIONOne of the most important considerations for any partnershipis the need to think carefully about how what it wantsto do can be effectively implemented in the particularcircumstances of its remit. As a consequence, one of theearly issues to be faced in such situations is an identificationof what the barriers to implementation might be and howthey might be overcome. This must be about the local situationsince implementation is about making something workin a specific context. The key question here is how canthings be made to work? This relates to the previous discussionabout adapting to local circumstances, rather thanuncritical borrowing, since without careful consideration ofthe particular circumstances in which something is going tobe applied, there can be no guarantee that what has workedwell elsewhere can be transplanted effectively.Having underlined the importance of locality, thissection looks at five implementation challenges that arecommonly faced and which are more thematic in nature.These are defining appropriate institutional structures foraction; involving and mobilizing local communities; capacitybuildingat the local level; integrating crime prevention intourban development; and effective international support forinitiatives against crime and violence. Each of these isdiscussed in turn.Defining appropriate institutional structuresfor actionIn most instances, the appropriate local player to take thelead on actions against crime and violence at the urban scalewill be the local authority. Not only will it have a largenumber of service functions that it can bring to bear onthese problems and a resource base that can be used toaddress them, 46 but it will also see itself as having a centralresponsibility for the quality of life in its area and for thewelfare of its citizens. If these reasons were not enough bythemselves to explain why local authorities can normally befound in leading roles in relation to urban initiatives againstcrime and violence, it is also likely that the local authoritywill attach considerable importance to the representationalrole that it plays on behalf of its city.To enable it to do all of these things well, it will needto be in regular touch with its citizens and its businesses, tobe an effective communicator and provider of information,and to be responsive to the feedback that it receives throughthese channels. In order to do these things, it will almostcertainly have to work with a wide range of other local stakeholders,and as has already been argued, in practice thisoften leads to the creation of formal partnership mechanismsto provide vehicles for activities of this nature. All of thesethings help to explain why local authorities increasinglyaccept that taking a lead in fighting against urban crime andviolence is an integral part of their approach to providinggood governance for their locality. 47 And they also help toexplain why leadership in these terms comes not merelyfrom the executive arms of local authorities, but also often