Skip to main content
Project

Besieged lives: Solutions-oriented evidence on young women, economic opportunities and violence in Latin America
 

South America
Project ID
109261
Total Funding
CAD 1,145,800.00
IDRC Officer
Alejandra Vargas Garcia
Project Status
Active
End Date
Duration
36 months

Programs and partnerships

Employment and Growth
Governance and Justice

Lead institution(s)

Project leader:
Dr. Juan Pablo Pérez Sáinz
Costa Rica

Summary

Of the world’s ten countries with the highest youth homicide rates, half are in Latin America and the Caribbean. Youth are overrepresented in crime statistics both as perpetrators and as victims of violence.Read more

Of the world’s ten countries with the highest youth homicide rates, half are in Latin America and the Caribbean. Youth are overrepresented in crime statistics both as perpetrators and as victims of violence. This violence has lasting effects on their economic, social, and educational opportunities.

A vast number of socio-economic programs and policies in the region are based on the unsubstantiated assumption that unemployment and lack of economic opportunities for youth drive violence, leading to the conclusion that creating economic opportunities is the way to “pull youth out of violence”. Learnings from IDRC-supported projects in Latin America demonstrate that the drivers of violence are more complex; that engaging youth in the construction of safer spaces is paramount to any program’s success; and that non-violent populations are unfairly stigmatized and deprived of employment opportunities simply because they live in violent territories, which then fosters cycles of violence.

A key knowledge gap is that young women’s experiences seeking economic opportunities in violent contexts are less understood and less represented in public policies than those of young men. As a result, this project seeks to generate new evidence on the specific challenges facing young women and to identify promising and scalable public and private interventions that can address violence and promote their economic inclusion.

To carry out this work, the Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences (FLACSO) is implementing a competitive call for proposals that will ultimately support up to six projects. FLACSO is responsible for providing funding to these projects, ensuring their technical and administrative quality, and ensuring communication activities and synthesis of findings across projects to promote regional-level policy uptake.

Research outputs

Access full library of outputs Opens in new tab
Libros
Language:

Spanish

Summary
Author(s)
Pérez Sáinz, Juan Pablo
Informes
Language:

Spanish

Summary
Author(s)
Sáinz, Juan Pablo Pérez
Paper
Summary

The initiative focused on the multiple vulnerabilities of young women in the region and lessons learned from an array of policies and programs that have aspired to provide them opportunities to improve their lives. The reports generated under program auspices examine challenges and advances for women in specific communities in five settings – San Salvador (El Salvador), San José (Costa Rica), Cali (Colombia), Buenos Aires (Argentina), and Montevideo (Uruguay). While each community of young women is distinctive in its own way, experiences of violence, poverty, and discrimination are widespread. Together, the cases portray a picture that is representative of systems of violence and marginalization that prevail across Latin America and the Caribbean.

Author(s)
Armstrong, Fulton
Access full library of outputs Opens in new tab