Regional forum on evidence for evidence-based policy making in Central America and the Dominican Republic

On the 23rd and 24th of November, the Center of Excellence in Statistical Information on Government, Crime, Victimization and Justice held a regional meeting to reflect on evidence-based policy making with the support of the Regional Office of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) within the cooperation framework of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) through the INFOSEGURA project.

During this meeting, various uses were presented for the information generated from the victimization surveys for academic research, as the main input in designing and monitoring public policies in the region and as a source of data to report on the progress of Goal 16 of the Sustainable Development Goals.

On the other hand, the countries became aware of the challenges and advances of the implementation of victimization surveys and the International Classification of Crimes for Statistical Purposes (ICCS). Representatives were present from the Belize Police Department (BPD), National Security Council Secretariat of Belize, Violence Observatory of the Ministry of Justice and Peace of the Republic of Costa Rica, Judicial Investigation Agency, Ministry of Justice and Public Security of the Republic of El Salvador, Ministry of Interior , National Institute of Statistics (INE) , National Civilian Police (PNC), the Technical Unit for Interinstitutional Coordination (UTECI) of Honduras, Institution for the study of security and governance A.C. (FESEGO), National Integrated System of Criminal Statistics (SIEC), the National Institute for Statistics and Census of Panama , Attorney General´s Office of the Republic of the Dominican Republic. In addition, officials from the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) were present in each of the above countries.

At the end of the sessions, the Center of Excellence reiterated its willingness to continue supporting the countries of the region in the implementation of their own victimization survey and the International Classification of Crimes for Statistical purposes.