Crime and violence remain a key development challenge for the Central American region, particularly El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras, where crime rates are among the highest in Latin America and the world, and a key driver of illegal immigration to the United States.  In addressing this problem, accurate, reliable and timely information is vital to effective decision-making. 

USAID’s InfoSegura project with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) provides countries in the Central American region and Dominican Republic the data and statistics they need to develop effective crime prevention strategies and programs.  The project also trains institutions and civil society in understanding and analyzing crime data. 

InfoSegura works all along the chain of information management (information collection, analysis, use and dissemination) to strengthen evidence-based public policymaking. This is achieved through: (1) Improving regional and national capacity for collecting, monitoring and processing information regarding security, and its use in decision-making and policymaking at both levels; (2) Strengthening civil society capacity for collecting, analyzing and processing information on citizen safety and monitoring policies and programs on citizen safety; and, (3) supporting regional level knowledge management to enhance understanding of fundamental causes of violence and insecurity, and to promote successful policies and practices in citizen safety.

InfoSegura has advanced the construction of a regional, harmonized database for multidimensional analysis on citizen security issues.

The project has also helped strengthen the linkages among governments, academia and civil society to analyze gaps, address challenges and set common actions and strategies to tackle violence and insecurity from a multidimensional perspective.