The Foreign Service Journal, October 2018

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | OCTOBER 2018 27 much higher. It was difficult to create economic opportunities and attack poor governance and corruption when people feared for their lives, and when the police weren’t present in the tough neighborhoods. It was no wonder so many people, including young people, were heading north. We had to try something new. Factors That Changed the Dynamic As is often the case, several factors came together to change the dynamic in Honduras and led to what became the Place- Based Strategy. In Washington, the termination of law enforce- ment programs in Iraq freed up millions of dollars in the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement (INL). That money needed a new home. When the director of Western Hemisphere programs in INL asked his team for ideas—he needed a plan within the hour—a talented program officer jumped on it. She had recently returned from a temporary assignment in Honduras, where she had seen that INL wasn’t working in some of the most violent neighborhoods (everyone said you couldn’t) and, in many cases, was not in sync with USAID programs. She produced a paper highlighting the most progressive thinking by USAID and INL teams, which centered on co-designing and co- implementing interventions in the toughest neighborhoods in Honduras to get at the root causes of homicides, preventing and deterring them from happening. Almost simultaneously, but independently, USAID had sent both American and Honduran staff members to Los Angeles to learn about that city’s successful model for reducing gang violence. The LA model targeted those most likely to commit vio- lence or become its victims and—unlike many programs, includ- ing in Honduras—made community policing central to success. Finally, USAID’s Office of Transition Initiatives was already at work in Honduras, experimenting with community policing and with a targeting system similar to the LA model. When we decided that we would focus efforts on reducing violence, and specifically the homicide rate, we could build on the solid base that OTI had already begun creating. This happy coincidence of ideas, money and experimenta- tion was followed in November 2014 by a visit to Honduras by INL Assistant Secretary Bill Brownfield. He pitched a “Bold New Initiative” to reduce violence, and thus reduce northbound migration. It was an INL-heavy concept, one that still needed to be integrated with USAID and OTI, but having Brownfield’s weight, money and enthusiasm behind a new initiative was cru- cial. Because the Los Angeles model preached something quite compatible with the Bold New Initiative, and since USAID was already headed in a similar direction, the agency was receptive. A Radical New Approach The enthusiasm on all fronts convinced me that it was worth trying. Brownfield and I briefed Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández, who was cautiously enthusiastic, and the initiative, now renamed the “Place-Based Strategy,” was born. Following the initial pitch and approval, the hard work began. INL and USAIDmet for a two-day offsite in Tegucigalpa to develop a co-implementation plan and agreement, which they sent to me for approval. The proposal was important because it outlined the necessary components of the PBS model: We decided what to focus on (homicides) and where (three neighborhoods in San Pedro Sula, the so-called murder capital of the world), and we decided who would do what. Building on longstanding OTI programming, INL would focus on getting the police back into these most violent neighborhoods and introducing a community policing model. It would also focus on gang rehabilitation and inoculating young kids to gang mem- bership through their Gang Resistance Education and Training prevention program. USAID would focus on prevention programs, education, outreach centers, secondary prevention counseling for those families most at risk and community organizing. But none of these programs would operate independently or in a vacuum. Rather than implementing a series of programs, both INL and USAID would listen to the communities and deliver services that the communities believed would reduce violence. Working together, they’d all be focused on the most violent neigh- borhoods in Honduras; and they’d all be trying to identify those at risk of committing violence and becoming victims of violence. How is the Place-Based Strategy different fromwhat we did previously? What’s the secret sauce? According to the embassy’s PBS team, the three keys to suc- cess are: (1) a laser focus on the “hottest” areas and the “hottest” people—those most at risk; (2) INL and USAID co-designing and Bill Brownfield pitched a “Bold New Initiative” to reduce violence, and thus reduce northbound migration.