Towards Better Design of At-Risk Migrant Programs in Honduras

March 14, 2019

Source: AP/Photo Under License

An estimated 60 percent of the one million Hondurans who live in the US are believed to be undocumented – which means immigration issues are at the top of the list for both countries. The country strategy developed by the Honduras Mission of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) seeks to address the causes of immigration. Dexis Consulting Group is supporting the Mission with the goal of reducing violence and crime, particularly among vulnerable populations by assisting the Mission in the monitoring, evaluation and learning (MEL) of its development activities. A focus of the work has been in supporting the Mission’s ability to determine the effectiveness of USAID-supported interventions aimed at increasing citizen security for vulnerable populations in urban, high-crime areas and; sustainably reducing extreme poverty for vulnerable populations in Western Honduras with attention to the cross-cutting theme of gender and vulnerable population, as well as migration. Dexis’ recent monitoring and evaluation efforts in this area has included:

Undertaking a longitudinal analysis of all the existing data of a leading activity by USAID’s Office of Transition Initiative. This work included perception surveys of high crime communities over a five-year period and focus on the program’s impact on the communities’ perceptions of safety, security, and police performance. The work is informing USAID’s programming going forward, as well as supporting the Department of State’s Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement.
Conducting a survey on victimization and perception to learn about people’s perceptions of security, experience of victimization, and issues such as police presence in the community and securing access to basic services.
Conducted a multi-phase study on migration, examining data over a five-year period and identifying the main drivers for migration from Honduras to the US. The study used datasets from different agencies in the US and Honduras.

Beyond assessing and evaluating the work, the Dexis team actively shares the knowledge learned from surveys through briefings, seminars and workshops. More recently, the team:

Briefed Mission staff about the multi-phase study on migration, focusing on migration trends, drivers, and predictors of migration.
Facilitated a Migration Learning Seminar, with participants from the Mission, USAID Washington, staff from regional offices, migration experts from academia, international organizations, and US and Honduran governmental agencies. The seminar focused on irregular migration and developing action steps for continued, collaborative learning about undocumented migration through Mission programs.
Facilitated a listening event on political change and brought together Mission staff, local journalists, government officials, and civil society representatives to discuss how to involve local actors in programming.
Produced a literature review to inform the design of a new secondary violence prevention activity that could also inform the upcoming Country Development Cooperation Strategy design process.

The services provided under this contract combine the importance of monitoring and evaluation efforts with the collaborating, adapting, and learning approach, which means USAID can ensure future investments in Honduras in a manner that is a win-win for all.