Programa para el Fortalecimiento de Instituciones de Justicia Penal Estatal (ConJusticia) Annual Progress Report Fiscal Year 2021

The program, which began on July 24, 2020, and is set to end on July 23, 2025, is funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and is being implemented by DAI. The program's primary objective is to strengthen the prosecution of high-priority crimes within state-level justice institutions, reduce impunity, and increase accountability, while improving citizen confidence in the justice sector. The ConJusticia Activity is being implemented in eight target states, including Chihuahua, Coahuila, Hidalgo, Nayarit, Nuevo León, San Luis Potosí, Sonora, and Zacatecas, as well as two resource states, Guanajuato and Querétaro. The program's implementation is focused on three key objectives: (1) strengthening individual state justice institutions, particularly in prosecuting high-priority cases; (2) improving coordination and collaboration between institutions and local actors across criminal justice systems; and (3) building sustainable partnerships with diverse actors, including civil society, academia, and the private sector, to contribute to citizen co-responsibility. During the first full fiscal year of the program, which corresponds to the period from October 1, 2020, to September 30, 2021, the ConJusticia Activity faced significant challenges due to the ongoing global pandemic and the initial repercussions of the nationwide shutdown to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Additionally, Mexico's midterm elections in June 2021 added further complexity, bringing changes to the gubernatorial administrations in all but two of the Activity's eight target states as well as changes in other key state-level positions. Despite these challenges, the ConJusticia Activity made important strides in the design and implementation of Criminal Prosecution Policies, with a particular focus on the states of Sonora, Coahuila, and Nayarit. The program also extended its efforts to support individual justice sector institutions and strengthen partnerships with non-state actors beyond these three priority states to include important gains in Hidalgo and Zacatecas. Furthermore, the Activity laid groundwork towards productive working relationships in its remaining target states, Chihuahua, Nuevo León, and San Luis Potosi. The ConJusticia Activity achieved several key results during Fiscal Year 2021, including the design of Criminal Prosecution Policies in Sonora and Coahuila, and the laying of groundwork to begin CPP design in Nayarit and Zacatecas. The program also facilitated three Task Forces to address priority cases in Nayarit and Coahuila, resulting in the apprehension of 47 key suspects and the detection of "hot spots" for the distribution of illicit materials. Additionally, State Courts in six target states identified areas of opportunity to improve capacities in court administration and Gender Equality and Social Inclusion (GESI) mainstreaming. The program provided technical assistance to State AGOs and Courts to improve data collection and analysis in Sonora, Nayarit, and Coahuila. The ConJusticia Activity also facilitated two ambitious 100-Day Challenges in Sonora, resulting in a doubling of the prosecution of high-volume cases and a 28% reduction in average response time for users. In Nayarit, the program facilitated a 100-Day Challenge that increased prosecutions of robbery cases from a baseline of 10 to 31, and successfully prosecuted 76 domestic violence cases, nearly doubling the number of prosecutions over a baseline of 39. The program also facilitated three peer-to-peer events between justice sector institutions to exchange best practices around experiences organizing Judges Committees, the management of State Courts, and block scheduling of audiences. The ConJusticia Activity also facilitated four webinars on Criminal Prosecution Policies, Gender Equality and Social Inclusion, and Strategic Communications, reaching nearly 1,500 participants and helping to set the national agenda on these key issues in criminal justice. Overall, the ConJusticia Activity made significant progress in its first full fiscal year, despite the challenges posed by the pandemic and the midterm elections. The program's continued implementation is expected to build on these achievements and contribute to the improvement of the effectiveness and accountability of state-level criminal justice institutions in Mexico.