GUATEMALA CITY, Guatemala — A congressional delegation visiting Guatemala in August met with NGOs and pressed them for data. The policymakers wanted to know how U.S.-funded foreign assistance programs were deterring migration.
But providing such data poses a problem for many of the organizations operating in the region. Groups haven’t been collecting baseline data on migration because the programs they were implementing were not designed explicitly to deter migration. This makes it impossible to know if current U.S. assistance programs — which as of now will receive no further fund disbursements after U.S. President Donald Trump cut off aid to the region — are preventing people from leaving their country of origin.
“These programs are set up as development programs and they’re set up to enhance quality of life options for folks on the ground,” said Paul Townsend, Guatemala country director for Catholic Relief Services, who attended the meeting. “So to be able to do a legitimate job of defining indicators that are related to migration and then use those as part of the baseline monitoring, evaluations — that’s going to take some time.”