Youth Violence Prevention in LAC: A Resource Guide for Aligning Indicators and Interventions to Deepen Impact

The guide builds on existing USAID monitoring and evaluation (M&E) guidance and the most recent violence prevention efforts and evidence from the region. It aims to improve understanding of, and ability to address, gaps or misalignments among youth violence prevention and intervention strategies, programs, practices, and partnerships that happen at different levels of action. The guide focuses on the Northern Triangle countries of El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras, but also contains generalizable guidance at the population risk and program levels of action. It can help policymakers determine how best to use their violence prevention resources and adopt a coordinated and impactful youth violence approach within individual countries and throughout the LAC region. The YVPRG is organized in six sections: I. Indicators, Measures, and Data Sources; II. Extant Indicators That Align With USAID Objectives; III. USAID and Country-Level Indicators; IV. Population Risk-Level Indicators; V. Intervention-Level Indicators; and VI. Summary of Key Considerations. Section I discusses the importance of choosing appropriate indicators, measures, and data sources, and reviews key data quality, security, and access considerations. Section II reviews the existing indicators in use by other bilateral and multilateral entities with youth violence investments in the LAC region. A comprehensive approach to citizen security must include prevention efforts that address the factors that lead to crime and violence in the first place. Individuals, opportunities, and deterrents against criminal or deviant behavior operate within and across a set of enabling conditions in the home, the neighborhood, and the broader social setting. These enabling environments contain factors that either place young people at risk for, or help protect them from, crime and violence. To prevent crime and violence over the long term, efforts must reduce risk and strengthen protective factors at each level of the social-ecological model. The indicators to determine progress and outcomes from violence prevention strategies are intimately tied to the factors in these enabling environments. Therefore, there must be alignment between indicators and interventions within each level of the social ecology, as well as across the levels, since no one factor alone will prevent or increase risk for violence. A clear understanding of indicators and measures, how they are defined, where they come from, and how to use them is essential for accurate monitoring of violence prevention activities and results. An indicator is defined by USAID as a quantifiable measure of a characteristic or condition of people, institutions, systems, or processes that may change over time. A measure is typically understood as the quantity, size, weight, distance, or capacity of something compared to a designated standard. The guide presents guidance on intervention-level indicators followed by implementation and measurement profiles for a subset of interventions showing effectiveness for primary, secondary, and tertiary risk populations. The guide concludes with key considerations for choosing violence prevention indicators.