Prime Implementer

International Rescue Committee (IRC)

Implementing Partners

El Salvador: Fundación para la Educación Integral Salvadoreña (FEDISAL), Fundación Empresarial para la Acción Social (FUNDEMAS), Fundación Salvadoreña para Desarrollo Económico y Social (FUSADES), and Universidad Centroamericana José Simeón Cañas (UCA);

Guatemala: Empresarios por la Educación (ExE), Fundación para el Desarrollo de Guatemala (FUNDESA), Jóvenes contra la Violencia (JCV-GT), and Universidad del Valle de Guatemala (UVG); and

Honduras: Fundación Hondureña de Responsibilidad Social Empresarial (FUNDAHRSE), Jóvenes contra la Violencia (JCVH), and Universidad Pedagógica Nacional Francisco Morazán (UPNFM).

Project Timeline

October 2021 – September 2024

Project Goals

Development Objective: Key education stakeholders in Northern Central America (NCA) use knowledge and evidence in education processes and systems that contribute to the prevention of youth violence

RETO seeks to create the demand for sustainable, effective solutions for youth violence prevention through evidence-based education programming and policymaking. RETO engages key education stakeholders, including youth, to identify gaps in their knowledge, execute evidence-seeking strategies, and translate the results into knowledge products that impact educational programming and policymaking designed to prevent violence in Northern Central America (Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras).

RETO works toward its development objective through four complementary results:

Existing evidence and knowledge on education’s role in violence prevention is gathered and curated to address the expressed needs of key stakeholders.
Evidence is translated and disseminated for utilization by key stakeholders.
Customized, demand-driven technical assistance provided to key stakeholders to help them utilize research findings and related best practices.
Countries’ knowledge systems strengthened to improve the use of evidence and data in decision making around education for youth violence prevention.

Brief Background

In the NCA countries of El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras, migration numbers continue to swell as the region grapples with insecurity, natural disasters, and the economic effects of the COVID-19 global pandemic. Urban violence, limited education resources, and gaps in workforce readiness remain obstacles for youth across the region. Additionally, gathering and applying evidence to design policies and programs to reduce violence requires significant time, resources, and capacity, which education stakeholders in the region often lack.

RETO aims to engage key education stakeholders across the region to identify gaps in their knowledge, execute focused search strategies for relevant evidence, and translate the results into actionable guidance for education programming and policymaking to ultimately prevent violence across El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras. IRC leverages its Evidence to Action (E2A) team to provide strategic guidance to put research into practice, ensuring that youth also have a direct role in enhancing programs and policies that impact them.

To drive this work in each country, IRC works with a team of 11 national organizations, respected local thought leaders, and existing USAID partners, including youth, researchers, policy advocates, educators, and representatives of the private sector.

With funding under the YouthPower mechanism, RETO strives to increase the agency, assets, and contributions of young people throughout the Life of the Activity, in addition to improving the enabling environment in NCA to leverage their active participation more effectively. Through positive youth development (PYD), RETO aims to contribute to USAID’s vision for young people to advance their own livelihoods and help solve their country’s development challenges. RETO will also explore how to most effectively engage youth from at-risk communities and other diverse youth, such as young mothers, students, youth with disabilities, LGBTIQ+ youth, indigenous and afro-descendant youth, and youth from other under-represented communities.

Overview of Activities

Year 1

In Year 1, RETO will focus on outcomes under Result 1. Foundational activities include a stakeholder mapping process and a mapping of existing evidence related to violence prevention, which will inform and guide RETO’s direction in Years 2 and 3. Key initiatives will also launch under Result 4 during the year to promote outcomes related to coordination and private sector investment, contributing to the sustainability of the use of evidence after the Life of the Activity. RETO will also implement discrete, strategic activities under Results 2 and 3, shifting focus to these result areas in later years of implementation.

During Year 1, two core activities will serve as foundational capacity building opportunities for participating youth: 1) Youth Research Internship Program and 2) Youth Leadership and Advocacy Training. Once youth have further developed life skills, advocacy skills, research skills, and leadership skills through these programs, they will be prioritized for involvement in RETO’s advocacy activities, which include intergenerational dialogues, national exchanges, and in-kind grants. Participating youth from Year 1 will be able to continue participating in RETO’s advocacy activities throughout the Life of the Activity. This process of foundational capacity development and then hands-on advocacy or civic engagement will be repeated in Years 2 and 3, every year inviting new cohorts of youth to engage with the Activity and to expand RETO’s reach with the youth demographic.

Year 2

Year 2, with the key input of the country evidence reports in each country, will focus on Result 2 for the development of strategic knowledge products. The knowledge products developed will be directly linked to the curated pieces of evidence identified in Year 1. RETO’s partners will work alongside young people in the three countries to widely disseminate the knowledge products and key evidence to key education stakeholders, reaching regional and international audiences. Youth and private sector actors will more actively engage in direct advocacy efforts to increase awareness of the importance of evidence-based decision making (EBDM) and increase investment in evidence for violence prevention in the education sector. A refresher of the mapping exercise under Result 1 will be conducted to capture and curate any additional evidence published within the year.

Year 3

In Year 3, RETO will focus on Results 3 and 4, ensuring that key education stakeholders have the capacity to continue EBDM, and that the knowledge system is strong enough to sustain RETO activities in the long term. While continuing to disseminate critical evidence and knowledge products, RETO will prioritize activities under Result 3, working with key education stakeholders to more effectively use evidence in their programming and policymaking. RETO will further strengthen the knowledge system in the three countries by generating greater investment in EBDM, through increased private sector investment, and through the development of coalition plans with key actions that may continue after the Activity ends.

Expected Results

Three education systems strengthened, which may include the development or modification of laws, policies, or regulations
21 pieces of evidence or knowledge curated that inform the role of education in violence prevention
Nine country evidence reports with gap maps generated
Knowledge products developed by RETO to be used by key education stakeholders in NCA for the prevention of youth violence.
300 education administrators and officials completed professional development activities
70% of education administrators and officials in NCA demonstrated increased knowledge to promote the use of evidence in education policy and programming
50% of key education stakeholders in NCA used evidence-based decision making
900 youth trained in soft skills/life skills
50% of youth participated in civic engagement activities
Value of private capital mobilized to support education
50% of RETO’s partner organizations demonstrated increased organizational capacity in the application of methodologies for the use of evidence

Project Materials

Contact

For more information contact RETO’s Chief of Party Juan Carlos Rodríguez (JuanCarlos.Rodriguez@rescue.org) or Deputy Chief of Party Katie Appel (katie.appel@rescue.org).

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