Gather data. Analyze patterns. Take evidence-based action
On March 19, 2026, as part of the UNODC Data Collection Campaign, the General Secretariat of the Central American Integration System (SG-SICA), in coordination with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and the Organization of American States (OAS), held a technical workshop aimed at strengthening regional capacities in information generation and management.
The meeting brought together technical teams from various areas of the SG-SICA, Adriana Oropeza, Head of the UNODC-INEGI Center of Excellence (CdE); Karen Bozicovich, Chief of Information and Knowledge at the OAS Department of Public Security; Pablo Martínez, OAS Officer; and Carlos Pérez, UNODC Regional Officer on Trafficking in Persons and Smuggling of Migrants; as well as their technical teams.
This was a forum designed for the exchange of experiences, the review of methodologies, and the identification of best practices. In this context, it was emphasized that data collection is not merely an operational exercise, but an essential component for understanding criminal phenomena and guiding more effective institutional responses.
During the event’s opening ceremony, the Director of Democratic Security, Mr. Hefer Morataya, highlighted the importance of these forums for knowledge exchange, which provide an opportunity to learn about products, data, and best practices, as well as to strengthen collaboration among regional agencies.
During her remarks, Adriana Oropeza presented the regional mandate of the Center of Excellence and its main knowledge products, including victimization surveys, classifiers, manuals, and statistical frameworks. These latter elements are fundamental pillars for the harmonization and visibility of data and the classification of crimes.
Following this, Karen Bozicovich and Pablo Martínez discussed the main components of the United Nations Study on Crime Trends and the Functioning of Criminal Justice Systems (UN-CTS), which UNODC implements globally, and the support it provides to countries throughout the year to ensure comprehensive and consistent data.
In addition, Adriana Oropeza presented four other specialized UNODC questionnaires on drugs, firearms trafficking, and human trafficking: the Questionnaire for the Annual Report on Drugs, the Individual Drug Seizures Questionnaire, the United Nations Questionnaire on Illicit Firearms Trafficking, and the Questionnaire for the Global Report on Trafficking in Persons. Together, these instruments enable the systematic collection of information, using common methodological criteria, on the magnitude of the phenomenon, the profiles of those involved (including victims and perpetrators), the characterization of events in terms of time, place, routes, and context, the dynamics of illicit markets, and the response of institutions and the criminal justice system. They also underscore the importance of inter-agency coordination, the use of metadata, counting rules, and the regulatory framework to ensure an adequate, comparable, and useful interpretation of the information.
These five questionnaires form the core of UNODC’s global data collection system, enabling the generation of comparable statistics on crime, drugs, arms, and human trafficking.
🌐 https://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/data-and-analysis/data-collection.html
Likewise, the Center of Excellence presented the analytical use of information reported by countries, which feeds into UNODC’s global products such as the World Drug Report, which helps gauge the scope of drug trafficking originating in Latin America and the Caribbean, as well as the Global Report on Trafficking in Persons 2025, which highlights distinct patterns at the global level, such as the distribution of victims by sex, age, and type of exploitation—including girls and men—thereby reinforcing the value of this data for a comprehensive understanding of criminal phenomena.
This information is available at:
🌐 Portal de datos de UNODC: https://dataunodc.un.org
📊 Informe Mundial sobre las Drogas: https://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/data-and-analysis/wdr.html
👥 Informe Mundial sobre la Trata de Personas 2025: https://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/data-and-analysis/glotip.html
This experience-sharing process is an activity within the framework of the project funded by the Italian Single Cooperation Fund (FUIC), administered by the Central American Bank for Economic Integration (CABEI), and implemented by the SG-SICA, aimed at strengthening institutional capacities to generate timely, transparent, and useful information for decision-making in the region.