Recently, Khulisa was awarded the Evaluation of Central America Regional Security Initiative (CARSI) Small Grants Program (SGP) for the fiscal years (FY) 2017 to 2022. The program was funded by the U.S. Department of State (DOS), the Western Hemisphere Affairs (WHA) Office of Policy Planning and Coordination Strategy and Resources Unit.
The purpose of the program was to enable U.S. embassies in three countries – Panama, Costa Rica, Belize – to fund and implement CARSI-related projects ranging between $100,000 and $500,000. CARSI has five goals:
- Safe streets;
- Disrupt the movement of criminals and contraband;
- Strong, capable, and accountable governments;
- Effective state presence in communities at risk; and
- Enhanced levels of cooperation.
From FY 2017 to FY 2022, CARSI SGP supported the third goal: Strong, Capable, and Accountable Governments, which seeks to help governments be more transparent and accountable, eliminate corruption, enforce rule of law, strengthen their institutions, and maintain community action programs that empower civil society.
The purpose of this evaluation is to: 1) determine the effectiveness of the SGP and the extent to which the program has contributed to specific CARSI goals; and 2) set baseline data for future CARSI small grants projects and programs. The results of the evaluation will be used by WHA to identify potential program adjustments and allocations in terms of activities and countries where future programs will be implemented.