Honduran volunteers “vaccinate” families against violence

February 23, 2016

3 min read

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Honduran volunteers “vaccinate” families against violence

By Jillian Slutzker

[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”2/3″][vc_column_text]Forty-five-year-old Jose Lopez was surprised when he answered a knock at his door in the Zapote Norte neighborhood of Tegucigalpa. Often, in this crime-affected community, a knock on the door can mean bad news.

But this time, Jose was greeted by young volunteers who were prepared to give him and his family a “dose of happiness”—and a quick education in how to prevent violence at home and in the community.

As part of the “Virtues in My Home Vaccine Prevention” campaign—an initiative of the Honduran government and Alianza Joven Honduras-USAID—200 volunteers across seven cities delivered anti-violence messages and “shots” of happiness door-to-door to 5,000 households.

Volunteers in the Zapote Norte community in Tegucigalpa walk door-to-door to “vaccinate” neighbors against violence. More than 200 volunteers participated in the campaign. Photo by Emanuel Rodriguez.

“The Virtues in My Home Vaccine Prevention campaign was designed to prevent violence that often occurs within households,” says David Medina, Deputy Director of the Alianza Joven Honduras-USAID project, which is funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development and implemented by Creative Associates International.

To prevent a cycle of domestic violence within families, USAID and the Honduran government funded the campaign “to reach households and shine a light on this issue with positive messages shared with families,” Medina says.
Through its more than 45 neighborhood Outreach Centers in at-risk communities in seven cities, Alianza-Joven Honduras-USAID provides youth with access to safe spaces off the streets and away from violence and opportunities for recreation, tutoring, vocational training, mentoring and more.

The two-week campaign is a way to extend support to families in these communities, where domestic violence rates are above average, organizers say. In addition to the door-to-door efforts, Outreach Centers will hold family activities centered on virtues like respect and honesty to continue reinforcing the campaign’s violence prevention message.

Volunteers shift community attitudes

Campaigners educated their neighbors on how to bring virtues into their homes and live healthy, violence-free lives. Photo by Emanuel Rodriguez.

After completing trainings in the “Virtues in my Home” methodology and effective communication, volunteers set off in teams to deliver these messages to their neighbors, along with happiness “shots” to help vaccinate against violence. They also hand each household a Virtues calendar, which features a virtue such as love, respect or honesty each month so families remember them year-round.

Neighbors who are used to witnessing violence have taken note of these young people walking the streets spreading positive messages about violence prevention.

“I think it’s important that the neighborhood kids are participating in these activities,” says 42-year-old Doris Gutierrez in the Estados Unidos community of Tegucigalpa. “Sometimes we see young people as the problem, but now they are the solution.”

For their part, the campaigners, who are also volunteers at their local Outreach Centers, know that their mission is critical.

“We have a duty to try to change these attitudes in the families of our neighborhoods. We witness the violence and if we do nothing it will never change,” says Hilda Rivera Yobely, a volunteer in Zapote Norte.

Yobely says her visits to vaccinate households against violence have been greeted with surprise and smiles. “They are not used to visits with positive message,” she says. “It is something new for them.”

But after just two weeks of campaigning, these positive messages are already sticking. The “vaccinations” against violence might prove to be the medicine people need to change their behavior and alleviate some of the violence afflicting youth and families.

“I think these activities are helping people in the neighborhood and making us wonder if we are doing the right things for our children in our homes,” says Marcio Turcios, who was visited by campaigners in the 21 de Febrero community in Tegucigalpa.

Cesar Palma, a campaign volunteer in the same community and a fitness instructor at an Outreach Center, says people are picking up on the message. For example, Palma spoke to one man in the street about how to prevent violence at home. The man then told Palma he planned to share the message with his family and practice these virtues in his own life.

Palma believes these lessons will keep spreading across communities and ultimately the country well after the campaign itself has ended.

“Love, tolerance and respect,” Palma declares. “That is what can transform Honduras.”

With reporting by Emanuel Rodriguez[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/12″][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/4″][vc_widget_sidebar sidebar_id=”sidebar-primary”][list_category_posts_widget title=”Related Stories” cat_id=”246,132″ order_by=”date” numberposts=”3″ excerpt=”yes” excerpt_size=”15″][/vc_column][/vc_row]

In the Northern Triangle, it’s the homicides, stupid!

February 22, 2016

By Enrique Roig

3 min read

In El Salvador, 900 people were murdered in August—that is more than DC, Maryland and Virginia’s combined homicide rate for all of 2014—making it one of the bloodiest countries outside of a war zone.

By the end of 2015, El Salvador’s homicide rate reached even high levels, more than 100 murders per 100,000 residents, which is nearly 10 times greater than what is considered an “epidemic” by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control’s violence prevention team.

El Salvador’s murder epidemic has reached levels once seen with the HIV/AIDs infection in the United States in the 1980s or more recently with the Ebola outbreak in West Africa. When public health crises breaks out, the international community responds.

The murder rates in El Salvador and the neighboring countries of Honduras and Guatemala should be considered both a public health crisis and a threat to regional security—including the United States.

So far, efforts to reduce crime and violence have been directed at keeping youth from falling into criminal gangs, which is basically a “vaccination” campaign, and is essential to preventing this “disease” from spreading. These efforts have been successful and should be applauded.

Now, focus needs to be directed to the most hard-core offenders.

Only one-half percent of these law-breakers will actually commit acts of violence, according to research conducted by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime shows. Of this small number, only 10 to 20 percent will actually morph into “impact players,” those most likely to pull the trigger against another human being.

These individuals are predominantly male, ages 10 to 25 and are largely responsible for approximately 75 percent of the violence.

To date, the response has been to round up gang members, such as the infamous MS-13 and the 18^th Street, and place them in prison, regardless of the type of crime. The prisons in the Northern Triangle countries of El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala—which are 250 percent overcapacity—and have become major incubators for both MS-13 and 18^th Street gangs.

“Mano dura” and “super mano dura” (iron fist and harder iron fist) come in various cycle when politicians reach the point of despair. Despite anti-gang laws and heavy-handed law enforcement and military-style tactics, mass incarceration strategies have hardly eroded the gang presence in the Northern Triangle during the past 25 years.

Only by using a triage approach that looks at that small group of individuals committing most of the violence do these communities stand a chance of eliminating this disease. Pilot programs in the region, such as in target communities in neighboring Honduras, have proven successful in reducing violent crime.

In the case of gang members who are looking to opt out or when a second chance will change their life’s trajectory, then resources should be directed to this population group. At the same time, we need to support those victims who also deserve a second chance at life.

Ultimately, incarceration may be required for those who are not candidates for second chance opportunities given their involvement in serious violent crimes.

This focus on the most serious offenders is not to diminish the efforts organizations, communities and government bodies have undertaken to work with youth who are at-risk of criminal behavior. Though less likely to fall into the violent categories, support to them is still needed and should not be sacrificed.

To end the bloodshed, we have to borrow James Carville’s phrase and adapt it to El Salvador: “It’s the murder rate, stupid.” Let’s focus on the core offenders.

Enrique Roig is the Director of Citizen Security at Creative Associates International, a Washington, D.C., development company. Previously, he served as Coordinator for the Central American Regional Security Initiative at the U.S. Agency for International Development.

Out-of-school & out-of-work youth in Latin America may pose citizen security concerns

January 25, 2016

4 min read

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Out-of-school & out-of-work youth may heighten citizen security challenges in Latin America

By Jilian Slutzker

[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”2/3″][vc_column_text]Nearly 20 million Latin American youth ages 15 to 24 are both out-of-school and out-of-work, posing major economic, social, education and security challenges for the region, according to a new World Bank report.

Youth in this group called “ninis”—abbreviated from the Spanish phrase “ni estudiar ni trabaja”—are more likely to come from lower income households.

As a result of dropping out of school, they have lower earning potential and poor employment prospects, the study finds. Those who do land jobs often find unstable or informal work and are likely to slide back into nini status.

Ninis are also likely to perpetuate an intergenerational cycle of poverty, the report finds, and teen mothers and girls married before they age of 18 are especially vulnerable.

The effects of the nini demographic bulge has widespread implications for the region, say the report’s authors.

“Why should we all, not only governments, but society at large care about this problem?” posed Rafael de Hoyos, one of the report’s authors speaking at the report launch on Jan. 19. “Being a nini today has a negative effect on labor market indicators 20 years into the future.”

Matching intervention to level of risk

For countries facing widespread gang violence and peak homicide rates like El Salvador and Honduras, the nini phenomenon is a citizen security challenge as well as an economic one.

But not all ninis face an equal level of risk of joining these violent groups, says Enrique Roig, Director of Citizen Security at Creative Associates International and a panelist at the report launch.

“What we know from the research is 0.5 percent of those males in hotspot neighborhoods are going to commit crime and violence,” said Roig.

For the majority of ninis who fall into a primary level of risk by virtue of living in vulnerable neighborhoods and lacking jobs or education, Roig said employment and education interventions are appropriate.

However, Roig says that more targeted interventions, called secondary prevention, are necessary for a smaller subset of youth, including ninis, who are empirically most at risk of joining gangs—based on assessed risk factors such as lack of parental supervision, substance abuse, negative peer influence, impulsive risk taking and more. Secondary prevention activities work to lower the risk factors of youth at the highest risk of joining gangs and violent groups.

An even smaller group of ninis who come into conflict with the law require tertiary level interventions, such as cognitive behavioral therapy, life skills training, pyschosocial counseling and more, says Roig, before they can join the workforce and reintegrate into society.

“The important thing is to be able to understand the different levels of risk with regards to the nini population and to fit the intervention to that level of risk,” he said.

Focusing on the family

When designing programs to meet the needs of ninis, Roig says, considering the family is equally critical.

“Oftentimes we talk about youth at risk as though they are this isolated group, but obviously they are part of a family structure, that needs employment and other support too,” said Roig.

Particularly when working with ninis at high risk for committing violence, families can be powerful allies in establishing and reinforcing positive behaviors that reduce youth risk factors.

The security, education & employment connection

Preventing dropout and finding viable, stable employment for ninis must be a priority for the governments of the region, say the report’s authors and the expert panelists.

Panelist Luis Almagro, Secretary General for the Organization of American States, noted that dropout prevention must be tailored to each country’s particular dropout trends and needs.

“We need to design the educational system to bring as many people as possible in, not to leave people behind,” said Almagro.

But for these education and employment interventions to work, Roig said improving the security in many of the hotspot neighborhoods where ninis live is a must.

“It’s very hard for students and for teachers to provide quality education when the schools are unsafe,” he said, noting that for many of these youth walking to school is itself a danger, let alone the risk of gang violence and intimidation at the school itself. Insecurity, therefore, is one potential cause of dropout.

Employment programs must also take into account the effects of crime and violence and the stigma faced by ninis from some of the most notorious communities when they apply for jobs.

“Depending on the neighborhood you come from, or how you look or if you have tattoos, it immediately sends a signal to employers,” said Roig. “More has to be done in that regard to work with the private sector in Central America to get that buy-in and support.”

As governments and development practitioners reckon with the nini challenge and develop solutions to unlock the economic and social potential of 20 million young people, improving citizen security will remain essential.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/12″][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/4″][vc_widget_sidebar sidebar_id=”sidebar-primary”][list_category_posts_widget title=”RELATED STORIES” cat_id=”246,132″ order_by=”date” numberposts=”3″ excerpt=”yes” excerpt_size=”15″][/vc_column][/vc_row]

Honduras – Proponte Más Secondary Violence Prevention Activity

Program

1 min read

Funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development, the Proponte Más project identified and worked with 800 families and their youth ages 8 to 17 who were empirically at the highest risk of joining gangs. Using the Youth Service Eligibility Tool (YSET), youth were evaluated based on a series of nine risk factors at a family, peer and individual level domain.

Based on evidence and proven success, Proponte Más built on Creative’s USAID-funded Proponte pilot, which reduced youth risk factors significantly at the end of the one-year period, including a 77 percent drop in the crime and substance abuse risk factor and a 78 percent drop in antisocial tendencies.

Using a family-centered approach, Proponte Más trained and certified 50 family counselors to work in close partnership with the families of high-risk youth to establish positive relations and behaviors to lower the youth’s risk factors.

The project also reached an additional 500 to 700 youth at an even higher level of risk—first time or nonviolent juvenile offenders—with targeted support to improve their chances of reintegration after a period of incarceration.

Working along with Creative were international and local organizations with expertise in evidence-based secondary prevention, alternative justice and place-based strategy implementation. These groups included Arizona State University, the University of Southern California, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Honduras, Casa Alianza Honduras and Centro de Prevención de la Violencia.

Project to reduce risk factors for violence among high-risk families in Honduras

January 20, 2016

4 min read

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Project to reduce risk factors for violence among high-risk families in Honduras

[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”2/3″][vc_column_text]Washington, D.C. — Families in five of Honduras’ most dangerous municipalities will be part of a new initiative to reduce factors that lead to violence in youth ages 8 to 17, Creative Associates International announced. (www.CreativeAssociatesInternational.com)

Funded by the United States Agency for International Development, the three-year project called “Proponte Más” will identify and work with 800 families and their youth ages 8 to 17 who are empirically at the highest risk of joining gangs.

Proponte Más will first identify participants using the Youth Service Eligibility Tool (YSET)—a method adapted and field tested during Creative’s USAID-funded pilot of Proponte. Youth are evaluated based on a series of nine risk factors at a family, peer and individual level domain.

“Our previous work has proven that it is critically important to provide different approaches to families and youth at different levels of risks,” says Enrique Roig, who leads Creative’s Citizen Security practice area. “The percentage of youth and families that engage in violence associated with gangs is relatively small, even in the neighborhoods with the most infamous history of violence in Honduras.”

Roig says that based on empirical evidence a one-size-fits-all approach is “counter indicated” and the goal of the project is to “match the right medicine to the right level of risk.”

Honduras’ homicide rate is already among the world’s highest—66 per 100,000 residents—but in some of Honduras’ most isolated communities the actual murder rate can be more than doubled the national average.

Youth are both the primary victims and perpetrators of this violence. Guillermo Cespedes, Deputy Chief of Party for the project, says that the epidemic level of violence is one factor driving recent peaks in the migration of families and unaccompanied minors north as they search for an escape.

Working along with Creative are international and local organizations with expertise in evidence-based secondary prevention, alternative justice and place-based strategy implementation. These groups include Arizona State University, the University of Southern California, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Honduras, Casa Alianza Honduras and Centro de Prevención de la Violencia.

Robyn Braverman, who brings 15 years of experience managing large international development programs for youth and promoting alternative justice measures, will lead the project in Honduras.

Evidence-based, proven success

The approach of Proponte Más is evidence-based, relying on empirical risk factors to determine which youth are eligible for the program and considered the most at risk for gang activity.

Follow-up assessments after 6 months and 12 months will measure the youth on the same risk factors, allowing for comparison of risk levels over time.

In Creative’s previous USAID-funded Proponte pilot, this approach reduced youth risk factors significantly at the end of the one-year period—including a 77 percent drop in the crime and substance abuse risk factor and a 78 percent drop in antisocial tendencies.

To ensure sustainability of the approach, the project will also work closely with the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Honduras to build its capacity to analyze YSET results.

In addition to its secondary prevention expertise, Creative has supported at-risk communities across Central America in developing and implementing local violence prevention strategies.

Through Creative’s more than 200 USAID-funded Outreach Centers in El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Panama, more than 70,000 youth have benefited from vocational training, life skills, tutoring support, and access to a safe place away from the violence.

Family-centered approach

Supporting the family is at the core of Proponte Más’ approach as each youth is part of a broader family structure that affects his/her behavior and level of risk, says Cespedes, who is also the former Deputy Mayor of Los Angeles and Director of the Office of Gang Reduction and Youth Development.

Though due to transnational migration, violence and other factors, families are not always defined in the traditional sense, he explains. It is important to take that into account and work with existing relational support systems.

“The families in these high-risk neighborhoods have shown that despite the economic hardships, the impact of migration and the ever present violence, they are most valuable partners in keeping their children safe,” says Cespedes. “While we must continue the work of building safer communities, and providing youth with educational and job opportunities, our mission in this program is to serve families because they are the most important entity in the life of the youth as well as the glue that holds together the fabric of community.”

Using 50 trained and certified family counselors, Proponte Más will work in close partnership with the families of high-risk youth to establish positive relations and behaviors to lower the youth’s risk factors. Through its family-centered approach, the project will also work to lower levels of gender-based and family-based household violence.

Alternative justice measures

While reaching youth on the verge of joining gangs is critical, it is equally important to support an even smaller subset of youth who have already come in conflict with the law or are facing incarceration, says Robyn Braverman, Chief of Party for the project .

On this tertiary level, the project will reach 500 to 700 first time or nonviolent juvenile offenders.

“We understand that some youth need a time out. Typically, youth who are sent into the penal system become more hardened criminals, so our mission is to provide alternatives to incarceration,” says Braverman.

These youth will be assessed using the Social Embeddedness Tool (SET) to determine the individual’s level of fusion, disengagement or self-differentiation from the core identity of the illicit group he/she has joined.

Working with the government of Honduras, family courts and civil society partners, Proponte Más will also help build capacity to provide evidence-based and family-centered support to youth who are re-entering their communities to improve their chances of reintegration after a period of incarceration.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/12″][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/4″][vc_widget_sidebar sidebar_id=”sidebar-primary”][list_category_posts_widget title=”RELATED STORIES” cat_id=”170″ order_by=”date” numberposts=”3″ excerpt=”yes” excerpt_size=”15″][/vc_column][/vc_row]

New project to set up early warning systems for conflict in West African elections

January 5, 2016

3 min read

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New project to set up early warning systems for conflict in West African elections

[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”2/3″][vc_column_text]WASHINGTON, DC—Fifteen West African countries will receive support to prevent and manage conflict and violence through a new U.S. Agency for International Development program implemented by Creative Associates International. www.CreativeAssociatesInternational.com.

The five-year “Reacting to Early Warning and Response Data in West Africa” project (called REWARD) will support the Economic Community of West African States’ (ECOWAS) use of innovative technology and apply best practices to detect and respond to conflict across the region from political violence, violent extremism, and ethnic conflict to sectarian tensions, perpetration of atrocities and organized crime. This assistance is from the American people.

“By enhancing the ability of ECOWAS to identify conflicts before they escalate and rapidly respond using a variety of political, security and assistance mechanisms, the project will support ECOWAS’ goal of catalyzing a sustainable culture of conflict prevention throughout West Africa,” says Tom Wheelock, Senior Vice President at Creative.

West African states have also experienced multiple outbreaks of election-related violence in recent years, which has prompted USAID and regional stakeholders to seek effective conflict prevention and mitigation mechanisms.

“REWARD presents the opportunity to build capacity in preventing electoral violence in four ECOWAS member states together with local partners in the region,” says Jeffrey Carlson, Director of Electoral Education and Integrity at Creative.

Civil society and ECOWAS member states will be key partners in helping to improve the effectiveness of conflict response initiatives.

Creative will carry out the project in partnership with two nonprofit organizations: Fund for Peace, a global leader in early warning and conflict assessment with experience in more than 50 countries; and Karuna Center for Peacebuilding, a leading peacebuilding implementer with programs in more than 25 conflict-affected countries.

Early warning & electoral violence expertise

Creative’s Electoral Education and Integrity Practice Area is a leader in international electoral monitoring and security, having conducted electoral security assessments in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Burundi, Colombia, Haiti, Guatemala, the Philippines, South Sudan, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

In May, Creative’s team piloted a unique early warning system using social media analysis to track incidents of electoral violence in Guyana’s national elections.

In partnership with USAID, Creative’s Electoral Education and Integrity team has published two handbooks on Best Practices in Electoral Security and an Electoral Security Framework. These handbooks lay out approaches to identifying risk factors for electoral violence, and designing and implementing strategies to prevent, mitigate and mediate it when it does occur.

About Creative Associates International

Creative Associates International works with underserved communities by sharing expertise and experience in education, economic growth, governance and transitions from conflict to peace. www.CreativeAssociatesInternational.com

Based in Washington, D.C., Creative has active projects in more than 15 countries. Since 1977, it has worked in nearly 90 countries and on almost every continent. Recognized for its ability to work rapidly, flexibly and effectively in conflict-affected environments, Creative is committed to generating long-term sustainable solutions to complex development problems.

Started by four enterprising women with diverse backgrounds, Creative has grown to become one of the leaders among the U.S. private sector implementers of global development projects. Creative is minority owned and operated.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/12″][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/4″][vc_widget_sidebar sidebar_id=”sidebar-primary”][list_category_posts_widget title=”RELATED STORIES” cat_id=”170″ order_by=”date” numberposts=”3″ excerpt=”yes” excerpt_size=”15″][/vc_column][/vc_row]

Creative & American University partner to identify lessons learned in reconciliation

December 14, 2015

5 min read

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Creative & American University partner to identify lessons learned in reconciliation

By Jillian Slutzker

[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”2/3″][vc_column_text]In the past five years, 15 conflicts around the globe have either erupted or reignited, displacing some 60 million people, according to the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees. Renewed conflict in many of these hotspots— Cote D’Ivoire, Yemen and South Sudan, for example—underscores the pressing need for durable solutions, beyond a mere ceasefire.

Through a research partnership, Creative Associates International and the American University School of International Service identified lessons learned in reconciliation efforts to improve on-the-ground programming and support post-conflict societies in achieving sustainable peace.

“When done well, reconciliation efforts transform an environment and build cohesion in broken societies. Our intention was to learn from both the theory and the practice of reconciliation so that we can ensure Creative’s efforts minimize the risk of post-conflict recidivism and maximize the opportunities for peace,” says Paul Turner, Senior Conflict Advisor at Creative, who oversaw the research project.

The research team—consisting of American University graduate students Alexsandra Canedo, Ashley Law, Justine O’Sullivan and Sacha Stein—examined four case studies of reconciliation efforts in post-conflict societies, including Indonesia, Liberia, Nicaragua and Sierra Leone.

While the term “reconciliation” is usually associated with efforts after a conflict has ended, the researchers say that their findings may have implications for communities in the midst of ongoing conflicts today.

“Programs can begin in the midst of violence if there is an interest and willingness to begin a peace process,” says Stein. “The conflict need not necessarily be completely resolved or finished in order for reconciliation programming to begin.”

Measuring cohesion

During and after conflict, relations between groups are fraught with mistrust. Neighbors may have perpetrated violence against one another, or government forces may have committed grave abuses against citizens.

Rebuilding relationships, establishing trust and creating cohesion is a key aim of reconciliation programs, and can be a critical buffer against reignited conflict, say the researchers.

To measure the effect of reconciliation programming in the four selected countries, the team evaluated each country using a modified version of the Social Cohesion and Reconciliation (SCORE) index, which was developed by the United Nations Development Program in Cyprus, USAID and the Centre for Sustainable Peace and Democratic Development.

SCORE measures essential elements of reconciliation using indicators such as intergroup contact, perceptions of social threat and active discrimination. It also evaluates social cohesion with indicators such as satisfaction with civic life, freedom from corruption and trust in institutions.

The working hypothesis behind SCORE is that social cohesion affects or predicts reconciliation, and in turn, the propensity of a country to remain or become peaceful.

In their book “War and Reconciliation: Reason and Emotion in Conflict Resolution,” William Long and Peter Brecke, both professors of International Affairs at the Georgia Institute of Technology, researched 430 violent conflict in 109 countries.

Their research revealed that 64 percent of countries where at least one reconciliation event occurred—like a meeting between former opposing factions—did not return to violence. Only 9 percent of countries where no such event took place remained violence-free.

A hybrid approach for holistic change

The American University researchers examined a range of reconciliation approaches in each of the four selected countries, from truth telling sessions in Sierra Leone to interfaith dialogue in Liberia, land reallocation in Nicaragua and a national truth and reconciliation commission in Indonesia.

These initiatives were most effective, say the researchers, when various reconciliation activities originated from both the national level and the grassroots level.

In Indonesia, for example, a failed national truth and reconciliation commission gave way to numerous disparate local reconciliation efforts. While these local truth telling sessions and dialogues made headway in some communities, the results on a national level were mixed, says Stein.

“Grassroots actors took it upon themselves to initiate reconciliation programs in their specific communities, but because they are operating at the grassroots level, this has resulted in a somewhat disjointed sense of national reconciliation,” she says.

In Liberia and Nicaragua, by contrast, grassroots efforts to repair relationships and address psychological trauma from war were supplemented by government-led initiatives to address lingering grievances and acts committed during the conflict on a national scale.

“In Liberia and Nicaragua, society really benefited from the hybrid approach, which was a top down and bottom up relationship,” says Canedo.

For example, Canedo explains, when local mental health outreach in Nicaragua began to show success in helping survivors overcome conflict-related trauma, national actors scaled up the program—even inaugurating a Master’s degree program in mental health at a local university to expand the pool of qualified personnel available to assist victims of the conflict.

These local-national partnerships are critical to scaling up reconciliation efforts from a micro to macro level so that good programs “don’t remain localized in the context from which they emerged and are able to spread to wherever their presence is relevant,” says Stein.

Local knowledge for better interventions

International partners are also often key allies of national governments and grassroots organizations in scaling up effective reconciliation efforts.

However, the researchers caution that to succeed, each intervention must be tailored to the local context and take into account the specific traditions and grievances of its community members and stakeholders.

“Local consultation is the way to start your program,” says Law. “It helps to avoid that prescriptive, Western approach that sometimes actors have when they go into local communities.”

Law says that by including local actors in the design and implementation of reconciliation activities, implementers can grow local capacity and increase the chances of programmatic success and sustainability.

In Nicaragua, for example the Catholic Church, which is a very central institution in the lives of many citizens, played a key role in leading truth telling sessions in a familiar setting, which already had credibility in the eyes of both victims and perpetrators.

“The church created an alternative commission….and worked at a community level, getting victims and perpetrators together to discuss their issues within this sanctified setting and come up with resolution and ways forward,” says O’Sullivan.

Ultimately, says the research team, whether specific reconciliation activities take place on a grassroots or national level, and whether they target individual or collective grievances and healing, practitioners must keep in mind that reconciliation is a long and multipronged process. Healing, the researchers say, takes time.

“There is a difference between reconciliation and forced integration,” says Stein. “You don’t have to have [a population] give up their identity or give up their independence to have a reconciled environment. But you can build social cohesion and reduce the distance between populations.”[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/12″][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/4″][vc_widget_sidebar sidebar_id=”sidebar-primary”][list_category_posts_widget title=”RELATED POSTS” cat_id=”130,131″ order_by=”date” numberposts=”3″ excerpt=”yes” excerpt_size=”15″][/vc_column][/vc_row]

Landing the first job — a critical milestone for at-risk youth

December 1, 2015

5 min read

The emotion of landing that first, formal job is tremendously powerful for an at-risk youth. It is also an important milestone as they transition to a successful adulthood.

In many economies around the world, such as those in Central America, easily 70 percent of all jobs are in the informal sector and don’t offer access to benefits such as holidays, worker protection and career advancement. Obtaining a job in the formal sector is daunting for even well-qualified candidates.

At-risk youth are typically 18 to 29 years old, have had very limited access to education and vocational training and live in high-crime communities. They may have experienced the trauma of violence, may find their mobility to be constrained because of gang boundaries and probably lack adequate family support.

For them, getting a job in the formal sector has often been out-of-reach.

Yet, nowhere is the importance of that first job more critical than in the high-violence neighborhoods across Central America, where a career path can help to keep at-risk youth on track for success and off the streets where they may become victims or even perpetrators of crime.

A high-functioning workforce development system provides at-risk youth with quality services to prepare them with the skills and access they need to get a job in the formal sector.

Solutions in El Salvador

Several workforce development system innovations developed by Creative Associates International in El Salvador may provide some solutions for at-risk youth.

In communities within 12 high-crime municipalities across the country, Creative Associates has worked closely with employers, youth and municipalities to prepare youth for work as part of the El Salvador Crime and Violence Prevention Project, which is supported by the U.S. Agency for International Development and other donors.

The innovative engine behind the approach is a cadre of trained, certified Municipal At-risk Youth Employment Counselors, who bridge the needs of area employers with the skills of the communities’ youth, aligning demand and supply for labor.

In just nine months of operation in 2015, these 12 Employment Counselors have placed 330 at-risk youth ages 17 to 29 in their first formal sector jobs across a broad range of manufacturing, services and agribusiness sectors.

Through rigorous analysis of the employment services availability in El Salvador’s high-crime municipalities, combined with extensive input from organizations and youth leaders, the Employment Counselors undertake three key activities. They are: Assist youth to prepare for formal sector employment through developing a work readiness profile; conduct labor market assessments; and match youth to job vacancies.

Creative Associates developed a curricula to build these competencies of these Employment Counselors. Our project identified qualified candidates and offered the required training, certifying graduates who demonstrated mastery of all three competencies.

The first class of Counselors was hired by 12 high-crime municipalities. The municipalities cover their salaries, the costs to operate the municipal employment office and travel expenses for their Employment Counselor. This model ensures sustainability of the counseling function once USAID funding ends.

Overcoming challenges facing at-risk youth

Creative’s innovative Municipal Employment Counselors initiative links youth with jobs.

At-risk youth face a host of challenges and pressures that constrain their ability to prepare for and get a job. They often have low educational attainment, limited vocational skills and low levels of connectedness to family and community.

Municipal Employment Counselors are well-versed in the unique needs of the at-risk youth they serve.

They assist the youth in preparing a curriculum vitae/profile that highlights the assets they have developed through sports, volunteering or their faith communities. Counselors conduct work readiness testing, identify youth areas of professional interest and assist youth in gathering the required paperwork and references. They meet weekly with their youth clients to advise them on job availability, career paths, required training and options for financing training.

Identifying opportunities through labor market assessments

High-quality labor market assessments are critical to building a workforce system that prepares students with the skills employers need. Without knowledge about the needs of employers and the demand for skills in the labor market, vocational training can be off target, resulting in a skills mismatch and roadblocks rather than opportunity.

Unfortunately, many labor assessments are incomplete.

Some focus solely on national level or sectoral level data. Others generate data on labor market needs but fail to get in the hands of the schools, the families and the youth who need it. Still others fail to take into account the educational background and mobility and safety constraints so common among at-risk youth.

Creative Associates worked with the Municipal Employment Counselors to empower them to conduct and regularly update a labor market assessment to rectify these shortcomings and identify job vacancies for their youth clients.

The Counselors rely on a number of tools, including:

Through a municipal database of employers, the Employment Counselors develop relationships with business owners and human resources managers. They check in frequently with them to identify their hiring needs.
Utilizing traditional media and online tools, the Employment Counselors continuously search for formal sector job opportunities.
Each Employment Counselor has an institutional Facebook page to engage youth and employers in posting opportunities for jobs and training, and celebrating successful job placements.

The Counselors create and update a database of youth skills and employer needs. They meet with their youth clients weekly at neighborhood Outreach Centers to prepare them for employment, providing them with guidance, interview practice and job matching.

This model for serving at-risk youth has proven effective at providing youth with the services they need to prepare for and obtain a first job in the formal sector, attaining a key milestone as they transition to a successful adulthood.

The model is easily adapted to other contexts in additional countries and municipalities. It is evidence-informed, building on the successful El Salvador pilot. It is sustainable, as the Municipal Employment Counselors are located in and funded by the local municipal offices. And it is systemic, targeting and overcoming key gaps in the workforce development infrastructure for at-risk youth.

Katy Vickland is the Workforce Development and Youth Employment Practice Area Director at Creative Associates International. Follow her on Twitter at @katyvickland.

At retreat, Honduran volunteers renew energy & ideas to prevent violence

November 30, 2015

1 min read

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At retreat, Honduran volunteers renew energy & ideas to prevent violence

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400 Honduran volunteers ramp up violence prevention efforts

November 30, 2015

5 min read

More than 400 volunteers with Alianza Joven Honduras-USAID are bringing renewed energy and lessons learned back to the youth they serve in some of the country’s most high-risk, crime-affected areas.

In four retreats held in cities across the country, the volunteers participated in trainings and exercises in leadership development, entrepreneurship, teambuilding and more to improve their implementation of violence prevention activities for at-risk youth at more than 46 neighborhood Outreach Centers.

Volunteers from the San Pedro Sula region work on a puzzle game at a volunteer retreat. Perseverance and problem-solving are key components of volunteer training. Photo by: Alejandro Rodriguez

These Outreach Centers are part of the Alianza Joven Honduras-USAID program, which supports community-based violence prevention initiatives from youth outreach centers to municipal violence prevention committees in partnership with local communities, the Honduran government and the U.S. Agency for International Development.

By bringing volunteers together and sharpening their skills, the program, which is implemented by Creative Associates International, helps to bolster a cadre of local leaders to reach thousands of youth in high-risk areas with mentorship and positive messages of nonviolent conflict resolution and youth empowerment.

“Volunteering is the backbone of the Outreach Centers, as it is an indispensable and valuable element of this violence prevention model. To operate adequately, all Outreach Centers must have the right people leading the different components, ensuring that a wide range of prevention services are offered to youth in these communities,” says Yolanda Torres, who works for Alianza Joven Honduras-USAID as a coordinator of volunteers.

The retreats also coincide with the launch of the program’s 5-Star Volunteer system—designed to recognize volunteers for outstanding contributions to youth crime and violence prevention and showcase the skills and competencies they have gained through their volunteerism.

For at-risk youth, volunteers provide a lifeline to alternative opportunities for education, recreation, personal growth and job skills training, off the streets and away from gang violence. Collectively, they are helping to expand opportunity and hope to young people in Honduras’ most violent neighborhoods.

“My neighborhood was known as one of the most dangerous in the city. I believe that has changed because of my volunteering and also because of my fellow volunteers,” says, Gerson Garcia, a volunteer at the Primero de Mayo Outreach Center in La Ceiba. “We’ve helped many young people to discover a lifestyle far away from the gangs. It’s possible.”

Joining a national volunteer movement

Emanuel Rodriguez, Communications Coordinator for Alianza Joven Honduras-USAID, interviews volunteers as part of a media training at a volunteer retreat in Tegucigalpa. Many volunteers are the public face of the Outreach Centers and public speaking is a critical skills for attracting new youth and community partners to the efforts. Photo by: Alejandro Rodriguez

Since the passage of the Honduran Volunteering Law in 2011, there has been growing recognition on a national scale of the value of volunteerism to address social challenges, like crime and violence. At the four retreats, volunteers participated in workshops to learn more about their right and duties under the law.

There is also a burgeoning national coalition working to strengthen volunteer-based organizations as a means of sustainable development in Honduras, called the Honduras Volunteer Network. As a program supported by thousands of volunteers in dozens of communities, the Alianza Joven Honduras Outreach Center network recently joined the coalition, which includes more than 40 organizations.

Renewed inspiration for volunteers

Working in some of the country’s most crime-affected and impoverished communities, Outreach Center volunteers face an untold number of challenges.

The volunteers, most of whom hail from the same communities as the youth they serve, know the difficulties of life there well—poverty, violence, peer pressure, a transnational family and more. For many, their own experiences have propelled them to take action.

“I decided to become an Outreach Center volunteer because I wish to see a change for my community. As an adult, I reflect on how my life would have turned out if Outreach Centers worked in my community when I was 11 or 12” years old, says Maura Rivas, a volunteer at the El Bufalo Outreach Center in La Ceiba. “An Outreach Center gives the opportunity for development both to volunteers and beneficiaries. Volunteers can share the gifts that God has granted them, while beneficiaries can discover a new lifestyle.”

For Rivas and her fellow volunteers, these retreats provide a much-needed space to step beyond their own communities, and share stories and lessons learned with volunteers from other areas.

Volunteers from Outreach Centers in La Ceiba pledge to work together for a more secure La Ceiba and a stronger Honduras. Photo by: David Medina

While volunteers may face similar challenges across communities, their approaches to overcoming these may vary and can provide valuable new insights, as Yerlin Banegas, a volunteer at the San Jose Outreach Center in San Pedro Sula, explains.

“My favorite part of attending these meetings is getting to know what volunteers in other communities go through because it may show us a new solution that we can do in our Outreach Center. It’s a very enriching experience,” she says.

For example, volunteers may learn new approaches for reaching out to at-risk youth who have not yet visited the Outreach Center. Recruitment can be one of the biggest challenges for volunteers, explains David Medina, Deputy Chief of Party for Alianza Joven Honduras-USAID.

“Through these retreats volunteers share their own ways to get new beneficiaries using creative methods and social media,” he says. “After the retreats volunteers apply those good practices and keep sharing information.”

For other volunteers, hearing about the successes of other Outreach Centers has provided the inspiration and encouragement they needed to ramp up violence prevention efforts in their neighborhoods.

“When there was a possibility to open an Outreach Center in my community, I thought it wouldn’t work,” says Karla Barnica, who has been volunteering at the Lopez Arellano Outreach Center in Choloma since it opened in 2010.

Barnica says that after her first volunteer retreat in 2011, her perspective changed.

“I went to meetings like this, talked to other volunteers and realized that Outreach Centers changed lives in other communities and it could happen in mine.”

As volunteers return to their communities from the retreats, they are eager to impart the knowledge they gained and apply fresh perspectives and techniques to their interactions with at-risk youth.

“I plan to open myself more with the youth, to share the difficult experiences I went through to give them an idea of what life on the streets is like. We need to show them virtues such as love, understanding and friendship. We leave this meeting more prepared and informed to develop a better role in our communities,” says Banegas.

Honduras: Together, volunteers work toward dream of violence-free Honduras

November 30, 2015

1 min read

For youth in Honduras’ most violent neighborhoods, volunteers with Alianza Joven Honduras-USAID are a lifeline to opportunity and hope. At a volunteer retreat, volunteers discuss what inspires them, how they support each other and the change they hope to create.

What human-centered design can do for international development

November 20, 2015

5 min read

A human-centered design process is a critical step that is often overlooked when making important decisions in technology for development.

In the development space, funding usually comes from a donor or an agency, and the service or products it benefits goes to a different place, local communities in need around the world. The indirect link between the donors and the beneficiaries can lead to a lack of accountability—as Dave Algoso explains in his blog on Reboot.org.

But practicing human-centered design, or user-centered design, which puts the needs, wants and limitations of users first in each stage of the design process, can help ensure that the services and products actually meet the needs of the end users—the communities we seek to empower and serve.

For example, funding a software product that requires high bandwidth connectivity when the population it is meant to serve has minimal Internet connectivity will not benefit that community. Similarly, a mobile banking tool utilizing lots of text may not be appropriate for low-literacy communities.

Not practicing human-centered design could mean wasting funding on initiatives that simply aren’t effective and losing collaborative opportunities for designing better solutions.

At this year’s UXDC conference, organized by the DC Chapter of the User Experience Professionals Association, technologists, development practitioners and design professionals gathered to discuss “Lessons and Challenges in Implementing User Centered Design and UX Practices in the International Development Sector.” Human-centered design is gaining more and more traction in the international development realm.

Is international development ready for human-centered design?

International development funding mechanisms are mainly donor-driven, and convincing donors to invest in user research, user experience design or iterative prototyping (all important tenets of human-centered design) can be a tough sell. Funding models in development are not ideally set up for iteration, a key component for human-centered design.

Development funds are often taxpayer-funded and somewhat restricted in how they can be spent. Investing in a process that may require more upfront work and iteration may be considered wasteful.

The Request for Proposal process is set up in a way that assumes we have enough information to make decisions when pitching a proposal, and the turnaround timelines are very short. This is challenging for proposing and implementing technology innovations since it leaves little room for a human-centered design process, which requires more upfront thought, needs assessment and iteration.

To add to the hurdles, there is a lot of the confusion in the vocabulary between the user experience community and the development and humanitarian communities. The two groups speak different languages.

For example, humanitarian and development communities use terms like “access,” “capture,” “accountability,” “dignity” and “livelihoods.” User experience communities use terms such as “co-design,” “user-centered,” “journey mapping” and “need-finding.”

But there is room for finding common ground, if not a common language.

Some parts of the human-centered design process are already implemented (to some degree) in development but described and worded differently.

For example, the “capture” phase in development is when “need-finding” occurs in design. “Need-finding” is an essential part of human-centered design, where we understand the needs, limitations and concerns of the target users. The “capture” phase in development performs a similar task, but could be further enhanced by making the beneficiary more central to this research and make use of some of the design research method tools used in the human-centered design process.

Importance of participatory design

Despite the challenges, there are many opportunities to promote and improve on the use of human-centered design practices within development

For example, participatory design attempts to actively involve all stakeholders (e.g. employees, partners, customers, citizens, and end users) in the design process to help ensure the result meets their needs and is usable. This directly relates to the first principle of the Principles for Digital Development: “Design with the user.” A participatory design process builds collaboration across various internal teams that often work in silos: programs, technology, grants, procurement, and more.

However, “design with the user” isn’t always as easy.

Within development and humanitarian spaces, often the user or the person most affected could be a part of an extremely vulnerable group or hard to reach, and working directly with extremely vulnerable groups is not always possible or advised. In addition, funding restrictions may inhibit participatory design. For example, some U.S. government agencies won’t allow more than 10 external persons to participate in projects due to funding restrictions.

Also, there are multiple groups of stakeholders in development: community members, community leaders, development staff, development staff managers, donors, and more. Balancing and prioritizing needs is a challenge.

Bridging the development-user experience divide

There is a lack of understanding across user experience professionals and international development communities—a fact confirmed by panelists and participants at the UXDC session. But it is not an unbridgeable gap. More conversations and discussions around this topic are needed and panels, like the one at UXDC, help bridge this gap.

While there are many obstacles to implementing the entire human-centered design process and methods in international development projects, there are positive trends—including the emergence of development labs and innovation hubs with an emphasis on capacity building for teams and human-centered design training.

There also seems to be receptiveness and an eagerness among local innovators in developing countries to move forward with human-centered design.

For example, Creative Associates International worked in Honduras using a human-centered design approach, and performed research in partnership with the local field staff, to understand how the computer lab could better serve the wants and need of the community.

Creative trained the local Honduran staff and performed user interviews together, synthesized the results and brainstormed solutions together. Creative is now in the process of testing and iterating some of the proposed solutions. The team there is very positive and enthusiastic about this process, and they are leading it forward and are seeing how the work they are doing can make a big impact.

Caktus offers similar services to clients and recently conducted a discovery workshop in Turkey with a humanitarian NGO serving local refugee communities. The discovery workshop was conducted with roughly 15 client staff and utilized a series of brainstorming, mapping, outlining, crowdsourcing and voting activities to develop terms of success, user personas, journey maps and defined a minimum viable product.

Caktus has since been working with this client to co-design and iteratively build a custom web application that fits their unique needs.

Human-centered design principles are already being utilized in many development programs, but there are many more opportunities for improvement. Better metrics and further discussion and collaboration of human-centered design practice in development can help to address the challenges, demonstrate value and achieve lasting results in people’s lives.

Gina Assaf is a Product and User Experience Manager with the Technology for Development team at Creative Associates International. Tania Lee is a SMS & Web Product Strategist at Caktus Group. To read the Caktus Group blog, please visit. https://www.caktusgroup.com/blog/

For more information about the UXDC community or to join the human-centered design working group, please contact Gina Assaf, [email protected]; Tania Lee, [email protected]; or Ayan Kishore, [email protected].