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Central America

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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
Report

Human Smuggling and Associated Revenues: What Do or Can We Know About Routes from Central America to the United States?

The authors examine the structure, operations, and financing of actors that engage in human smuggling along routes from Central America to the United States and develop a preliminary estimate of revenues associated with human smuggling.

Apr 22, 2019
Report

How to Counter Transnational Criminal Networks

Transnational criminal networks have expanded their global reach. In some cases, they have even converged with terrorist groups. How do these networks threaten U.S. interests? And what can be done to combat them?

Jan 27, 2017
Essay

Election 2016: The International Issues

America's next president will face challenges that test the fundamentals of world order. RAND experts have outlined key decisions, the dangers involved, and the least-bad options that now often pass for good ones.

Oct 7, 2016

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