TAP in Guatemala

September 20, 2023 – Guatemala City, Guatemala

Alinea International and the Canadian Embassy to Guatemala, in collaboration with the Secretariat against Sexual Violence, Exploitation and Trafficking in Persons came together with their partners for a presentation of the Canadian Technical Assistance Initiative and the new National Statistical System on Crimes of Sexual Violence, Exploitation and Trafficking in Persons (SINAVET) platform.

The Technical Assistance Partnership (TAP) initiative, with one of Canada’s experts in international development, Philip Jakob, has been working in collaboration with Guatemala’s Secretariat against Sexual Violence, Exploitation and Trafficking in Persons (SVET) to support the design and implementation of a digital platform for the collection and monitoring of data and indicators on crimes of sexual violence, exploitation, and human trafficking.

The platform will enable SVET to carry out strategic and objective analysis of risk factors to allow it to concentrate financial and human resources in those areas and population groups that are most vulnerable to these crimes, especially women, girls and migrant populations.  The platform will consolidate data from multiple government agencies and capture data generated in real-time from work carried out by the teams deployed in the communities at the national level through the different prevention projects and initiatives that SVET implements.

Mr. Jakob’s work included evaluating SVET’s sexual violence, exploitation, and human trafficking crimes data collection, management and data analysis, procedures, requirements, and tools, identifying international best practices and developing a suitable digital statistical system for data collection and indicators. Philip travelled to Guatemala to facilitate workshops for key personnel on the use of statistical information for gender-responsive strategic programming. According to SVET officials, this will support improved decision-making in programs aimed at vulnerable populations and provide more concrete information for planning and inter-institutional coordination.

On this occasion, we can highlight the importance of how this tool will reinforce the work of all the entities involved in the prevention of illegal acts, the care and protection of victims, especially women and children. The ongoing collaboration and support from numerous stakeholders in the development of this platform will contribute to improved data analysis to prevent crime in Guatemala.

– Philip Jakob, Canadian Expert

The Government of Canada’s Technical Assistance Partnership-Expert Deployment Mechanism (TAP-EDM), a four-year, C$18.75M project, funded by Global Affairs Canada (GAC) and implemented by Alinea International provides short-term (up to 12 months) targeted technical assistance to National Government Entities from eligible OECD-DAC countries by enhancing the capacity of national-level institutions to manage policies and practices in a more gender-responsive and inclusive way, promoting social, political and economic opportunities in partner countries. Fully in line with Canada’s Feminist International Assistance Policy (FIAP), these initiatives will integrate gender equality, climate action, environmental sustainability, human rights and good governance into their key objectives. The mechanism is expected to provide over 200 Canadian professionals through 75-80 technical assistance initiatives designed to address capacity gaps to bring about the changes desired by host countries.