Usaid/Mexico Promoting Justice Project Tasks 3 & 4
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PROJUST USAID/MEXICO PROMOTING JUSTICE PROJECT TASKS 3 & 4 QUARTERLY REPORT January – March 2019 DISCLAIMER This document is made possible by the support of the American People through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The contents of this document are the sole responsibility of Tetra tech DPK and do not necessarily reflect the views of USAID or the United States Government. USAID/MEXICO PROMOTING JUSTICE PROJECT TASKS 3 & 4 QUARTERLY REPORT JANUARY – MARCH 2019 Tetra Tech DPK, an operating unit of Tetra Tech ARD Corporate Offices 605 Market Street, Suite 800 San Francisco, CA 94105 USA Phone: + 1 415 495 7772 Contracted under Contract No. AID-523-C-14-00003 Pursuant to Section D of the Task Order Contract DISCLAIMER This document is made possible by the support of the American People through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The contents of this document are the sole responsibility of Tetra tech DPK and do not necessarily reflect the views of USAID or the United States Government. CONTENTS ACRONYMS AND ABBREVIATIONS .............................................................................................. II EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ...................................................................................................................... III RESULTS ACHIEVED BY TASK.......................................................................................................... 1 Task 3: Increase Public Support for the Criminal Justice System................................................................ 1 Task 4: Increase Access to Justice and Improve Victims’ Assistance ......................................................... 9 Crosscutting Result: Grants Strategy ............................................................................................................... 19 CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES: END OF PROJECT ................................................. 29 Task 3: Increase Public Support for the Criminal Justice System.............................................................. 29 Task 4: Increase Access to Justice and Improve Victims’ Assistance ....................................................... 29 Crosscutting Result: Grants Strategy ............................................................................................................... 29 ANNEX I: QUARTERLY FINANCIAL REPORT ......................................................................... 31 ANNEX II: TRAINET .......................................................................................................................... 32 USAID.GOV USAID/MEXICO PROJUST PROJECT – TASKS 3 & 4 QUARTERLY REPORT: JAN. – MAR. 2019 | i ACRONYMS AND ABBREVIATIONS ADRM Alternative dispute resolution mechanisms ANUIES National Association of Universities and Higher Education Institutions (Asociación Nacional de Universidades e Instituciones de Educación Superior, A.C.) CJS Criminal justice system CONACYT Mexican Council for Science and Technology CONAVIM National Commission to Prevent and Eradicate Violence against Women (Comisión Nacional para Prevenir y Erradicar la Violencia contra las Mujeres) CSO Civil society organization FY Fiscal year IIS-WJC Institutional Integrity System of the Women’s Justice Centers INSYDE Institute for Security and Democracy (Instituto para la Seguridad y la Democracia A.C.) ONC National Citizen Observatory (Observatorio Nacional Ciudadano de Seguridad, Justicia, y Legalidad) PROJUST USAID/Mexico Promoting Justice Project SESNSP Executive Secretariat of the National Public Security System (Secretariado Ejecutivo del Sistema Nacional de Seguridad Pública) SIICOMUNICACIÓN Integrity System for Institutional Communication of Criminal Justice UdeG Universidad de Guadalajara UMECA Pretrial Services Unit (Unidad de Medidas Cautelares) UNAM National Autonomous University of Mexico WJC Women’s Justice Center USAID.GOV USAID/MEXICO PROJUST PROJECT – TASKS 3 & 4 QUARTERLY REPORT: JAN. – MAR. 2019 | ii EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The constitutionally mandated criminal justice reform of 2008 was implemented across Mexico and became fully adopted on June 18, 2016. To comply with this deadline, the Mexican government established policies under which a new criminal justice system (CJS) would be implemented in the three levels of government. In October 2016, after meeting the implementation deadline, the Executive Secretariat of the National Public Security System took over responsibility for consolidating CJS operations at federal and state levels. The USAID/Mexico Promoting Justice Project (PROJUST) started operations in November 2014, building on the work of previous USAID programs to support Mexico’s efforts to consolidate criminal justice reform. Tetra Tech DPK is implementing PROJUST Tasks 3 and 4 and a crosscutting grants strategy.1 Because this is the final year of the project, most activities are geared towards consolidation and achieving long-term sustainability of strategies initiated in previous years. Under Task 3, PROJUST has supported efforts to inform citizens about the institutions and procedures of a transparent, efficient, and rights-based CJS. The goals under this task are to increase public support for the CJS and improve the quality of judicial journalism by strengthening the skills of journalists, communicators, and spokespersons. In collaboration with the National Autonomous University of Mexico, one of the most important academic institutions in the country, PROJUST has developed and jointly taught the “Journalism and Communication for Justice” diploma course, reaching 39 participants to date. The course promotes journalistic coverage of criminal cases in a way that is socially responsible and ethical, while complying with the law. This program will continue to be taught to future generations of journalists and communicators to improve access to information about the CJS. This quarter, Task 4 activities focused on providing follow-up support to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of national and state-level counterparts. PROJUST worked with the State Attorney Generals’ Offices of Coahuila, San Luis Potosí, Sonora, Tabasco, and Zacatecas to follow up on the consolidation of the Operations Management Model for specialized alternative dispute resolution mechanism agencies. Since implementation began in 2017, this effort has achieved an average increase of 2.3 percent in cases resolved through compensation agreements. At the national level, PROJUST has worked with the National Commission to Prevent and Eradicate Violence against Women to strengthen responsiveness to female victims of gender-based violence through the women’s justice centers (WJCs). This quarter, to foster compliance with the requirements of the Institutional Integrity System for Women’s Justice Centers (IIS-WJC), PROJUST continued providing technical assistance to the WJCs of Baja California Sur, Michoacán, and Sinaloa. To foster the sustainability of the IIS-WJC as a national policy, PROJUST also continued work on the online platform for IIS-WJC automation. To contribute to civil society participation in CJS consolidation, PROJUST continued implementing its crosscutting grants strategy of fostering CJS-related cooperation among civil society actors through 1 Modification 05 to Contractor Teaming Agreement by and between Management Systems International and Tetra Tech DPK, effective March 9, 2017. USAID.GOV USAID/MEXICO PROJUST PROJECT – TASKS 3 & 4 QUARTERLY REPORT: JAN. – MAR. 2019 | iii projects in collaboration with citizens, justice institutions, government agencies, private initiatives, higher education institutions, and civil society organizations. This quarter, PROJUST support to grantees focused on their sustainability plans. Three grant projects closed this quarter (Mexico Evalúa, Creativeria Social, and Convivencia Joven), having fulfilled their key objectives and completed their deliverables, including the development of medium- and long-term sustainability plans. This is Tetra Tech DPK’s second quarterly report for the fifth and final fiscal year of the project, covering January through March 2019. The report has four sections: this executive summary; task-specific details on PROJUST results; task-specific challenges and opportunities; and annexes, including the quarterly financial report, Success Stories, and the TraiNet report. USAID.GOV USAID/MEXICO PROJUST PROJECT – TASKS 3 & 4 QUARTERLY REPORT: JAN. – MAR. 2019 | iv RESULTS ACHIEVED BY TASK TASK 3: INCREASE PUBLIC SUPPORT FOR THE CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM To continue contributing to the consolidation of public support for the CJS during fiscal year (FY) 5, PROJUST has sought to strengthen the CJS’s communication and dissemination strategies. This quarter, building on its partnerships with the government, academic institutions, and civil society organizations (CSOs), PROJUST aimed to establish sustainability mechanisms for these strategies. The subsections below summarize the main activities carried out for each strategy between January and March 2019. PROFESSIONALIZATION OF COMMUNICATORS IN THE CJS Since its inception, PROJUST has supported work to enhance the professionalization of CJS communicators. To promote the sustainability of this strategy, PROJUST developed a specialized academic program for journalists. In 2018, PROJUST signed a collaboration agreement to jointly deliver the diploma course, “Journalism and Communication for Justice,” with the Department of Political and Social Science at the National Autonomous