The Citizen Security Dialogues consists of four high-level sessions bringing policy makers, practitioners and analysts together from across Latin America and Africa to discuss innovations in public security, justice and penal reform and violence prevention. Dialogues were held in Rio de Janeiro, Bogota, Mexico City and Cape Town between 2013 and 2015 bringing hundreds of specialists together to discuss what works, and what does not, in the emerging field of citizen security. The Dialogues also generated four special issues of the peer review journal, Stability: International Journal of Security and Development.

The Citizen Security Dialogues have four basic objectives. First, they identify promising practices in promoting public security and safety in low- and middle-income settings. Second, they foster a growing international network of global specialists in the field of citizen security. Third, they incubate innovations, including new technologies, with respect to the promotion of security, justice and penal reform. Finally, they trigger international media and policy engagement with challenging issues of violence prevention and safety promotion.

The Citizen Security Dialogues are coordinated by the Igarapé Institute with financial support from Canada´s International Development Research Centre (IDRC). Key partners include the Fundación Ideas para la Paz (Colombia), the Instituto para la Seguridad y la Democracia (Mexico) and the African Policing and Civilian Oversight Forum (South Africa). The initiative also involves collaboration with the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), Saferworld, Open Society Foundations and GIZ, with exchanges involving government and civil society organizations from across Latin America and Africa.

The Igarapé Institute, with support from the Inter-American Development Bank, produced the Citizen security dashboard.  The dashboard data visualization is an interactive online app that tracks almost 1,300 citizen security interventions in more than 20 Latin American and Caribbean settings. The dashboard includes information across a dozen variables, including the focus of registered interventions, the timing, budget, and also the evidence of their effectiveness according to the latest scientific evidence.