Honduras, Safer Municipalities
The objectives of the Safer Municipalities Project for Honduras are to support: (i) to improve the capacities of national and local authorities in violence prevention, (ii) to address risk factors of crime and violence in selected municipalities, and (iii) to improve the authorities’ capacity to respond promptly and effectively to an eligible emergency. There are four components to the project, the first component being institutional strengthening of national-level violence prevention. This component includes two subcomponents: strengthening Secretariat of Security (SEDS) capacity to guide, coordinate, and oversee violence prevention activities, and strengthening the capacity of SEDS and selected municipalities to collect and process violence data. The second component is the integrated crime and violence prevention at municipal and community levels. The third component is the project administration and monitoring and evaluation. Finally, the fourth component is the Immediate Response Mechanism (IRM) contingent component. This component includes the provision of support to respond to an eligible emergency. Committed Amount: US$ 15.00 million.

Activities:
The Safer Municipalities Program aims to strengthen the capacity of municipal governments to plan and manage citizen security in an integrated manner and following evidence-informed practices. It is a coordinating or umbrella program that strengthens the role of other partners needed to implement services. Its role is not to implement specific subprojects or services at the municipal level. Instead, it has a normative, catalytic/coordinating, and learning/oversight function: - to develop norms and tools that are evidence-informed and evidence-based (on municipal planning, youth violence programming, etc.) - to promote their adoption among local governments through partnerships with public agencies (i.e., facilitating agreements between local government and community policing efforts) and private sector actors (i.e., facilitating agreements between youth at risk employability programs and local businesses), and - to monitor and evaluate results to provide a feedback loop into program design, and incentives/disincentives for performance.

http://www.worldbank.org/projects/P130819/hn-safer-municipalities?lang=en

Beneficiaries: Honduran population

Partners and financing: Government of Honduras

Addressing Youth Violence through Cultural and Music Learning in El Salvador
To offer kids an alternative to gang life, a Bank supported project attempts to keep at-risk youth busy through cultural and musical activities. The initiative also encourages them to develop skills in music and the arts. The program’s goal is to create a music academy and a choir for young people. The project is also creating a youth symphony orchestra and implements participatory cultural dissemination activities in San Salvador risk zones.

Activites:
Creation of a music academy for teenagers - Creation of a symphony orchestra composed by teenagers from selected schools - Cultural and community engagement activities to foster community participation of teenagers - Institutional strengthening of the implementing agency to ensure a sustainable program execution.

http://www.worldbank.org/projects/P116646/addressing-youth-violence-through-cultural-music-learning?lang=en&tab=overview

Beneficiaries: 175 at-risk students in El Salvador

Partners and financing: Government of El Salvador, Asociación Proarte

Colombia Protection Land and Patrimony of Internally Displaced Persons
The main objective of the Third Phase of the Protection of Land and Patrimony of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) Project is to diminish the risk of impoverishment of displaced persons and contribute to the peace-building process in Colombia by promoting the application of measures to protect their patrimonial assets, provision of land titles for those IDPs whose rights have been protected but do not have legal titles, and proposing public policy initiatives for restitution of properties to IDPs.

Activities:
The Project has two main components: - Component 1 - Supporting reparation and restitution of land and assets to IDPs: - Formalization of restitution of land and territory to the victims of violence: a. Strengthen the knowledge management system to collect good practice and lessons learned and disseminate these throughout the Restitution Unit (including local offices) and other key government institutions. b. Strengthen the information system and interconnectivity of land administration and national information network. c. Strengthen the strategies for violence prevention and security for the implementation of restitution policy. d. Strengthen the training/capacity building strategy and corporate communications of the Restitution Unit; includes the transfer of tools, methodologies and procedures for restitution through outreach, training and advice to officials at the national and territorial levels. e. Support the development and testing of institutional plans (security, communications, training, and quality and risk management) in order to ensure sufficient organizational capacity at the administrative and judicial stages of the restitution process. f. Design and implement a land restitution “observatory” as a tool for monitoring land policy. g. Strengthen the coordination with the Victims Unit for integrated reparations to the victims. - Component 2 - Assisting and supporting communities to safeguard their rights to land and territory: - Accompanying communities to safeguard their rights to land and territory: a. Design and implement a communications strategy designed to inform communities and organizations on key issues, aimed at ensuring their participation in the process of restitution of land rights under the Victims Law. b. Disseminate materials and differential approaches (gender, age, ethnicity) to inform and train victims and community actors on mechanisms for the enforcement of their rights to land and collective territories. c. Train leaders, representatives and community authorities to understand and manage the different routes to restitution.

http://www.worldbank.org/projects/P115630/co-protection-land-patrimony-idp?lang=en&tab=overview

Beneficiaries: IDPs in Colombia

Partners and financing: Government of Colombia, International Organization for Migration

Solutions to Violence Network (RESOL-V)
On initiative of the World Bank, a regional network, RESOL-V, was created which brings together authorities and experts from different sectors (governments, academia, private sector, international organizations and civil society) to jointly design and implement solutions to citizen security challenges. The initiative promotes the ongoing exchange of ideas for addressing citizen insecurity across the region and aims to strengthen the capacity of Central American institutions to conduct evidence-based policymaking.

Activities:
RESOL-V facilitates the generation, translation, assessment, and use of evidence for crime prevention policy and programming, and builds the capacity of institutions to carry out more effective programming. By connecting and strengthening centers of expertise in Central America and linking them to decision-makers and practitioners, it promotes the use of evidence-based approaches to citizen security in the region. The primary audience for RESOL-V includes mayors and their technical teams, officials of line ministries, the private sector, and academics and professionals involved in violence prevention and citizen security.

Beneficiaries: Populations of Central American States

Partners and financing: State- and Peace-Building Multi Donor Trust Fund, Governments of SICA

Strengthening the Capacity of the Central American Integration System
The objective of this project is to strengthen the capacity of the Sistema de Integracion Centroamericana (SICA)'s Democratic Security Unit (the Unit in charge of developing the Central America Citizen Security Strategy) to coordinate regional initiatives on citizen security through improved strategic planning, coordination, and monitoring and evaluation. The specific objective of this project is to support SICA's efforts to revise and operationalize further its Central American Democratic Security strategy, particularly by ensuring that it incorporates elements from the various sectors needed to successfully prevent/reduce crime and violence (i.e. education, social protection, criminal justice, etc.), and that it follows an inclusive process (i.e. involves not only national governments, but local governments, civil society, the private sector, and the donor community). It ensures that the strategy includes a major emphasis on the collection of accurate, reliable, and comparable data/information systems on crime and violence in the region, both by strengthening the Regional Observatory on Crime and Violence (OBSICA), as well as by strengthening the network of national and local violence observatories.

Activities:
Component 1 - Support to development of SICA's Citizen Security Strategy for Central America: This component finances activities aimed at supporting the revision and development of the Citizen Security Strategy for Central America. Support to SICA is provided in two specific areas: (i) assistance with revision and development of the Strategy; (ii) assistance in following-up with the implementation of the strategy by providing technical assistance to national governments and financing follow-up meetings. 2. Component: Coordination efforts with Civil Society and the private sector: This component finances activities to ensure that there is ongoing dialogue and coordinated actions among all key stakeholders, and that the strategic planning process being carried out by SICA in the area of citizen security is inclusive and represents all of the key stakeholders, such as national and local governments, donor agencies, and civil society, thereby increasing coordination and the likelihood of sustainability and success of the regional Strategy and Action Plan.

Beneficiaries: Populations of Central American States

Partners and financing: Institutional Development Fund, Governments of SICA