Regional Partnership For Decentralization and Local Governance In the Americas

The program, initiated on October 1, 2009, aimed to provide training and technical assistance to local governments and community groups, in coordination with national police efforts and other municipal-based programs. To achieve the first objective, ICMA worked with key institutions in the region 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. A Toolkit for municipalities was developed to facilitate this process, and ICMA facilitated the participation of experts in national, regional, and international conferences and conducted workshops for municipal associations and municipal stakeholders. Additionally, a website (www.amuprev.org) was established to showcase daily examples of municipalities throughout Latin America that are taking the initiative to develop programs that are building the foundation for crime prevention in their communities. To accomplish the second objective, ICMA 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 Santa Ana, California; Arlington, Texas, and Pinellas County, Florida, provided information, training, and technical assistance to their counterparts to bring about a greater awareness of the need to prioritize and act upon violence and crime prevention programs in a coordinated and comprehensive fashion. During the period of July to September 2015, ICMA continued to support both objectives. The program applied the tools and methodologies tested throughout the first Phase of this Cooperative Agreement to new municipalities in Guatemala and El Salvador. ICMA also provided continuing support to the Municipal Crime and Violence Prevention Committees of Palencia and Santa Catarina Pinula, Guatemala, and continued to share information and practices with its established network of violence prevention and other interested practitioners in the Region. The AMUPREV website (www.amuprev.org) continued to be updated daily with news and articles related to municipal-based violence prevention. Quarterly bulletins were prepared, posted on the website and on Facebook, and sent by email to more than 2700 stakeholders in the Region. The website traffic statistics for the quarter showed a significant increase in visits, with 14,263 visits in total. The most visited pages were the news section, which accounted for 61.32% of the total visits, followed by the homepage, which accounted for 23.26% of the total visits. ICMA also facilitated the participation of experts in national, regional, and international conferences and conducted workshops for municipal associations and municipal stakeholders. The program continued to support the Municipal Association Network for Violence Prevention in Central America and the Dominican Republic (the "Red") formed in August 2013, so that it becomes a sustainable network which carries on the work of AMUPREV in the Region. In addition, ICMA produced videos documenting the experiences of 8 municipalities in Central America that have demonstrated a commitment to crime prevention through the leadership of their elected officials, the dedication of their police forces, and the collaboration of representatives from all sectors of civil society, as well as national government agencies. These videos were shared through the AMUPREV website and at events and workshops throughout the Region. Overall, the Municipal Partnerships for Violence Prevention in Central America program continued to make significant progress in promoting comprehensive municipal-based violence prevention strategies and programs with key Central American stakeholders and fostering development of regional peer knowledge networks.