Municipal Partnerships for Violence Prevention in Central America

The program aimed to foster the development of regional peer knowledge networks and provide training and technical assistance to local governments and community groups. ICMA has worked with key institutions in the region to promote the first objective and engage in outreach. A Toolkit for municipalities was developed to promote the creation of municipal-led mechanisms to provide leadership in bringing together key stakeholders to design and implement crime and violence prevention programs. ICMA has facilitated the participation of experts in national, regional, and international conferences and conducted workshops for municipal associations and municipal stakeholders. To accomplish the second objective, ICMA has engaged in a series of municipal partnerships with cities in the US to share the model of community-oriented policing and governance with municipalities in El Salvador and Panama. Through these partnerships, police officers, municipal staff, community, and private sector representatives from the US have provided information, training, and technical assistance to their counterparts in Central America. In September 2012, USAID issued a six-month extension to ICMA through March 29, 2013. Subsequently, USAID issued a no-cost extension to ICMA through April 30, 2013, and another cost extension through September 30, 2013. During the last year of the Program, ICMA continued to support both objectives, applying the tools and methodologies tested throughout the first Phase of this Cooperative Agreement to new municipalities in Guatemala and El Salvador. In October 2013, USAID issued a two-year cost extension to ICMA to continue work supporting the creation and strengthening of Municipal Crime and Violence Prevention Committees in Guatemala and El Salvador. ICMA also strengthened the Municipal Association Network for Violence Prevention in Central America and the Dominican Republic, formed in August 2013, to become a sustainable network carrying on the work of AMUPREV in the Region. In September 2015, USAID issued another two-year cost extension to expand the CityLinks Partnerships into four additional target municipalities, build on the existing AMUPREV network of security practitioners, and strengthen the relationship between the State of Río de Janeiro and/or the Federal Government of Brazil and El Salvador and/or other third countries. During the period of April to June 2016, ICMA conducted several trips to provide technical assistance to municipalities in Honduras, the Dominican Republic, and Washington, D.C. Trip No. 122 provided technical assistance to municipalities in Honduras to establish their strategic plan for crime prevention. Trip No. 123 coordinated activities with ICMA LAC Director and provided technical assistance to the Boca Chica executive commission of Citizenship, Security, and Gender in the Dominican Republic. Trip No. 124 involved planning activities with elected authorities in ASDE and interviewing candidates for a local advisor position in the Dominican Republic. ICMA has continued to support the Municipal Crime and Violence Prevention Committees in Guatemala and El Salvador, providing continuing support to the committees in Palencia and Santa Catarina Pinula, Guatemala, and continuing strategic support to Nahuizalco and Sonsonate, El Salvador. ICMA has also shared information and practices with its established network of violence prevention and other interested practitioners in the Region, developed a sustainability plan to maintain the network after project end, and facilitated the sharing of the Youth Services Eligibility Tool developed by the City of Los Angeles Gang Reduction and Youth Development (GRYD) Office with stakeholders in Guatemala and Honduras.