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Central America

Journal Article
Migration Narratives in Northern Central America: How Competing Stories Shape Policy and Public Opinion in Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador
This report identifies and compares migration narratives within El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras to understand how they influence critical policy debates and decisions in the region.
Aug 25, 2023
Journal Article
Informality, Violence, and Disaster Risks: Coproducing Inclusive Early Warning and Response Systems in Urban Informal Settlements in Honduras
This research examines the coproduction of early warning systems linked with response capacities for floods and landslides through the case study of work in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, with a focus on nine urban informal settlements with high levels of territorial gang violence.
Sep 2, 2022
Multimedia
Educating Newcomers: A Research-Practice Conversation
RAND researchers highlight findings from a recent study that estimates the number of children and youth from Central America and Mexico crossing the Southwest border of the United States from 2017 to 2019, as well as findings on policies and practice from two case study school districts in Louisiana and California.
Aug 4, 2022
Blog
The West's Response to Russia, the State of the Union, Outer Space: RAND Weekly Recap
This weekly recap focuses on how to prevent Russia's war on Ukraine from becoming a war with NATO, insights from RAND on the State of the Union, the future of outer space, and more.
Mar 4, 2022
Report
A Green Costa Rican COVID-19 Recovery
Before COVID-19 hit, Costa Rica had been taking a leading role in addressing the effects of climate change by investing in decarbonization. Could these same investments also accelerate Costa Rica's pandemic economic recovery and help address historical inequities?
Feb 24, 2022
Project
Costa Rica's Carbon-Neutral Future
In her final piece for RAND Art + Data, Gabrielle Mérite brings one country's vision for a carbon-neutral future to life. Her designs are based on RAND research that analyzed the potential outcomes of Costa Rica's National Decarbonization Plan.
Feb 23, 2022
News Release
Surges in Undocumented and Asylum-Seeking Children Prompt Need for Better K–12 Policies
491,000 children from Mexico and the Northern Triangle (Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador) arrived in the United States between fiscal years 2017 and 2019 and remained with unresolved immigration statuses. Of these, 321,000 were enrolled in U.S. K–12 public schools as of March 2020. About 75% settled in California, Texas, Florida, New York, Virginia, Maryland, New Jersey, Georgia, North Carolina, and Louisiana.
Sep 30, 2021
Research Brief
Surges in Undocumented and Asylum-Seeking Children Prompt Need for Better K–12 Policies
Growing numbers of children from Central America and Mexico are arriving in the United States. As of March 2020, 321,000 undocumented and asylum-seeking children were enrolled in public schools. How are the schools managing, and what could be done to help them better prepare to assist these students?
Sep 30, 2021
Report
Educating Newcomers: K–12 Public Schooling for Undocumented and Asylum-Seeking Children in the United States
This report models numbers of undocumented and asylum-seeking children crossing the U.S. southwest border, reviews the federal and state policy landscapes for their education, and provides case studies of how schools are managing education for them.
Sep 30, 2021
Periodical
RAND Review: September-October 2021
The cover story highlights strategies to mitigate homegrown terrorism and ideologically inspired violence in the U.S. A second feature describes Costa Rica's ambitious decarbonization plan and its implications for nations around the world.
Sep 7, 2021
Blog
U.S. Failure in Afghanistan, Critical Race Theory Bans, Income Inequality: RAND Weekly Recap
This weekly recap focuses on how early mistakes led to America's failure in Afghanistan, the potential effects of critical race theory bans, an art installation that breaks down RAND data on income inequality, and more.
Sep 3, 2021
Essay
Costa Rica Leads the Way in Cutting Carbon Emissions
Almost every country has pledged to slash carbon emissions to slow the gears of global warming. Costa Rica's plan provides a glimpse of what a carbon-neutral future will look like. It shows how nations can take action and make investments that hold up, regardless of what future comes to pass.
Aug 30, 2021
Commentary
Lessons for Central America's Recovery from Hurricanes
As the global community works to assist Central America in recovering from the disastrous 2020 hurricane season, other recent recovery efforts offer helpful lessons, both for the governments of the region as well as outsiders providing resources and support.
Jan 11, 2021
Blog
Restoring Public Trust, COVID-19 and Thanksgiving, Vaccinating Teachers: RAND Weekly Recap
This weekly recap focuses on how the Biden-Harris administration can restore public trust, the risk of Thanksgiving becoming a super-spreader event, why teachers should be among the first to get a COVID19 vaccination, and more.
Nov 26, 2020
Report
The Benefits and Costs of Decarbonizing Costa Rica's Economy
Costa Rica set the ambitious goal of becoming carbon-neutral by 2050. An evaluation of the benefits and costs of its National Decarbonization Plan finds that under most plausible assumptions about the future, the plan would achieve or nearly achieve its goals and do so at a net economic benefit.
Nov 24, 2020
Journal Article
Practitioner Approaches to Measuring Community Resilience: The Analysis of the Resilience of Communities to Disasters Toolkit
In this article, we present the Analysis of the Resilience of Communities to Disasters (ARC-D) toolkit, a practical toolkit developed by an international aid organization, GOAL, over the course of a decade of practice.
Jul 17, 2020
Journal Article
Developing Pilot Interventions to Address Food Insecurity and Nutritional Needs of People Living With HIV in Latin America and the Caribbean: An Interinstitutional Approach Using Formative Research
Documenting high levels of food insecurity and overweight among people with HIV in Latin America and the Caribbean and highlighting food gaps have important implications for interventions, since prior efforts to address food insecurity among people with HIV have focused on underweight and wasting.
Dec 12, 2019
Blog
Childhood Trauma, Space Traffic, China–Russia Relations: RAND Weekly Recap
This weekly recap focuses on a program that helps children exposed to trauma, making outer space safer, tighter China–Russia relations, and more.
Apr 26, 2019
News Release
Human Smuggling Via Central America Generates Hundreds of Millions of Dollars, but Transnational Criminal Groups May ...
The smuggling of unlawful migrants from the Northern Triangle region of Central America—Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador—to the United States generated between $200 million and $2.3 billion for human smugglers in 2017. The wide range reflects uncertainty about the number of migrants that travel northward, their use of smugglers and the fees they pay.
Apr 22, 2019
Research Brief
Human Smuggling Operations from Central America to the United States
Smuggling unlawful migrants from Central America to the United States generated between $200 million and $2.3 billion for human smugglers in 2017. The wide range reflects uncertainty about the number of migrants, their use of smugglers, and the fees they pay. Transnational criminal organizations are only one type of actor involved.
Apr 22, 2019

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