Social inclusion of youth in the context of increasing violence and insecurity with a focus on Central America

Within the region, social exclusion has led to social fragmentation and polarization, widening inequalities in communities, and creating strains on individuals, families, and communities. Moreover, social exclusion has contributed to a context of increasing violence, associated partly with crime. Violence is a widespread problem in Latin American and Caribbean countries, and has an increased priority for Central American governments. Among many negative consequences and high economic costs that violence produces in these countries, it particularly affects young people having a complex and highly inter-dependent youth-violence link. Among many other factors, effective youth policies and programmes focused on social inclusion can facilitate the creation of an enabling environment to address this phenomenon. To this effect, the project aims at strengthening the capacity of Latin American and Caribbean countries, particularly those of Central America, to promote effective social inclusion of youth in the context of violence and insecurity. In order to provide policy-makers from selected countries with necessary skills and knowledge, the Project focuses on capacity building in the processing and analysis of data on youth issues, and strengthening the national capacities to design and promote corresponding evidence-based policies and programmes. Moreover, youth violence is a complex and multidimensional issue, and hence there is no single solution to address it. In this context, it is critical that decision-makers learn about policies that proved to be successful in different countries and settings. Thus, the Project also aims at facilitating knowledge sharing among countries and policy makers using modern tools such as databases and online platforms to disseminate the experiences. The project builds on the experience of ECLAC in a number of areas relevant to youth and social exclusion of youth, in which over the years ECLAC has provided extensive technical assistance and has established long-standing relationships with the National Youth Institutes that represent one of the main stakeholders of the project.