Human traffickers prey on people in crisis, and the global economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and associated public health restrictions have left many people desperate for necessities and vulnerable to deceptive and unscrupulous economic exploitation. At least in Myanmar, people are becoming increasingly desperate for employment and are willing to overlook known risks of…
Heather Goldsmith was formerly the human rights advisor for the Asia Business Unit.
USAID’s Security Sector Governance (SSG) project, implemented by Chemonics, compiled a list of SSG and rule of law resources, including guides, reports, and other resources to assist in the design, implementation, and evaluation of SSG-related programs.
Community justice projects primarily seek to improve and provide local communities with catered access to justice services. This includes legal assistance, developing community-level institutions, and outreach efforts to improve community-justice sector relations. Common desired outcomes of community justice programs include faster case adjudication, improved accountability, and improved trust between the justice sector and the community.…
In Mexico, crimes such as assaults, muggings, public disturbances, and robberies are frequent. Because local authorities often do not address these crimes, citizens lose trust in government and become reluctant to cooperate with law enforcement. This dynamic weakens the ability of the justice system to successfully investigate and prosecute crimes. The Violence Prevention and Reduction…
Alejandro Ruiz-Acevedo currently serves as the chief of party on Inclusive Justice project in Colombia, after concluding his stewardship of the preceding Justice for a Sustainable Peace project in Colombia. He is an experienced chief of party and development specialist with more than 19 years of experience, including with institutional strengthening programs and local initiatives…
Author’s Note: We drafted this blog post and scheduled it to publish before the killing of George Floyd and the ensuing protests for justice and reform. Our original intention was to highlight the importance of security sector reform (SSR) work for international development programs. We believe that the recent events in the United States related…
Artisanal and small-scale gold mining (ASGM) is an important economic activity in many rural areas, with a long tradition in Colombia. High rates of informality undermine governance, security, and legal economies, and cause significant environmental and social impacts. As the government of Colombia consolidates post-conflict conditions, the United States and Switzerland are providing assistance through…
Understanding cultural norms is essential to achieving results in development interventions and preventing interventions from causing unintended negative consequences. However, capturing norms within everyday contexts in ways that can be monitored and evaluated can be expensive and time consuming and is not always feasible. We tested a novel method, the cultural consensus analysis (CCA), in…
This chapter was written by Chemonics employees Enrique Betancourt and Todd Diamond as part of an anthology published by the Center for Strategic & International Studies (CSIS) entitled “Sharpening Our Efforts: The Role of International Development in Countering Violent Extremism.” It proposes five principles aimed at countering and preventing violent extremism: adapting to the unstable…
Nearly half of Latin American countries rank among the nations with the highest impunity scores worldwide, suggesting that criminal justice systems lack resources to prosecute and try crimes effectively in a context of widespread crime and violence. Yet, Latin America has the partners, the resources, and the interest to tap one promising solution to the…
Ariana Szepesi-Colmenares, a citizen security and governance specialist with 13 years of international development experience, serves as Chemonics’ Director for New Business Development in Latin America and the Caribbean, overseeing business development across a wide array of technical sectors, including rule of law, citizen security, environmental conservation, economic growth, youth and women empowerment. Previously, Ariana…