J.1 Section C - Statement of Objectives SOO.pdf

SECTION C: STATEMENT OF OBJECTIVES

C.1 PURPOSE

This Activity will increase the capacity of the Government of Mexico (GOM) and local stakeholders to prevent and reduce crime and violence by expanding the adoption of civic justice and evidence-driven policing strategies nationally. The Activity will additionally collaborate with civil society, academia, and the private sector to advance innovative approaches to prevent and reduce community-level violence.

C.2 BACKGROUND

Levels of violence remain exceedingly high in Mexico. Youth are especially affected as both perpetrators and victims in mutually reinforcing cycles of violence. In 2022, more than 33,000 crimes were committed against underage youth in Mexico, including 13,000 homicides and 95 femicides. Nationwide, more than 66,000 people between ages 18 and 29 are in prison, and assaults and homicides are the main causes of death for people between 15 and 25 years old.

High-risk youth are also more vulnerable to recruitment by Transnational Criminal Organizations (TCOs). Between 2015 and 2018, the country saw a 153 percent increase in TCO recruitment; an estimated 30,000 youth were enlisted to fill the ranks of TCOs during that time period.

Considering its low cost and high impact, prevention is the most efficient approach to stemming crime and violence in Mexico, and must be a central component of any strategy to improve citizen security. Advancing strong policies and initiatives to prevent, rather than simply respond to, violence not only strengthens community safety, but may also bolster the Mexican economy and stimulate private sector investment.

The 2021 Bicentennial Security Framework, signed on October 8, 2021, marked a shift in security cooperation between the United States and Mexico. Within this Framework, the U.S.

and Mexican governments agreed to collaborate on Crime and Violence Prevention (CVP) priorities, including preventing youth violence, consolidating civic justice, and strengthening local police.

Through previous activities, USAID has designed and implemented evidence-driven crime prevention models with a strong focus on youth. USAID partnered with local actors to strengthen civic justice in 32 cities and worked with states to expand the model further. Despite progress made, the civic justice model remains limited to a small number of municipalities.

USAID has additionally assisted seven municipalities in implementing Problem Oriented Policing (POP) and Community Policing models, and has provided technical assistance to five cities and their corresponding attorneys general offices to increase collaboration and information sharing on specific crimes. Challenges remain; however, and a rise in TCO activity threatens to escalate crime, violence, and youth recruitment in communities across Mexico.

USAID currently implements community-driven reintegration support for at-risk youth and youth in conflict with the law, helping reduce violence and recidivism. These approaches also consider police officers' participation to strengthen and institutionalize reintegration in target communities.

This Activity will build on past and ongoing crime and violence prevention programming aimed at reducing criminal activity and violence by supporting at-risk youth and expanding civic justice and evidence-based policing models. It will also utilize good practices in People-to-People programming to safely bring together groups or individuals who previously have been in conflict around these common objectives [1]

C.3 CONTRACT LENGTH AND PLACE OF PERFORMANCE

This contract will be implemented over the course of five years nationally, in an estimated 200 municipalities and 20 states. The offeror must carefully prioritize states and municipalities for implementation, utilizing the following selection criteria:

● Federal Government priority states;

● State government capacity and openness to engagement;

● Municipal government capacity, including police and justice sector strength;

● Private sector commitment to crime reduction initiatives;

● Availability and quality of pertinent data;

● Local crime and violence dynamics;

● Complementarity with other USG interventions.

C.4 PERFORMANCE OBJECTIVES AND RESULTS

The activity will advance the following development hypothesis:

IF civic justice is scaled nationally through cross-sector collaboration AND the data analysis, investigation, and community policing capacity of municipal police is improved THEN violence and crime will be prevented and reduced AND youth and community resilience to the impact of violence will be strengthened.

The activity will drive forward the development hypothesis through three interrelated activity objectives:

Objective 1: The civic justice model is expanded and consolidated nationally in municipalities across the country.

The offeror must create a collaborative mechanism at the state level to expand the civic justice model at the municipal level. The offeror will provide technical support to this mechanism and will oversee its provision of technical assistance and training to municipal officers within civic courts, police departments, other municipal units, and local civil society and private sector actors, to expand and consolidate civic justice at the municipal level.

The offeror must collaborate with municipalities to establish updated regulatory frameworks for the effective operation of the civic justice model. The offeror must collaborate with civic courts to ensure they have professional staff, appropriate facilities, and financial resources to apply risk assessment tools and medical assessments, carry out public hearings, assess and channel offenders to treatment institutions and organizations, monitor progress, and deliver reports on the court’s work. The offeror must help civic courts to regularly communicate and share information on progress and results with their constituencies and other justice institutions, including at the state level.

The offeror must facilitate coordination between municipal justice, law enforcement institutions, civil society, and the private sector, to broaden and strengthen non-punitive sentencing for offenders. The activity should leverage People-to-People (P2P) approaches, among others, to reduce the potential of conflict and increase constructive collaboration towards these goals. In particular, the offeror must help civic courts and state justice institutions coordinate and share information on recidivism rates and the evolution of violence and criminal incidence in the region to drive stronger security strategies.

The offeror may provide sub-grants to local organizations to serve as treatment providers for civic justice offenders on matters of substance abuse, anger management, mental health, and other risk factors. These grants must include defined sustainability mechanisms, so local actors can provide continuity of care independently after the grant comes to an end. The offeror may also support specialized CSOs, municipal agencies, and universities in their efforts to treat civic justice offenders.

The offeror must ensure private sector engagement in the expansion and strengthening of civic justice, first, by assessing synergies between private sector priorities and the use of civic justice as a mechanism for violence prevention. The offeror must engage with business leaders' associations to activate their financial, institutional, and political support for civic justice. At a policy level, the offeror must advocate that all tiers of government incorporate the expansion, consolidation, monitoring, and evaluation of the civic justice system into their security agendas.

The offeror must liaise with the federal government to secure its contribution in this space, including through political support for the adoption of civic justice by more local governments and the establishment of a national civic justice law.

Indicative results under this objective are:

● 25% reduction from baseline of the recidivism rate of civic justice offenders

● 25% increase from baseline in the protective factors of civic justice offenders provided alternative sentencing

● 25% increase from baseline in the use of alternative sentencing in civic justice courts

● 200 municipalities fully implement the civic justice model with the activity’s support

● 50% increase in the number of therapeutic and non-therapeutic treatment and community service options civic courts can offer offenders

● 25% of the public reporting satisfaction with the civic justice model at the local level

The offeror must propose measurable performance indicators and targets to track the expansion of civic courts and their functionality, including coordination with police departments and justice institutions.

Objective 2: Data-driven policing strategies are adopted nationally by municipal police departments across the country.

The offeror must partner with federal and state governments to devise strategies and implement programs that strengthen the institutional capacity of municipal law enforcement to address crime.

The offeror must support local police departments to adopt innovative, data-driven approaches to prevent and reduce violent incidents and crime in their jurisdictions. P2P approaches, among others, should be utilized to reduce the potential of conflict and increase constructive collaboration. In collaboration with state police departments and other state justice institutions, the offeror must develop a collaborative mechanism at the state level that provides training and technical assistance to expand and consolidate community policing and problem-oriented policing models at the municipal level, with a focus on tackling high-priority crimes.

The offeror must support municipal police departments’ efforts to professionalize staff and secure adequate facilities and resources to adopt data-driven approaches to crime reduction. In particular, the offeror must support police departments to generate protocols, regulations, technology solutions, procedures, and training programs that ensure the successful operationalization and long-term sustainability of evidence-driven policing strategies.

The offeror must partner with local law enforcement institutions to establish functional analysis and investigation units that coordinate with community police officers to gather valuable information. This will allow police units to develop evidence-driven patrolling and prevention interventions and react more effectively to trends in crime.

The offeror must support patrol and community police officers to regularly carry out strategy-setting meetings to analyze information provided by the analysis units, adapt current policing strategies to emerging trends, and delineate future crime prevention and reduction strategies.

The offeror must advance formal information-sharing and coordination mechanisms between local law enforcement institutions and state justice institutions and devise mechanisms whereby civil society organizations and the private sector function as sponsors and observers of these efforts to ensure their sustainability and institutionalization. People-to-People approaches could be used here, among others, to facilitate this mutual cooperation. The offeror must enable local organizations to provide feedback on community policing design and participate as observers to the establishment of regulatory and institutional frameworks for data-driven policing models in their municipalities.

Indicative results under this objective are:

● 25% increase from baseline of community trust in local law enforcement institutions

● 50% reduction in priority crimes across selected areas

● 25% increase in the investigation rates of selected crimes

● 50% increase in police department responses to reports of gender-based offenses and crimes

● 50% increase from baseline in the capacity of local police department analysis units

● 50% increase in the number of local police departments that generate regular reports to inform their constituents of security and crime trends.

The offeror must propose measurable performance targets and indicators to track the adoption of data-driven policing approaches, including their coordination with justice institutions.

Objective 3: Advance innovative approaches to prevent and reduce community-level violence through cross-cutting governmental and local system collaboration.

In close coordination with civil society, academia, justice institutions, and private sector entities, the offeror will research, select, strategically pilot, and scale innovative approaches, including people-to-people approaches, to reducing community-level violence within states selected under Objectives 1 and 2. The offeror must utilize data stemming from interventions conducted under Objectives 1 and 2 as a starting point for quantitative and qualitative research into violence and criminality trends.

The participation of justice and law-enforcement institutions, youth leaders, and grassroots organizations is critical to the offeror’s successful identification of participants and understanding of community-level crime and violence trends. The offeror must build trust with these entities, and ensure their active engagement in strategy implementation. In order to strengthen successful collaboration between diverse institutions, a People-to-People approach must be applied. Selected interventions must focus at the community level, but the offeror may utilize individual interventions to target unique obstacles to violence reduction.

The offeror must institutionalize and consolidate community-based strategies for violence reduction within civic courts, municipal police, and other local agencies to ensure their sustainability and continuity. USAID may select evidence-driven models found to render excellent results for broader replication. Findings under this objective must additionally drive adaptation and innovation within Objectives 1 and 2.

Indicative results under this objective are:

● 50% decrease from baseline in community distrust of youth in conflict with the law

● 50% reduction in the number of violent incidents in the target community

● 50% increase in community trust in the civic courts and municipal police

● 5% recidivism rate among participants receiving treatment

The offeror must propose measurable performance targets and indicators to track the implementation and effectiveness of community-based violence reduction approaches, as well as their integration with civic justice and policing strategies.

C.5 OPERATING CONSTRAINTS AND CONTRACT PARAMETERS

Staged Expansion of Civil Society and Police Models

To achieve the purpose of the Activity, the offeror is required to meet the following technical requirements associated with leading a staged expansion of civic justice and policing models in Mexico:

1. The offeror must conduct a political-economy analysis to evaluate the viability of expanding civic justice and policing models to new localities and implementing community-level approaches to violence reduction.

2. In collaboration with relevant stakeholders, the offeror must conduct a capacity assessment of selected states to gauge institutional strength and document the maturity of existing municipal civic justice systems and policing models.

3. After obtaining buy-in from relevant stakeholders, the offeror must collaborate with each State government to create a tailored plan for the transfer and adaptation of civic justice and policing models to State authorities. The offeror must track progress via an annual technical assistance plan, ensuring every element of the civic justice model is successfully transferred to States.

4. Collaborative mechanisms at the state level will lead the expansion of civic justice and policing models to municipalities using a Train the Trainer approach. The offeror must accompany the mechanism when training municipalities and provide regular feedback and recommendations for process improvements. The offeror must provide states authorities with ad-hoc coaching and technical support to ensure the success of this locally-led expansion. Only in select cities will the offeror provide direct technical assistance to municipalities.

5. To ensure the appropriate transfer and uptake of civic justice and policing models at the municipal level, the offeror must provide training and technical support to relevant authorities, including but not limited to: public policy design and application, development of institutional protocols and regulations, data gathering and analysis, and program development.

6. To foster the implementation of locally-led community-based strategies for reinsertion and violence reduction, the offeror will partner with justice institutions, municipal governments, CSOs, academia, and the private sector, to understand local violence dynamics, identify participants, implement the plan, and institutionalize successful approaches. It will utilize a P2P where necessary and appropriate.

7. The offeror must continuously assess progress in each state and adapt the replication strategy accordingly. The offeror must generate data and publications on the replication process and utilize findings to strengthen its approach.

Coordination and Collaboration

The success of this activity hinges on the offeror advancing excellent information sharing and collaboration among a broad set of stakeholders across diverse localities. To this end, the offeror must:

1. Establish formal communication, information sharing, and coordination mechanisms between civic courts, local police departments, state attorneys general offices, civil society organizations, and the private sector to solidify the implementation of civic justice and data-driven policing models at the municipal level and generate an ecosystem approach to violence prevention. The offeror, participant state governments, and local organizations must formalize their collaboration, including through memoranda of understanding, to ensure the longevity of these partnerships.

2. The offeror must establish formal coordination mechanisms between state justice institutions and municipal police departments in target regions. In particular, coordination between police and civic justice operators is essential to implementing strategies aligned with local violence indicators and trends.

3. The offeror must promote collaboration with and among local nongovernmental actors to drive more effective municipal strategies on crime and violence prevention and reduction.

Gender and Social Inclusion

The offeror must prioritize gender and social inclusion and sustainability at every stage of the activity’s design and implementation. In particular, the offeror must:

1. Analyze gender gaps and associated violence dynamics prevailing in civic justice, policing, and related sectors, and advance inclusive and gender-sensitive approaches in the civic justice space and within municipal police departments.

2. Provide training and technical assistance to police officers, justice officials, and other local actors to strengthen their capacity to address gender gaps and prevent gender-based violence (GBV). In particular, the offeror must train civic courts to operate using norms and protocols that respect diversity and prevent GBV within communities.

The offeror must support police units to analyze data from a gender perspective and implement actions to address gender gaps within law enforcement agencies and prevent and reduce GBV in communities.

3. Design differentiated approaches that ensure vulnerable groups, such as women, LGBTQI groups, indigenous populations, and others can equitably access assistance through this activity.

4. Implement measures to ensure the sustainability of interventions, including initiatives to strengthen the institutional capacity of participating institutions and drive citizen participation in violence reduction initiatives.

Vetting Provisions

Across all interventions, the offeror must abide by USG vetting provisions, which prohibit the use of USG funds for assistance to units of foreign security forces which are known to be implicated in the commission of gross violations of human rights (GVHR) or that present reputational risk to the Agency and the USG in general.

Environment and Climate

The offeror must consider the impact of its interventions on the environment. USAID considers environmental sustainability a central element of responsibly designing and carrying out its development programs. Therefore, all interventions planned and performed within this proposal must abide by Regulation 216, which outlines USAID’s pre-implementation environmental impact assessment (EIA) process. The proposal must also comply with the host country's environmental regulations.

Local Ownership and Leadership

Facilitating local ownership and leadership will underpin the activity’s engagements with local authorities, civil society, the private sector, and any other stakeholders. A participatory and facilitative approach must be prioritized to strengthen local leadership, ownership, continuity, and sustainability.

Private Sector Engagement

The Activity will leverage private sector funding and influence to strengthen the financial sustainability and impact of interventions. Specifically, the offeror must facilitate strategic private sector investment in partnerships and innovative models to prevent and reduce violence.

Conflict Sensitivity

The offeror must advance a conflict sensitive approach that guards against harming or further marginalizing individuals or groups, and maximizes positive impacts of the interventions. Where appropriate, the Activity will use a People-to-People reconciliation approach to advance Activity objectives. The Activity must ensure a ‘do no harm’ approach is integrated across all interventions.

Management Capacity

USAID understands that many local entities may not have previous management experience at the funding level projected by this contract. Therefore, it is expected that many Offerors will choose to partner with another entity who has previous management experience with USAID at similar funding levels and can support the Offeror in reporting, award administration and compliance, and/or financial management. This arrangement is anticipated through the use of sub-contracting mechanisms that could support through the initial years of the contract, while strengthening these capabilities for the Offeror and leaving the Offeror with a sustainable skill set that can take them through the end of the contract and beyond.

[1] The generally accepted definition of People-to-People programming is that it entails “Bringing together conflicting/conflict-affected groups from different political, ethnic, religious and/or other identities with the aim of fostering mutual understanding, cooperation, and trust; Addressing underlying drivers of conflict between groups, and improving their ability and willingness to peacefully resolve conflict and violence; Providing opportunities for groups to engage across fault lines, cooperate, and work together towards shared goals (intergroup work); and contributing to the conditions for durable peace by (re)building social cohesion between groups.