STRATEGIC OBJECTIVE No. 519-002 
“MORE INCLUSIVE AND EFFECTIVE 
DEMOCRATIC PROCESSES” 
CLOSE-OUT REPORT
Approval Date: July, 1997 
PACD: September, 2005 
USAID EL SALVADOR 
Democracy and Governance Office 
Embajada de los Estados Unidos 
Blvd. y Urb. Santa Elena 
Antiguo Cuscatlán, La Libertad 
El Salvador, Centro América 
Table of Contents
I. SUMMARY OF OVERALL IMPACT. .....................................................................................................................3
II. SIGNIFICANT CHANGES IN THE RESULTS FRAMEWORK AND SUMMARY OF PERFORMANCE 
INDICATOR USED.........................................................................................................................................................4
1. DG STRATEGIC FRAMEWORK (1997-2005)..............................................................................................4
2. SUMMARY OF PERFORMANCE INDICATORS USED............................................................................6
III. SUMMARY OF PROGRAMS AND ACTIVITIES IMPLEMENTED UNDER THE SO.................................7
1. DEMOCRATIC CONSOLIDATION AND GOVERNANCE PROJECT (519-0436). ................................7
1.1 RULE OF LAW ACTIVITIES...........................................................................................................................7
1.1.1 Rule of Law Strengthening. ......................................................................................................................8
1.1.2 Joint Training of National Civilian Police and the Attorney General’s Office. .....................................9
1.1.3 Community Policing (ICITAP’S PIP-COM program support). ..............................................................9
1.1.4 Inter-Agency Agreement with the Department of State (PAO).............................................................. 10
1.1.5 Procuraduría para la Defensa de Los Derechos Humanos (PDDH)………………………………………10 
1.2 CITIZEN PARTICIPATION AND GOVERNANCE ACTIVITIES. ........................................................................11
1.3 LOCAL GOVERNMENT ACTIVITIES. ...........................................................................................................12
1.3.1 Democratic Local Governance Activity - DLGA (2002 – 2005).............................................................12
1.3.2 COMURES Institutional Capacity Strengthening Project (2001 – 2005). ............................................12
2. MUNICIPAL DEVELOPMENT AND CITIZEN PARTICIPATION PROJECT (519 - 0388)............13
2.1 POLICY REFORM AND FORMULATION. .....................................................................................................13
2.2 MUNICIPAL STRENGTHENING. .................................................................................................................14
2.3 LOCAL DEMOCRATIC DEVELOPMENT.......................................................................................................14
3. DEMOCRATIC AND ELECTORAL PROCESS (519-0391). .....................................................................15
3.1 PHASE 1 (1992 – 1996).............................................................................................................................15
3.2 PHASE 2 (1996 - 1998)..............................................................................................................................15
3.3 PHASE 3 (1999 – 2003).............................................................................................................................16 
4 . OTHER PROGRAMS FINANCED WITH HOST COUNTRY-OWNED LOCAL CURRENCY ...........16 
4.1 Support for the Electoral Reform Process - Registro Nacional de Personas Naturales (RNPN) ............16 
4.2 Single Identity Card (DUI) implemented by the RNPN (2001 - 2002).....................................................16 
4.3. Procuraduría para la Defensa de Los Derechos Humanos (PDDH) (2002-2005)..................................17 
4.4. Public Ministry Support for the implementation of the Criminal and Criminal Procedures Codes ........17
IV. PRINCIPAL IMPLEMENTING PARTNERS. ....................................................................................................18
V. PROSPECTS FOR LONG-TERM SUSTAINABILITY OF IMPACT OF THE SO. ........................................19
VI. TOTAL COST OF THE SO (IN US$)...................................................................................................................21
VII. LESSONS LEARNED. ..........................................................................................................................................22
VIII. ANNEXES.............................................................................................................................................................26
ƒ ANNEX 1: List of Evaluations, Assessments and Special Studies conducted during the life of the SO. 
ƒ ANNEX 2: List of Instruments that have been closed out as per ADS 202.3.10.1. 
ƒ ANNEX 3: Names and contact point of individuals directly involved in the planning, achieving, assessing and 
learning of the SO. 
ƒ ANNEX 4: Extended description by project: Activity 519-0436/Rule of Law Area 
ƒ ANNEX 5: Extended description by project: Activity 519-0436/Citizen Participation and Governance Area. 
ƒ ANNEX 6: Extended description by project: Activity 519-0436/Local Government Area. 
ƒ ANNEX 7: Extended description by project: Activity 519-0388/Municipal Development Project 
ƒ ANNEX 8: Extended description by project: Activity 519-0391/Democratic and Electoral Processes Project. 
ƒ ANNEX 9: Principal Implementer Partners, contact information. 
ƒ ANNEX 10: Complete List of Lessons Learned. 
ƒ ANNEX 11: PMP Indicators and Targets for the Period 2002-2005. 
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I. SUMMARY OF OVERALL IMPACT. 
Through the FY 1997-FY 2005 Strategy, Sustainable Development and Democracy in El Salvador, 
the Democracy and Governance Office activities deepened the democratic process in El Salvador 
by focusing on consolidating El Salvador’s democratic institutions and practices and 
institutionalizing respect for human rights. This was accomplished by promoting increased citizen 
awareness and participation to achieve: more politically active advocacy organizations; more 
effective electoral administration; strengthened local government; improved court case preparation 
and management; and increased use of the justice system. Below are the key achievements by IR: 
IR1: More politically active advocacy organizations: 
ƒ The development of civil society organizations (CSOs) exceeded expectations, having become 
far better equipped to advocate for key policy changes, empower citizens to participate in 
decision-making, and monitor government performance. Enhanced CSO capacity resulted in 
60 significant submissions of policy proposals to government entities by the end of the 
program. 
ƒ The Legislative Assembly has now institutionalized public hearings as means to increase citizen 
participation in the process of formulating a law. All legislative commissions have created 
spaces to gather the input and opinion from various sectors of the population. With the 
establishment of 6 legislative constituent outreach offices in other Departments, citizens are 
now closer to their representatives. 
ƒ The capacity of the Legislative Assembly was greatly enhanced, resulting in improved technical 
capacity for research and analysis, and greater citizen participation in the legislative decision 
making process. 
ƒ The Government of El Salvador has approved a new Ethics Code for the executive branch, 
paving the way for increased accountability of public servants and reduced corruption. 
IR2: More effective electoral administration: 
ƒ The country’s progress toward the consolidation of democracy was demonstrated in March 
2004, when 67% of the population turned out for elections that were deemed fair, free and 
transparent. 
IR3: Strengthened local government: 
ƒ Local governments are providing better services and enabling citizens to become involved in 
decision-making and contribute to the economic development of their communities. All the 28
targeted municipalities concluded and approved their long term strategic plans in a participatory 
manner and almost of all them have established Local Development Committees (CDLs) to 
manage their strategic plans. 
ƒ The adoption of a National Agenda for Decentralization by the Government of El Salvador 
through the National Commission of Local Development (CONADEL) with the participation of 
the donor community as well as the municipalities, has improved the national enabling 
environment for local governance. 
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IR4: Improved court case preparation and management: 
ƒ The National Civilian Police (PNC) was provided with better equipment to perform its job. The 
donated portable police radios helped improve communication among police officers and 
improve community policing (PIP COM), and the computer equipment provided for the central 
records system has allowed transferring the old PNC database to a modern server system and 
making it functional. The system is now connected to approximately 25 police delegations in 
the country, which can now share information among themselves; the system also provides 
information on active criminal investigation cases enabling coordination, preparation and 
presentation of criminal cases in courts. 
ƒ Court case preparation has improved during the development of this program; the average 
number of days that took to prepare a case in targeted geographic areas was reduced in 4.5 days 
from 39.3 in 2002 to 35.4 days in 2004 (10%). 
IR5: Increased use of the justice system: 
ƒ The rapid expansion of mediation services through the Public Defender’s Office and select 
municipalities, resulting in 26 new mediation centers, has improved access to justice and it is 
expected that it has relieved pressure on overburdened courts. 
II. SIGNIFICANT CHANGES IN THE RESULTS FRAMEWORK 
AND SUMMARY OF PERFORMANCE INDICATOR USED. 
Because of ever-changing political tides and will, the SO results framework changed somewhat 
throughout the life of strategy by adding or phasing down activities. Notably, two unforeseen 
activities were added during the life of the Activity. These were a community policing program 
and conflict mediation centers. The mantra of the Democracy office became known as flexibility. 
Sometimes, in order to achieve the strategic objective, the team had to change course, ultimately 
delivering superb results. Similarly, the traditional support given to electoral administration was 
phased down from intensive assistance to “on a request and limited basis” cooperation. 
1. DG STRATEGIC FRAMEWORK (1997-2005). 
Please see next page. 
4
IR-Level 
Indicators: 
STRATEGIC OBJECTIVE:
More Inclusive and Effective 
Democratic Processes (i)
INTERMEDIATE RESULT
No. 1:
More Politically Active
Advocacy Organizations (ii)
INTERMEDIATE 
RESULT No. 2:
More Effective Electoral 
Administration (iii)
INTERMEDIATE RESULT
No. 3:
Strengthened Local 
Government (iv)
INTERMEDIATE 
RESULT No. 4:
Improved Court Case 
Preparation & Mgmt. (v)
INTERMEDIATE 
RESULT No. 5:
Increased Use of the 
Justice System (vi)
1. Significant 
Submissions by CSOs 
coalitions or CSOs to
the legislature and/or 
other GOES authorities. 
2. Legislative 
committees holding at 
least one public hearing
per year. 
1. Eligible voters with
valid documents
1. Number of
municipalities with
formerly established and
operating community
oversight committees. 
2. Locally generated 
funds/revenues in
targeted municipalities. 
3. Funds allocated for 
investment in services 
and infrastructure in 
targeted municipalities. 
1. Percent of reduction 
in average case
preparation duration for 
homicide cases in 
targeted geographic 
areas. 
2. Number of police 
delegations with
adequate 
communication 
equipment.
1. Number of Mediation 
and Justice Centers 
established. 
CHANGES TO RESULTS FRAMEWORK THROUGHT THE STRATEGY PERIOD: 
i. 1997-2000: “More Accountable Government Institutions” 
ii. 1997-2000: “A Legislature More Responsive to Constituents” 
iii. 1997-1998: “Increased Participation in the Electoral Processes”; 1998-2000: “An Impartial and More Effective Electoral Administration” 
iv. 1997-1998: “Strengthened Local Government-Citizen Interaction”; 1998-2000: “Increased Participation and Strengthened Local Government” 
v. 1997-2000: “More Access to Effective Legal/Judicial Protection”; 1998: “More Effective Legal/Judicial Protection for all Citizens”
vi. While not precursors to the current IR5, in previous Annual Reports the following were listed as IRs: 1997: “Central Integrated Financial 
2. SUMMARY OF PERFORMANCE INDICATORS USED. 
The DG Performance Management Plan (PMP) was approved in June 1996 for the period FY 1997-
2002 and was further amended in April 2003 as a result of the USAID/El Salvador Strategy 
extension to 2005. Encompassing the adjustments to the SO results framework, many of the original 
indicators were also revised, adjusted, changed or deleted. The PMP indicators chosen are the ones 
that best reflect the current focus of the various components of the DG office, and were objective, 
credible, and adequate measures of the achievements and/or impact of the program. In addition, the 
data was readily accessible, through the contractors, local counterparts, or other relevant sources. 
The indicators listed below correspond to the period 2002-2005. Annex 11 shows the PMP 
indicators and targets for the same period. 
SO LEVEL 
More Inclusive and 
Effective Democratic 
Processes 
ƒ Cases filed in criminal courts in targeted geographic areas. 
ƒ Number of Congressional sponsored Constituent Service Offices 
established by department. 
ƒ Households in target Municipalities receiving selected municipal 
services (garbage and final disposition). 
IR1: More Politically 
Active Advocacy 
Organizations 
ƒ Significant submissions by Civil Society Organization (CSO) 
coalitions or CSOs to the legislature and/or other GOES 
authorities.
ƒ Legislative committees holding at least one public hearing per 
year
IR2: More Effective 
Electoral Administration ƒ Eligible voters with valid documents.
IR3: Strengthened Local 
Government 
ƒ Number of municipalities with formally established and operating 
community oversight committees.
ƒ Locally generated funds/revenue in targeted municipalities.
ƒ Funds allocated for investment in services and infrastructure in 
targeted municipalities.
IR4: Improved Court 
Case Preparation and 
Management 
ƒ Percent of reduction in average case preparation duration for 
homicide cases in target geographic areas.
ƒ Number of police delegations with adequate communication 
equipment.
IR LEVEL 
IR5: Increased Use of 
the Justice System ƒ Number of Mediation and Justice Centers established.
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III. SUMMARY OF PROGRAMS AND ACTIVITIES 
IMPLEMENTED UNDER THE SO. 
The major achievements by IR are listed in Section I “Summary of Overall Impact”. A summary 
of programs and activities implemented under the SO are described below. In addition, a more 
detailed definition of all activities implemented including results, funding, implementers, and 
implementation mechanisms can be found in Annexes 4 to 8 to this document. 
1. DEMOCRATIC CONSOLIDATION AND GOVERNANCE PROJECT (519-0436). Authorization date: September 29, 1997; Completion date: September 30, 2005. 
 LOP Funding: $29,681,905 
The purpose of the Activity was to help improve access to and responsiveness of the Salvadoran 
legal system, local governments and public institutions to address concerns of the Salvadoran poor 
and other marginalized groups. This was achieved through activities in the program areas of rule 
of law; citizen participation and governance; and local governments. 
Interventions under this Activity supported four IRs: 
o IR1: “More Politically Active Advocacy Organizations” 
o IR3: “Strengthened Local Government” 
o IR4: “Improved Court Case Preparation and Management” 
o IR5: “Increased Use of the Justice System” 
* IR2 “More Effective Electoral Administration” was achieved through other program 
interventions outside this Activity (refer to subsection 3, below). 
1.1 RULE OF LAW ACTIVITIES.
Rule of Law activities helped to achieve IR4 “Improved Court Case Preparation and Management,” 
and IR5 “Increased use of the Justice System.” 
Main interventions under this program were implemented through competitively selected contracts 
with Chemonics International (1998 – 2000); DPK Consulting (1998 – 2000); National Center for 
State Courts (NCSC) (1998 – 2000); DPK Consulting (2000 – 2003); with NCSC with a sub￾contract to DPK Consulting (2004 – 2005), Inter Agency Agreement with the Public Affairs Office 
(1998 – 2004), and grant to the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) with host country￾owned local currency (HCOLC). 
Local implementing partners included the Solicitor General’s Office1
, the Attorney General’s 
Office2
, the National Council for the Judiciary, the Supreme Court, the Justice Sector Coordinating 
Commission, the Technical Executive Unit (UTE), the National Civilian Police (PNC), the Judicial 
Training School, the Office of Human Rights Ombudsman, and selected municipalities. 
 
1
 Referred in Spanish as Procuraduría General de la República (PGR) 2
 Referred in Spanish as Fiscalía General de la República (FGR) 
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1.1.1 Rule of Law Strengthening.
1998 – 2000
ƒ Technical assistance for the implementation of legal reforms, with emphasis in the Criminal 
and Criminal Procedures Codes. Assistance was targeted on selected departments and was 
focused on on-site, on-the-job technical assistance, improved coordination among local 
protagonists, and the development of administrative systems to support the Codes. 
ƒ Popular legal education included inter-institutional coordination, a strategic plan and a legal 
education campaign that was implemented by Government institutions and non-Governmental 
organizations. 
ƒ A program was designed to improve media understanding of criminal justice reforms. A total 
of 767 justice sector operators and media participated in training activities to improve media 
techniques and information strategies. 
ƒ The first intervention of USAID in the establishment and use of ADR in El Salvador was first 
approached in this period. A focus was made in court annexed conciliation and mediation. A 
preliminary assessment of ADR in El Salvador was performed and an ADR training module 
was developed with the Judicial Training School of the National Council for the Judiciary 
(CNJ); training was provided in ADR mechanisms to justice sector operators mainly in 
conciliation and mediation. A multidisciplinary group of 50 mediators which included judges, 
social workers, educators, and psychologists was also trained to mediate court referred cases. 
ƒ Technical advisory assistance to the Technical Executive Unit (UTE) and member institutions 
of the Justice Sector Coordinator Commission to develop a long term vision geared towards 
modernizing the justice system, with emphasis in the planning, execution and evaluation of 
activities, which includes a monitoring and evaluation system and its dissemination for 
measuring progress in the justice sector. 
ƒ Technical assistance, training and equipment were provided to strengthen the UTE and the 
Justice Sector Coordinator Commission. Support was provided for the development of 
technical studies, publications, manuals, and other legal education material. The creation of a 
web page for the UTE was designed (www.ute.gob.sv). 
Support to the Justice System Project - PAS (2000 – 2003).
ƒ Training over the life of the Project covered nearly every aspect of the criminal justice process, 
from training geared towards improving the performance of police and prosecutors at the crime 
scene, to training designed to improve the technical competence of justice sector operators 
during the criminal trial. Specifically, training courses included topics in Theory of the Crime, 
Evidence Law, Trial Advocacy Skills, Crime Scene Management, and Criminal Investigation. 
ƒ The project worked closely with representatives from the Attorney General’s Office (AGO) to 
produce a comprehensive draft of changes to the Criminal Procedure Code. This effort was 
later followed by the publication of a book entitled “Trial Advocacy Skills in the Salvadoran 
Criminal Justice System,” the first book of its kind in all of Latin America. 
ƒ The project also helped modernize the AGO’s computer system in order to facilitate the later 
connection of a digital network among its regional offices. 
ƒ At the end of this Project, seven Casas de Justicia and Mediation Centers dotted the Salvadoran 
landscape, six of which were the direct result of Project efforts. Since their respective 
inceptions, the three Casas de Justicia (developed with municipal government counterparts) and 
9
Mediation Centers (developed with the Public Defender’s Office) had carried out 736 
mediations and had provided legal assistance in 1,587 cases. 
ƒ At the end of this project, six of the ten largest Salvadoran law schools had legal clinics in 
place, four of which were the direct result of Project efforts with local counterparts. In these 
four law schools, geographically distributed throughout the country, 831 law students were 
exposed to the clinical methodology. 
Justice Project – ProJusticia (2004 – 2005).
ƒ As of December 2005, a total of 26 Mediation Centers had been established and operating, 
which is considered one of the major outputs of the program. The Centers include fifteen 
Public Defender’s Office Mediation Centers; two Mobile Mediation Units; three Mixed 
Mediation Centers (Public Defender’s Office and Municipality); and six Municipal Mediation 
Centers.. 
ƒ The Civil and Commercial Procedures Code were reviewed and readapted into a draft law. 
This draft law would help modernize the legislation and justice administration to solve conflicts 
of civil and commercial matters, and also introduced oral procedures. 
ƒ Law schools were able to identify needs to reformulate the general study plan to implement 
legal clinic courses. Faculties were also provided with manuals, support materials, training in 
oral techniques, interview techniques, case handling and case follow-up. 
1.1.2 Joint Training of National Civilian Police and the Attorney General’s Office
(2000-2004).
In 2000, USAID/El Salvador requested a delegation of authority under the FAA, Section 534(b) 
(3), to include police personnel in certain rule of law training programs in order to improve 
coordination between the police and the Attorney General’s Office and to better conduct their 
investigative and forensic functions. The delegation of authority was issued on January 28, 2000 
and further amended in April 2002 and July 2003 to accelerate the rule of law joint training 
program and increase the original authorized amount by $500,000 (from $650,000 to $1.15 million) 
ESF from prior years obligated funds under the Activity. The program was managed by USAID/El 
Salvador in close coordination with the Criminal Investigative Training Assistance Program 
(ICITAP) in El Salvador. 
ƒ The project included the following training courses and/or activities on topic such as crime 
scene Management; chain of custody; criminal investigation; forensic techniques; intensive 
specialized training for regional coordinators; sexual crime; and criminal investigation with 
emphasis on gang-related crimes. 
ƒ This project helped improve inter-institutional coordination between the PNC and the AGO; 
and increased the knowledge of prosecutors and police personnel and helped ensure the proper 
investigation of crimes and successful criminal prosecution. The courses benefited 1,594 
participants, of which 1,050 were police officials, and 544 prosecutors. 
1.1.3 Community Policing (ICITAP’S PIP-COM program support) (2000 – 2004).
In 2000, USAID/El Salvador was granted an exception – notwithstanding authority 660 (b) (6) of 
the FAA to implement community policing activities up to $2 million ESF. In 2002 the AGC/LAC 
determined that El Salvador was no longer eligible to rely on the exception set forth in section 
10
above; however on July 29, 2002 a delegation of authority was granted by AA/LAC to rely on a 
exception set forth in Section 534 (b) (3) of the FAA to permit up to $200,000 ESF to be used for 
the completion of a centralized records system and case tracking management system for the PNC. 
In 2003, the Mission sought special authorizing legislation resulting in the inclusion of Section 582 
in Division E of the Consolidated Appropriation Resolution, 2003, under which the U.S. Congress 
authorized the use of FY 2003 $750,000 ESF to support community-based police assistance in El 
Salvador. Total amount authorized for community policing activities was $2.9 million of which 
$500,000 were reprogrammed for joint training activities (see section 1.1.2 above). The program 
was managed by USAID/El Salvador in close coordination with ICITAP in El Salvador. 
ƒ In 1999 ICITAP helped the PNC to initiate the community-oriented patrol policing strategy in 
the city of Mejicanos, an area of 240,000 residents. This methodology focused on using 
modern, internationally accepted police patrol methods, and deployed police officers based on 
crime data analysis with the flexibility to adjust to changing crime patterns. This community￾policing program, commonly referred to as the PIP-COM program, had an immediate positive 
affect. By 2001 the PIP-COM program had been established in all the largest cities and towns 
throughout the country. 
ƒ Since 2000 USAID assistance was focused on bolstering the effectiveness of the PIP-COM 
program by providing the PNC with the tools they needed. USAID/El Salvador provided much 
needed portable police radios and bicycles to support these activities in hard to reach 
communities. Assistance was also provided to modernize the PNC's records systems and case￾tracking management system. This allowed fundamental access to basic records such as court 
orders, outstanding warrants, stolen property and criminal histories. 
ƒ Equipment was also provided to expand the PNC’s 911 Emergency System. 
1.1.4 Inter-Agency Agreement with the Department of State Public Affairs Office 
(PAO) (1998 – 2004).
ƒ In July 1998 USAID and the Department of State’s Public Affairs Office signed an Inter￾Agency Agreement (IAA) in order to provide funding to carry out the following activities in 
support of the Legal/Judicial Protection (rule of law) program: 1) specialized international 
visitors (IV) programs; 2) professional/academic exchanges; 3) observational visits; 4) fulbright 
scholar’s researches; 5) voluntary visitors (pro-bono services by Salvadoran law firms); and 6) 
small grants to civil society organizations. Areas of assistance included, inter alia, community 
crime prevention, rules of evidence, judicial training, ADR, policy reform in criminal and 
commercial issues. 
ƒ An important achievement under this IAA was the provision of three grants to the National 
Council for Public Security (CNSP) to: 1) conduct a study of the influence of gangs in schools; 
2) carry out a training (diplomado) in prevention of violence; and 3) carry out an activity and 
provide training (diplomado) in fundraising. The results of the study and training activities 
will be used by the CNSP for the newly developed “youth at risk” activity to be implemented 
by USAID under the new strategy period 2004-2009. 
1.1.5 Procuraduría para la Defensa de los Derechos Humanos (PDDH) (2002-2005).
The PDDH does not belong to the justice sector per se; however it provides frees legal counsel and 
orientation to the public in general and can submit cases to justice sector institutions. When a 
human rights violation occurs, the PDDH is obligated to investigate. Assistance to the PDDH was 
11
initially designed to enhance the capability of this Office to analyze and formulate 
recommendations to strengthen systemic protection of human rights and to strengthen cooperation 
among community members and judicial actors in the resolution of conflicts. After the suspension 
of a grant with a U.S. NGO to be financed with Activity dollar funds, the Mission agreed upon with 
the Government of El Salvador to use $170,000 of host country-owned local currency funds to 
finance a three-year plan to support the PDDH regional offices in order to increase the possibility 
that an ordinary citizen outside the capital can be heard by the system and receive legal assistance 
with regard to human rights issues. Main activities include: 
ƒ Regional workshops to evaluate and prioritize the needs of the regional offices were conducted. 
ƒ Training of personnel was provided in areas such as human rights, constitutional law, criminal 
procedures, mediation, client servicing etc. 
ƒ Limited commodities and materials to improve the institution capacity to respond to citizens’ 
requests with regard to human rights were financed. 
A more detailed description of programs under the Rule of Law component, of Activity 519-0436, 
can be found in Annex 4. 
1.2 CITIZEN PARTICIPATION AND GOVERNANCE ACTIVITIES.
Citizen Participation and Governance activities helped to achieve IR1 “More Politically Active 
Advocacy Organizations.” The purpose of this component was to support greater citizen 
participation in decision-making processes by promoting civil society advocacy and oversight, 
transparency initiatives and legislative strengthening. 
Main interventions under this program were implemented through a competitively selected 
assistance instrument with Creative Associates Inc. (CREA). Local implementing partners 
included the National Legislative Assembly, local civil society organizations (CSOs) and selected 
municipalities. 
The main achievements were: 
ƒ Two national level proposals presented by participating CSOs were adopted by the respective 
decision-markers: 1) a series of measures to help modernize and create greater transparency in 
the Attorney General’s office; and 2) a package of legal reforms passed in the Legislative 
Assembly that improves the ability of single parents to claim child support from the non￾custodial parent.
ƒ Other clear advances were seen in municipal ordinances, lobbying, working with the media, 
alliance-building and working with constituencies, fundraising, strategic vision, and leadership.
ƒ A Legislative Support Unit in the Assembly, which helped to strengthen relationships between 
the people and their representatives, was established to promote effective public participation in 
the legislative process. 
ƒ The Assembly established a Constituent Services Office. The new office is a shining example 
of unique, specialized, and comprehensive public administration service to citizens. A total of 
six Departamental Constituent Offices were also established throughout the country. 
ƒ A social auditing program was established in nine municipalities to prevent corruption. Several 
ordinances were approved to institutionalize social auditing to ensure it does not disappear with 
a change of administration. 
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ƒ The Government of El Salvador approved a new Ethics Code for the executive branch, paving 
the way for increased accountability of public servants and reduced corruption.
A more detailed description of programs and achievements under the Citizen Participation and 
Governance component of Activity 519-0436 can be found in Annex 5. 
1.3 LOCAL GOVERNMENT ACTIVITIES.
Local Government activities helped to achieve IR3 “Strengthened Local Government.” 
Main interventions under this program were implemented through a competitively selected contract 
with Research Triangle Institute (RTI) and a cooperative agreement with a local municipal 
association COMURES3
. Local implementing partners included selected municipalities, 
COMURES, CDAs4
 and CONADEL5
. 
This component helped improve transparent management of public resources, increased the ability 
to provide basic services, and provided technical assistance in designing and implementing 
strategic plans with citizen participation in selected municipalities. Policy dialogue was also 
supported to help clarify municipal roles and responsibilities regarding the decentralization of 
additional public services, as well as the design and implementation of a National System of 
Transparency for Local Governments. 
1.3.1 Democratic Local Governance Activity - DLGA (2002 – 2005).
ƒ All 15 new participating municipalities completed and approved their long term strategic plans 
(known as PEP) in a participatory manner (local government, private sector and civil society). 
Twenty-four Local Development Committees (CDL) were established to manage their strategic 
plans. 
ƒ The coverage and quality of water services was increased in 16 decentralized water enterprises; 
as well as rapid attention to users’ complaints. 
ƒ A sanitary landfill was designed for the Micro Región Paracentral Norte (MIPANOR) and 
Micro Región Cuscatlán-San Martín (MICUSAM), which serve 20 municipalities. 
ƒ A Web portal for Local Development was established: http://www.desarrollolocal.com.sv
ƒ The Municipal Financial Administration System (SAFIMU II) was updated to form a system 
capable of identifying and registering urban and rural properties, registering construction on 
these properties, registering automatic valuation according to parameters, and implementing an 
integrated payroll system.
1.3.2 COMURES Institutional Capacity Strengthening Project (2001 – 2005).
ƒ The association strengthened its negotiation role before national and international sectors 
leading the discussion of topics of municipal interest with a clear agenda to promote municipal 
autonomy within the appropriate legal framework. 
ƒ The project generated an important scientific data base that is useful for the definition of 
actions oriented at improving financing conditions for local development. 
 
3
 Corporación de Municipalidades de El Salvador (COMURES) 4
 Consejos Departamentales de Municipalidades (CDAs) 
5
 Comisión Nacional del Desarrollo Local (CONADEL) 
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ƒ COMURES institutional capacity was strengthened through legal, technical, association, 
communication, and administration advisory support to the Consejos Departamentales de 
Municipalidades (CDAs). 
ƒ At the end of the project, and contributing to national democratization, there was greater public 
confidence in local government due to strengthened management capacity, broadened 
development vision, and promotion of citizen participation in the planning processes. 
ƒ COMURES and its members alongside the National Government placed on the national agenda 
the promotion of public modernization as one of the mechanisms to strengthen processes of 
transparency and citizen participation, agreeing in discussion within the National Commission 
of Local Development (CONADEL) framework. 
ƒ COMURES is now recognized as the ideal promoter of local development. 
A more detailed description of programs and achievements under the Local Government 
component of Activity 519-0436 can be found in Annex 6. 
2. MUNICIPAL DEVELOPMENT AND CITIZEN PARTICIPATION PROJECT 
(519 - 0388). Authorization date: September 30, 1993; Completion date: December 31, 2001. 
 LOP Funding: $12,500,000 
The Municipal Development and Citizen Participation Project (MDCPP) assisted the Government 
of El Salvador (GOES) in strengthening municipalities by improving services through effective 
financial management and greater citizen participation in local governance. The key substantive 
areas targeted in MDCPP were municipal finance and management, citizen participation, and 
policy dialogue and reform, complemented by indigenous urban management training and technical 
assistance. 
Interventions under this activity helped to achieve IR3 “Strengthened Local Government.” 
Main interventions under this program were implemented through competitively selected contracts 
with Research Triangle Institute (RTI). Local implementing partners included selected 
municipalities, COMURES, FISDL6
 and CDAs. 
The Municipal Development and Citizen Participation Project was made up of three components 
and their main achievements are described below. 
2.1 POLICY REFORM AND FORMULATION.
ƒ At the end of the project, open Council Meetings; publicized budgets; rendering of accounts; 
dialogue with entrepreneurs; and appearances on open telephone radio talk shows, were more 
common at municipal level. 
ƒ For the first time, seminars/workshops were carried out to allow mayors and senior managers to 
obtain greater knowledge regarding other creative and innovative experiences in urban 
development, including methods, ideas, and successful projects. 
ƒ Eighteen municipalities of the MDCPP, local leaders, mayors, internal auditors, municipal 
trustees (síndicos), treasurers, and accountants, as well as 24 auditors of the Corte de Cuentas
were trained in auditing techniques. 
 
6
 Fondo de Inversión Social y Desarrollo Local (FISDL) 
14
ƒ Assistance was provided to COMURES for efficient lobbying to strengthen the municipal 
sector. As a result, COMURES was able to exert great influence to establish transfers from the 
central government by 6 and recently to increase them to 7 percent of the national operating 
budget, and to draft regulations for distribution of funds from the Fondo de Desarrollo 
Económico y Social (FODES) to the municipalities, developing grant allocation formulas. 
2.2 MUNICIPAL STRENGTHENING.
ƒ At the end of the project, targeted municipal governments responded more effectively to the 
needs of their constituents by providing improved and expanded public services on a 
sustainable basis. 
ƒ Targeted local governments’ capacity to collect resources increased to allow self-sustaining 
services, normal maintenance, and self-investment; the tax base was expanded through 
updating of the real estate cadastre as well as the register of companies, i.e., 72% of the 
municipal cadastres, corresponding to 20 participating MDCPP municipalities, were updated; 
and collections were expanded and systematized in each phase—normal, administrative, and 
judicial—as established in the General Law on Municipal Taxes. 
ƒ A Modernization of tax documents and reassessment of taxation related to public services was 
performed. The legal framework for tax administration was correctly applied, thereby making 
the tasks related to the technical review of balances more efficient, accommodating assets 
declared by companies, and maintaining two-way communications with entrepreneurs and 
citizens. 
ƒ A Sistema de Administración Financiera Integrada Municipal (SAFIMU) was implemented 
allowing accounting transactions to occur in real time; billing to be carried out within the 
system (although the process for the massive issuance of notification-invoices takes a very long 
time); and to get the tax registry and control up to date. 
ƒ A model of decentralized municipal services provision, for the municipalities participating in 
the project as well as for the remaining (nonproject) municipalities, was developed. The 
following projects were carried out following this methodology: 1) water supply systems for 
the municipalities of Ereguayquín and San Julián; 2) solid waste collection and disposal 
systems for Usulután and Sonsonate. 
2.3 LOCAL DEMOCRATIC DEVELOPMENT.
ƒ Citizen participation in the local democratic decision-making process was enhanced through 
cabildos abiertos (open town meetings), increasing nongovernmental organizations’ (NGOs) 
and community organizations’ access to the democratic process, and identifying new 
mechanisms for broadened participation. 
ƒ Notably, 18 municipalities incorporated into their investment plans the three priorities 
established by participants during the planning process. 
ƒ Participatory action plans were developed as support tools for the municipal administration in 
15 municipalities. 
A more detailed description of programs and achievements under the Municipal Development and 
Citizen Participation Project can be found in Annex 7. 
15
3. DEMOCRATIC AND ELECTORAL PROCESS (519-0391). 
Authorization date: September 30, 1992; Completion date: March 31, 2002. 
LOP Funding: $9,450,000 
The goal of the Project was to strengthen democratic institutions and practices by enhancing the 
integrity and inclusiveness of the Salvadoran democratic and electoral processes, especially the 
participation of women, young citizens and rural people. 
Interventions under this activity helped to achieve IR2 “More Effective Electoral Administration.” 
Main interventions under this program were implemented through competitively selected contracts 
with Inter American Institute for Human Rights (IIHR/CAPEL), Creative Associates, IFES, IRI, 
NDI, Freedom House, and Southwest Voters Research Institute. Local implementing partners 
included Supreme Electoral Tribunal (SET) and local non-governmental organizations. 
3.1 PHASE 1 (1992 – 1996).
ƒ The first phase of this project took place during the so called “Elecciones del Siglo” (1994 
Presidential Election, the first one after the Peace Accords which had the participation of the 
FMLN as a legal political party). Efforts focused on assisting with documentation, voter 
registration/awareness campaigns, civic education, inscription of official voter rolls 
(carnetización) and electoral observation missions to monitor and report on the conduct of the 
combined 1994 presidential, legislative and municipal elections. Technical assistance and 
commodities to strengthen SET’s ability to plan and implement activities required to realize 
free and fair elections and to improve voter registration procedures to register voters in an 
inclusive and timely manner, while improving data management and processing systems 
needed to update and maintain an accurate voter registry. 
ƒ Retrieving and copying 250,000 birth certificates for the SET and canvassing targeted 
municipalities on a door to door basis. Pre-electoral activities covered 133 municipalities in all 
14 departments. 
ƒ Technical assistance and training, as well as in-kind and financial assistance to Salvadoran civic 
organizations to support their efforts to foster citizen involvement in the democratic and 
electoral processes. 
ƒ In the post-electoral phase, assistance was provided so that 21 NGO’s organized 10 sub￾projects which specifically dealt with issues surrounding women, environmental awareness, 
youth, community radios, and local communities. At the conclusion of the sub-projects, the 
NGOs were able to organize 242 community forums covering many pertinent subjects. Of 
particular importance were the 32 local forums held on citizen safety during the “Let’s 
Participate in Democracy” sub-project. Approximately 9,062 people participated in the ten 
sub-projects and the NGOs worked in all 14 departments. 
3.2 PHASE 2 (1996 - 1998).
ƒ Training and technical assistant to assist the SET to run the 1997 Municipal and Legislative 
Elections. 
ƒ An NGO network of 23 local organizations which implemented a national voter outreach/civic 
education campaign with the SET during the post registration an pre-election period of 1997 
elections was established. 
16
ƒ An agreement was reached with the Japanese Embassy to collaborate in three key programs: 
expanded civic education and voter outreach coverage; free Election Day rural transportation; 
and post election evaluation. 
3.3 PHASE 3 (1999 – 2003).
ƒ Important electoral reforms were drafted related to the electoral code, electoral procedures 
code, organic law of the SET, and political party law. For six months, the SET magistrates 
studied the proposals to reach consensus agreements about their contents before presenting 
them to the Legislative Assembly in April 2002. Although only minor changes were eventually 
introduced into the current legislation, electoral reform continues to be a key issue in the 
political agenda. These reform proposals should provide a substantive basis for further 
discussion. 
ƒ A process of strategic planning, organizational restructuring and a re-engineering of key 
processes, including the electoral register and the electoral process was performed in the SET. 
This support resulted in an improved set of processes for carrying out the 2003 municipal and 
legislative elections. 
ƒ A technical unit, under which the SET’s computers were organized, was created and placed 
under the direct authority of the magistrates. As a result, the logistics for voting and vote 
counting improved, both in 2003 as well as in 2004. 
ƒ In addition, the collateral support obtained through the support of Gigante Express led to the 
near completion of a detailed electoral map, which will be used once residential voting is put 
into place. The servers supplied in 2003 contributed especially to the useful introduction of the 
Documento Unico de Identidad-DUI in the 2004 elections. 
A more detailed description of programs and achievements under the Democratic and Electoral 
Processes Project can be found in Annex 8. 
4. OTHER PROGRAMS FINANCED WITH HOST COUNTRY-OWNED LOCAL 
CURRENCY 
4.1 Support for the Electoral Reform Process – Registro Nacional de Personas Naturales 
(RNPN) No. 519-0000-99 (1999-2002) 
ƒ Support was provided to the Registro Nacional de Personas Naturales (RNPN), through a grant 
awarded to the UNDP financed with host country-owned local currency (Colones 40.0 million 
equivalent to $4.59 million), in the construction of a historical database, which was the second 
phase toward the establishment of a new civil registry and the issuance of a single identity card 
known as the DUI. 
4.2 Single Identity Card (DUI) implemented by the RNPN (2001 – 2002) 
ƒ Support was provided to the Registro Nacional de Personas Naturales (RNPN) to issue free of 
charge approximately 937,500 DUIs. This assistance was implemented through an Action Plan 
financed with host country-owned local currency ($7,500,000) and managed by the Secretaría 
Técnica del Financiamiento Externo (SETEFE). The DUI was used for the first time as a voter 
card in the 2004 election, and due partly to its use, the 2004 elections had an historic 67% voter 
17
turnout. The historical database for the new civil registry was relied upon to issue a total of 3.6 
million single identity cards (DUI). 
4.3 Procuraduría para la Defensa de los Derechos Humanos (PDDH) (2002-2005). 
Please refer to section 1.13 above. 
4.4 Public Ministry Support for the implementation of the Criminal and Criminal 
Procedures Codes, Project No. ELS/97/L02. (1998 – 1999) 
ƒ Support was provided to the Public Ministry comprised of the Attorney General’s Office, 
and the Public Defenders’ Office for the start up implementation of the criminal codes by 
improving the response capability of the justice system to meet the broader, more articulate 
demands of the citizens. The Grant, administered by the UNDP, was financed with host 
country-owned local currency at a level of Colones 25.0 million ($2.9 million) and was 
used to purchase basic equipment and limited technical assistance needed by 
aforementioned justice sector institutions for the implementation of the Criminal Codes.
18
 
IV. PRINCIPAL IMPLEMENTING PARTNERS.7
1. DEMOCRATIC CONSOLIDATION AND GOVERNANCE ACTIVITY (519-0436) 
Rule of Law Activities: 
ƒ DPK Consulting ƒ Ministerio de Gobernación
ƒ National Center for State Courts - NCSC ƒ Consejo Nacional de la Judicatura (CNJ)
ƒ Office of Public Affairs, U.S. Embassy to El 
Salvador, (Interagency Agreement) 
ƒ National Civilian Police (Policía Nacional Civil 
– PNC)
ƒ International Criminal Investigative Training 
Assistance Program of the Department of Justice
(ICITAP) 
ƒ Procuraduría para la Defensa de los Derechos 
Humanos – PDDH (Ombudsman Office). 
ƒ Attorney General’s Office (Fiscalía General de 
la República)
ƒ Chemonics International, Inc. 
ƒ Public Defender’s Office (Procuraduría General 
de la República)
ƒ Comisión Coordinadora del Sector Justicia
ƒ Executive Technical Unit of the Justice Sector 
(UTE). 
ƒ The United Nations Development Program 
(UNDP) 
ƒ Supreme Court of Justice (CSJ) ƒ
Citizen Participation and Governance Activities: 
ƒ Creative Associates International, Inc. ƒ El Salvador’s Legislative Assembly 
ƒ The University of Texas at Austin, sub￾contractor of Creative Associates 
ƒ Consejo Nacional de Desarrollo Sostenible – 
CNDS
ƒ Civil Society Organizations: Fundación Siglo 
XXI; FESPAD; APES; FUMA; PROBIDAD; 
and IUDOP, among others. 
ƒ World Learning Inc. 
Local Government Activities: 
ƒ Research Triangle Institute International – RTI ƒ Selected Municipalities 
ƒ Corporación de Municipalidades de la 
República – COMURES 
ƒ Red de Cooperantes para el Desarrollo Local - 
RECODEL
ƒ Fondo de Inversión Social para el Desarrollo 
Local– FISDL
ƒ Comisión Nacional para el Desarrollo Local – 
CONADEL 
ƒ Instituto Salvadoreño para el Desarrollo 
Municipal – ISDEM
ƒ Consejos Departamentales de Municipalidades 
(CDAs) 
2. MUNICIPAL DEVELOPMENT AND CITIZEN PARTICIPATION PROJECT (519 - 0388). 
ƒ Research Triangle Institute (RTI) ƒ FISDL 
ƒ Corporación de Municipalidades de la 
República – COMURES 
ƒ ANDA 
ƒ ISDEM 
ƒ CDAs 
ƒ Selected Municipaliaties
3. DEMOCRATIC AND ELECTORAL PROCESS (519-0391). 
ƒ International Foundation for Election Systems - 
IFES 
ƒ Registro Nacional de las Personas Naturales
(RNPN) 
ƒ Creative Associates International, Inc. ƒ Tribunal Supremo Electoral - SET
ƒ The United Nations Development Program 
(UNDP) 
ƒ Local NGOs 
7
 For more contact info, please see Annex 9. 
19
ƒ Inter American Institute of Human Rights 
(IIHR/CAPEL) 
ƒ FreedomHouse 
ƒ National Democratic Institute (NDI) ƒ Southwest Voters Research Institute 
ƒ International Republican Institute (IRI) 
V. PROSPECTS FOR LONG-TERM SUSTAINABILITY OF 
IMPACT OF THE SO. 
At the end of the USAID’s seven-year strategy, El Salvador’s democracy is stronger in many ways: 
there have been significant advancements in justice, decentralization, transparency, election 
processes, and citizen participation in government decision-making. While significant challenges 
remain, including limited political will for many key reforms, these achievements provide a solid 
basis for continued improvements through the new strategy. Below are the prospects for long-term 
sustainability of the impact achieved during this strategy by IR. 
ƒ IR1: More politically active advocacy organizations: 
o The total dependence of Salvadoran CSOs on international funding makes them very 
vulnerable when international agencies withdraw from the country as is currently the 
case. Organizations have to begin self-sustaining activities like the sale of services or 
other business to supplement their income now and eventually replace the income lost as 
donors leave. 
o To guarantee true citizen participation, government institutions and civil society must 
establish mechanisms for interaction. Assembly representatives, executive branch 
officials and staff should take responsibility for promoting their work more energetically 
and providing greater opportunities for people to find out about participation 
mechanisms. 
ƒ IR2: More effective electoral administration: 
o The Electoral Law Reforms that would divide the issues between four new laws: 
Electoral Code, an Electoral Procedures Law, and Organic Law of the SET, and a 
Political Parties Law, that were drafted with full cooperation of the SET, haven’t been 
approved; the SET was ultimately unable to extract itself from its still-partisan political 
design to find a consensus for moving forward, either on electoral law or institutional 
reforms. 
o Even assuming greater political will, however, there are enormous bureaucratic obstacles 
to administrative reform in government institutions. Only a much broader agreement or 
pact by political parties could possible enable reforms that might fundamentally alter the 
nature of the SET. 
ƒ IR3: Strengthened local government: 
o Although having proposals, which include definition of municipal roles in decentralized 
service delivery, as well as tax collection and management responsibilities, has facilitated 
that the discussions regarding decentralization reached all the way up to being included 
in the CONADEL agenda, the promotion of Municipal Code reforms, and its 
harmonization with other laws affecting municipal autonomy, require greater negotiation 
and political lobbying before the Executive and Legislative branches. Continued 
20
dialogue is key through CONADEL to promote further discussion and analysis of these 
key issues in order to be able to advance these reforms 
ƒ IR4: Improved Court Case Preparation and Management 
o Key political will remains unclear to incorporate rules of evidence in the Criminal 
Procedures Code; this lack of definition of admissible evidence in trial produces legal 
insecurity for the prosecutors office, for the defense, and for the accused; the proposed 
reforms would establish norms for the presentation, rejection, admission, evaluation and 
sufficiency of the evidence presented by the parties in a judicial process. When the new 
evidential rules are adopted, the system and the administration of justice will benefit of 
legal transparency and security with which the judges admit or reject the evidence in the 
criminal process. Wide national debate is still needed to analyze the evidential problems 
and the proposed solutions. 
o The national Civilian Police and the Attorney General’s Office should develop a joint 
training plan that continues the training courses on Crime Scene Management, Criminal 
Investigation, and Chain of Custody. Considering that both institutions are the main 
columns of the justice system that guarantee proper crime investigation and successful 
criminal process. 
ƒ IR5: Increased Use of the Justice System 
o The project left ADR operators prepared and 26 mediation centers established, though 
work is still needed in the development of ADR’s experts and in strengthening the local 
network with the institutional one, e.g., PGR and courts, Chamber of Commerce and 
other unions, universities and legal clinics. It is also important to guide the work. The 
greatest responsibility now will be in granting sustainability and the possibility of growth 
of the national ADR program. Without the institutional support provided until now, the 
sustainability of the centers and services provided is not granted. 
21
VI. TOTAL COST OF THE SO (IN US$). 
Activity 
Number Title 
Life of 
Activity 
Funding 
Obligations Accrued 
Expenditures Pipeline 
519-0436 More Inclusive and Effective 
Democratic Processes Project 29,682,000 29,681,905 28,892,224 821,810
519-0436.01 
Fundación Centroamericana 
para el Desarrollo Sostenible 
(FUCAD) Grant 
122,000 122,000 122,000 0
519-0436.02 Inter-Agency Agreement 
with DOS (PAO) 1,070,000 1,070,000 1,070,000 0
519-0436.03 COMURES Grant 1,200,000 1,200,000 1,167,871 32,129
519-0388 Municipal Development and 
Citizen Participation Project 12,500,000 12,499,707 12,499,707 0
519-0391 Democratic and Electoral 
Process Project 10,000,000 7,935,786 7,935,786 0
519-0455 Ethics Code Project 350,000 
519-0000 PD&L 15,000 15,000 15,000 0
TOTAL USAID 54,939,000 52,524,398 51,702,588 853,939
SO LEVEL as approved by Washington 56,000,000 
COUNTERPART CONTRIBUTION AND COST SHARING 
GOES 
Counterpart 
Activity 519-0436 
 17,316,289 
COMURES and 
CREA Cost 
sharing Activity 
519-0436 
 1,214,031 
TOTAL Counterpart and Cost Sharing 18,530,320 
PROGRAMS FINANCED WITH HOST COUNTRY OWNED LOCAL CURRENCY (HCOLC)
519-0000-99 
UNDP 
Support for the Electoral 
Reform Process – the 
Registro Nacional de las 
Personas Naturales (RNPN) 
$4,571,429 $4,571,429 $4,571,429 0
SETEFE Single Identity Card (DUI) 
Implemented by the RNPN $7,500,000 $7,500,000 $7,500,000 0
SETEFE 
Procuraduria para la Defensa 
de los Derechos Humanos 
(PDDH) 
$170,000 $170,000 $170,000 0
ELS/97/L02 
UNDP 
Public Ministry Support for 
the Implementation of the 
Criminal Codes 
$2,900,000 $2,900,000 $2,900,000 0
TOTAL HCOLC $10,570,000 $10,570,000 $10,570,000 0
22
VII. LESSONS LEARNED. 
1. DEMOCRATIC CONSOLIDATION AND GOVERNANCE PROJECT (519-0436). 
1.1 Rule of Law activities.
i. Work with other donors to address deficiencies of the judiciary: This is especially true in 
the context of judicial administration. The Project began to address deficiencies in judicial 
administration through the judge mentor program, and it recommends a continued focus, in 
tandem with other international donors, on this aspect of the judiciary. 
ii. As long as the current justice system remains a hybrid between the inquisitorial and 
accusatory systems, there will continue to be large-scale inefficiency and unfairness. Judges 
already educated in rules of evidence can be targeted and relied upon as a starting point to 
develop discussions that would generate changes within the system. Reform projects must 
be conceived integrally, though do not necessarily have to have complex goals. The reform 
process by its nature is a gradual process. 
iii. Successful reform and modernization efforts should not depend on the exclusive vision of 
jurists, but also include other experts such as methodologists, pedagogues, psychologists or 
anthropologists, to mention some specialties. A great commitment is required from the 
institutional heads or local authorities. Lack of consensus over justice reform is the best 
road to failure. Without the sense of ownership, it is not possible to advance. 
iv. A municipal Mediation Center needs to be fully involved in the local municipal activities in 
the mayor’s office. Any attempt to separate the center from the mayor’s office, in a well￾meaning attempt to depoliticize the center, will detract from the center’s efforts to show 
clearly to the mayor its utility. 
v. Respect for local idiosyncrasies: The municipal ADR experience required not only 
participative methodologies, but also different communication methodologies in each 
location. Each municipality or locality, be it rural or urban, has different “momentums” of 
action and reaction. The conflicts are different and the vision of the justice system often 
different. 
vi. It is considered indispensable to train the prosecutor’s personnel in basic juridical areas, 
such as nullities, resources, evidence means, rules of evidence, etc., to reinforce their 
participation during the criminal process. 
1.2 Citizen Participation and Governance activities.
i. The decision to participate or lead an advocacy campaign should not be taken lightly, 
because it has serious implications: any organization that decides to go forward will have to 
continue risking their image with public positions, alliances with other organizations and 
citizen action in order to be successful. 
ii. Advocacy processes require a willingness to constantly reevaluate strategies and activities, 
and to change them when necessary. The most successful groups are able to evaluate their 
work objectively, admit their mistakes, and correct them quickly. 
iii. The least developed capacity in all of the organizations is the ability to create 
communications strategies and work effectively with the media. Given its importance, 
however, media work deserves special attention. 
23
iv. No amount of training or coaching can take the place of experience. The most notable 
instances of increased abilities observed during this project have been with organizations 
that have used the training provided as a springboard, directly using what they have learned, 
making mistakes and correcting them. 
v. Donors supporting advocacy projects should look first at organizations that are already 
doing advocacy, with no external funding, since these are the most clearly committed. 
vi. In relation with the Code of Ethics draft and implementation, many parts of the process 
could have been more participatory and open to the public. Although some participation 
occurred, it was not always consistent—i.e., the same group of persons was not always 
involved—and it was perhaps not sufficiently broad as to have generated a base of support 
for carrying out the code. Although public statements of commitment were made to this 
process, the public release of different documents would have both indicated a real 
openness to seeing this process succeed, as well as created a more informed group of 
persons and organizations who could push for the approval and implementation of the code 
and office of ethics. 
vii. It is necessary to improve communication between the Legislative Support Unit (LSU) and 
other units of the Assembly. One possible problem could be the lack of ongoing 
communication with other units in the Assembly. Communication is necessary for 
spreading information about legislative work and for supporting the facilitators. One 
specific suggestion is for the LSU director to meet with the directors of other Assembly 
units at least twice a year.
viii. The Civic Education Program should try to make sure that an Assembly member is present 
at all its talks. When a member cannot e present, the program should invite one of the 
alternates.
1.3 Local Government Activities.
i. Any effort aimed at achieving or increasing the adherence and participation of municipal 
officers and natural leaders of the local community must be considered essential to the 
success of participatory process for local development. 
ii. It is necessary to break the long-term objectives down into a coherent set of gradual 
quantifiable objectives to be achieved in the short, medium, and long term. Verifying 
achievement in each of the operational objectives will motive to increase participation in 
the process. 
iii. In practice, each one of the political parties will try at a given time to take credit for the 
project, claiming merit that may rightfully belong to the citizens and local participation 
organizations. The need to ensure that the project is identified as a strictly technical and 
fully independent activity, with decisions made above the particular interests of political or 
economic groups, is unmistakable. 
iv. Promote the implementation of internal audits in municipalities. Such self-evaluation 
efforts proved helpful and encouraging and must be promoted and incorporated in a future 
project from the beginning. 
v. Based on the evaluation of the achievements of the potable water and solid waste 
companies, the most successful companies were those reporting a higher level of effective 
participation of the users of the services provided. 
vi. Any municipality that intends to start a long-term strategy for economic development must 
promote form the beginning the constitution and operation of an independent and fully 
representative organization. 
24
vii. The promotion of Municipal Code reforms and its harmonization with other laws affecting 
municipal autonomy require greater negotiation and political lobbying before the Executive 
and Legislative branches. 
viii. It is clear that solid waste management is a topic of national dimensions that must be 
assumed in a comprehensive and interinstitutional manner with a country vision and as a 
process. 
ix. In order to support municipalities in the full exercise of their competencies and their 
municipal autonomy, COMURES carried out counseling sessions for the Provincial 
Councils of the Municipalities. This modality must be continued since it generates the 
empowerment of COMURES by council members and employees. 
2. MUNICIPAL DEVELOPMENT AND CITIZEN PARTICIPATION PROJECT (519-
0388). 
i. Greater local involvement in municipal and regional development is vital, especially citizen 
input into the development process. El Salvador’s approach has been more technical, 
focusing on local revenue generation, grant reform, and improved local management 
capacity. However, recent experiences with community participation activities have 
certified that local involvement quickly shows benefits in the form of demand-based urban 
services. 
ii. The experience of the water sector highlighted the difficulty of managing the development 
of public infrastructure in a centralized manner. Efforts are now under way to devolve the 
management of these projects to local governments. This represents a clear break with the 
past, although further progress is needed. 
iii. It is important to differentiate among municipalities and regions and to deploy different 
development strategies for different conditions. El Salvador has tended to focus much 
attention on regional equity issues. The essence of this strategy is to continue to target a 
variety of central programs to areas of high poverty or other factors, but to grant a higher 
degree of autonomy to larger cities where economic conditions make it possible for such 
cities to develop at a faster pace. USAID is in a position to capitalize on this strategy, which 
emerged during the past few years. 
iv. Policy development, technical assistance, training outreach, and investment capital all need 
to be linked. MDCPP’s success has led other donors to recognize these linkages. A case in 
point is the Inter-American Development Bank’s Municipal Development Project, which 
follows on the model pioneered by USAID under MDCPP. 
3. DEMOCRATIC AND ELECTORAL PROCESS (519-0391). 
i. Civil Society has a role to play in decision making especially those problems which directly 
affect local communities. Dialogue at the local level must be taken to the national level 
where it can generate enthusiasm and support for initiatives affecting common citizens. 
ii. It is important to foster NGO independence of political parties, otherwise NGOs will 
continue to be seen by the SET and other government agencies primarily as political 
proselytizers rather than neutral educators for electoral and democratic processes. This will 
especially be seen to be the situation during pre-electoral phases. 
iii. Individual NGOs should comprise a network unless consortia come to the table when a 
network is being established. 
25
iv. The issue of political will or lack thereof, continues to be the most salient impediment to 
reforms. The SET was ultimately unable to extract itself from is still-partisan political 
design to find a consensus for moving forward, either on electoral law or institutional 
reforms. The SET Magistrates should not represent political parties. 
v. Even assuming greater political will, however, there are enormous bureaucratic obstacles to 
administrative reform in government institutions. 
A complete list of lessons learned by project can be found in Annex 10.
26
VIII. ANNEXES. 
ANNEX 1
LIST OF EVALUATIONS, ASSESSMENTS AND SPECIAL STUDIES CONDUCTED 
DURING THE LIFE OF THE SO 
Year Name Author 
2000 “Auditoria de la Democracia, El Salvador 1999” – 
Based on the 1999 USAID Democracy Survey. 
USAID, prepared by Mitchell A. 
Seligson – José Miguel Cruz – 
Ricardo Córdova Macías 
2004 “The Political Culture of Democracy, 2004” – 
Based on the 2004 USAID Democracy Survey 
USAID, prepared by Mitchell A. 
Seligson – José Miguel Cruz – 
Ricardo Córdova Macías 
2004 “Independent Evaluation of CAM/C Democracy 
Survey” 
USAID, prepared by Management 
Systems International 
2005 “Evaluation of Alternative Dispute Resolution in El 
Salvador” 
USAID, prepared by Management 
Systems International 
2005 “An Assessment of Corruption in El Salvador” USAID, prepared by Casals & 
Associates 
2005 “Political Party Strengthening Assessment” USAID, prepared by CAPEL 
ANNEX 2
LIST OF INSTRUMENTS THAT HAVE BEEN CLOSED OUT PER ADS 202.3.10.1 
Number Implementation
Instrument Contractor / Recipient Status 
Democratic Consolidation and Governance Project (519-0436) 
AEP-I-804-96-90030-00 Contract Chemonics International Inc. Closed 
519-C-00-01-00059-00 Contract DPK Consulting Not ready for 
closeout1
519-C-00-01-00154-00 Contract DPK Consulting In closeout 
process 
AEP-I-00-00-00011-00 Contract National Center for State Courts Nor ready for 
closeout 
519-A-00-00-00041-00 Cooperative 
Agreement 
Creative Associates International, 
Inc.
Not ready for 
closeout
519-C-00-03-00013-00 Contract Research Triangle Institute Int. Not ready for 
closeout
519-A-00-01-00219-00 Cooperative 
Agreement 
Corporación de Municipalidades de 
la República - COMURES 
In close-out 
process 
Municipal Development and Citizen Participation Project (519-0388). 
OUT-LAG-I-806-99-
00009-00 Contract Research Triangle Institute Int. Closed 
519-C-00-94-000106-00 Contract Research Triangle Institute Int. Closed 
Democratic and Electoral Process (519-0391) 
519-0391-C-00-3151-00 Contract Creative Associates International, 
Inc. Closed 
AEP-I-801-96-0003-00 Contract International Foundation for 
Electoral Systems Closed 
519-A-00-00-00041-00 Cooperative 
Agreement 
Creative Associates International, 
Inc.
Not ready for 
closeout
519-G-00-99-00032-00 Grant United Nations Development 
Program 
In closeout 
process 
 
1
 “Not ready for closeout” means the agreement or contract has provisional indirect cost rates and in order to close them 
out, USAID needs finalized indirect cost rates from contractor or partner. 
ANNEX 3
NAMES AND CONTACT POINT OF INDIVIDUAL DIRECTLY INVOLVED IN THE 
PLANNING, ACHIEVING, ASSESSING, AND LEARNING OF THE SO 
ƒ Deborah Kennedy-Iraheta, SO Team Leader 1997 – 1999, kennedydd@usaid.gov
ƒ Anna Klenicki, SO Team Leader 1999-2001, aklenicki@usaid.gov
ƒ Todd Sorenson, SO Team Leader 2001-2004, tsorenson@usaid.gov
ƒ Sepideh Keyvanshad, SO Team Leader 2004-2005, skeyvanshad@usaid.gov
ƒ Mauricio Herrera Coello, CTO/Project Manager for Citizen Participation and 
Governance, and Elections activities, Democracy and Governance Office, USAID El 
Salvador, mherrera@usaid.gov
ƒ Ana Luz Joya de Mena, CTO/Project Manager for Local Government activities, 
Democracy and Governance Office, USAID El Salvador, almena@usaid.gov
ƒ Eva Patricia Rodríguez, CTO/Project Manager for Rule of Law activities, Democracy and 
Governance Office, USAID El Salvador, evrodriguez@usaid.gov
ƒ Norma Velásquez-Castro, Project Development Specialist, Strategic Development Office 
(SDO), USAID El Salvador, nvelasquez-castro@usaid.com
ƒ Renata de Rodríguez, Acquisition Specialist, Regional Contracts and Grants Office 
(RCG), USAID El Salvador, rerodriguez@usaid.com
ƒ Parviz Shahidinejad, Financial Administrator, Controllers Office, USAID El Salvador, 
PShahidinejad@usaid.gov 
ƒ Helen Tobar, Project Assistant for Local Government activities, 1997 – 2000 
ƒ José Roberto Carballo, Project Assistant for Citizen Participation and Governance, Local 
Government and Elections activities, 1997 - 2004
ƒ Patricia Galdámez, Project Assistant for Rule of Law Activities, and CTO/Project 
Manager for police related activities, Democracy and Governance Office, USAID El 
Salvador, pgaldamez@usaid.gov 
ƒ Ma. Antonieta Zelaya, Project Assistant for Citizen Participation and Governance, and 
Local Government activities, Democracy and Governance Office, USAID El Salvador, 
mzelaya@usaid.gov 
ƒ Claudia de Morales, Financial Analyst, Controllers Office, USAID El Salvador, 
cmorales@usaid.gov 
ƒ Ingrid de Lacayo, Sup. Accountant Tech, Controllers Office, USAID El Salvador, 
ilacayo@usaid.gov 
2
ANNEX 4
SUMMARY OF PROGRAMS AND ACTIVITIES IMPLEMENTED UNDER THE SO
Extended Description by Project
Activity No. 519-0436 
“DEMOCRATIC CONSOLIDATION AND GOVERNANCE PROJECT” 
RULE OF LAW AREA
Rule of Law activities helped to achieve two Intermediate Results: IR4 “Improved Court Case 
Preparation and Management”, and IR5 “Increased use of the Justice System. 
This component sought to improve the rule of law in El Salvador through the following areas of 
intervention: First, it supported criminal reforms through specialized training and technical 
assistance to justice sector institutions in rules of evidence, oral advocacy and plea bargaining and 
promotion on modern teaching and learning of clinical methodologies in universities. Second, it 
promoted access to justice through Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) mechanisms, particularly 
mediation and arbitration. Third, it also promoted economic governance by helping improve draft 
reforms to the civil and commercial procedures law, and by working with the Judicial Training 
School of the National Council for the Judiciary to develop courses in this area. Finally, it assisted 
the National Civilian Police (Policía Nacional Civil-PNC) to expand community policing, strengthen 
and expand emergency 911 system, finalize a national case track management system; and provide a 
joint police-prosecutor training program to enhance their criminal investigative and evidence 
collection skills (under special authorization by U.S. Congress). 
Main interventions under this program were implemented through contracts with Chemonics 
International (1998 – 2000); DPK Consulting (2000 – 2003); and with National Center for State 
Courts with a sub-contract to DPK Consulting (2004 – 2005). 
1. RULE OF LAW STRENGHTENING. 
1.1 1998 – 2000
From September 15, 1998, to June 30, 2000, a contract was carried out by Chemonics International, 
Inc. under Contract # AEP-I-804-96-90030-00 TO # 804, to strengthen Rule of Law. Main 
counterpart for this activity was the Technical Executive Unit (UTE) of the Justice Sector. Activities 
included: 1) Popular legal education training, interinstitutional coordination, and strategic 
development; 2) Improving information dissemination policy, practices, and operator skills in the 
justice sector; 3) Design and development of court annexed alternative dispute resolution (ADR) 
services; and 4) Technical support for justice plans and contract management. The total contract 
awarded was $1,304,151. 
1
Achievements included: 
ƒ Popular legal education training focusing on media intervention. The first legal education 
campaign was implemented by Government institutions and non-Governmental organizations. 
ƒ A program was designed to improve media understanding of criminal justice reforms. A total of 
767 justice sector operators and media participated in training activities to improve media 
techniques and information strategies. 
ƒ The first intervention of USAID in the establishment and use of ADR in El Salvador was 
approached through this project. A focus was made in court annexed conciliation and mediation. 
A preliminary assessment of ADR in El Salvador was performed. An ADR training module was 
developed with the Judicial Training School of the National Judiciary Council (CNJ), and 
training was provided in ADR mechanisms to justice sector operators mainly in conciliation and 
mediation. A multidisciplinary group of 50 mediators which included judges, social workers, 
educators, and psychologists was also trained to mediate court referred cases. 
ƒ Technical assistance, training and equipment were provided to strengthen Technical Executive 
Unit (UTE) and the Justice Sector Coordinator Commission. Support was provided for the 
development of technical studies, publications, manuals, and other legal education material. The 
creation of a web page for the UTE was designed (www.ute.gob.sv). 
1.2 Proyecto para el Apoyo del Sistema de Justicia - PAS (2000 – 2003).
From June 30, 2000, to October 30, 2003, the “Proyecto para el Apoyo del Sistema de Justicia” or 
“PAS Project,” carried out by DPK Consulting under Contracts # 519-C-00-00-00059-00, and 519-
C-00-01-00154-00 worked to improve the criminal justice system and citizen access to justice in El 
Salvador. Those three years were marked with many achievements, some easily verifiable through 
tangible results and statistical proof while others verifiable through anecdotal evidence and success 
stories. These achievements include improving criminal trial practice, succeeding in establishing 
momentum with the lower echelons of justice sector institutions for code reform, seeing the 
realization of mediation as a viable alternative mechanism to resolve disputes, and improving law 
school education. The total contract awarded was $3,196,785. 
The Project was organized into four main sub-activities (although there was an additional one for 
window of opportunities): 
A) Greater Understanding of Roles and Improved Performance of Responsibilities under 
the new Criminal Procedure Codes. 
The new Criminal Procedures Codes went into effect in April 1998. When the Project began, 
the Judicial Training School (ECJ), supported by USAID, had already undertaken training 
efforts reflecting the content of the new Criminal Procedure Codes. However, trial practice 
by justice sector operators was riddled with very basic deficiencies, and police and 
prosecutor investigative practices were also in need of improvement, especially in the 
protection and collection of evidence from the crime scene. Training over the life of the 
Project covered nearly every aspect of the criminal justice process, from training geared 
towards improving the performance of police and prosecutors at the crime scene to training 
designed to improve the technical competence of justice sector operators during the criminal 
trial. Specifically, training courses included those in Theory of the Crime, Evidence Law, 
2
Trial Advocacy Skills, Crime Scene Management, and Criminal Investigation. At the end of 
the project, although there was still substantial room for improvement, the progress made by 
the justice sector institutions was irrefutable. The most basic trial advocacy skills were being 
implemented; and direct examinations and cross-examinations, although flawed, were a 
reality. 
Technical Assistance consisted of prosecutor and judge mentor programs, efforts in working 
with counterparts to promote code reform (focusing especially on rules of evidence), 
assistance to promote greater use of plea bargaining, and the publication of a book on the 
Salvadoran criminal justice system and trial advocacy skills. Specifically, the project worked 
closely with representatives from the Attorney General’s Office (AGO)1
 to produce a 
comprehensive draft of changes to the Criminal Procedure Code. This was later followed by 
the publication of a book entitled “Trial Advocacy Skills in the Salvadoran Criminal Justice 
System,” the first book of its kind in all of Latin America. The Project and counterparts also 
saw advances as a result of the execution of the prosecutor and judge mentor programs. In 
the case of the prosecutor mentor program, advances were more common in those offices 
where supervisory prosecutors accepted recommendations of the Project consultant and 
provided follow-up. For instance, the conviction rate in the AGO office in Santa Ana – 
where the head prosecutor is progressive and dynamic - increased 15% after the 
implementation of the prosecutor mentor program in that office. The biggest gain of the 
judge mentor program was crystallizing the need for communication within the judiciary. 
B) Greater Public Confidence in the Judicial Operators to Effectively Implement the 
New Criminal and Criminal Procedure Codes. 
Initially, the Project hoped to assist counterparts in improving public confidence through 
 activities directed towards the citizenry as a whole. After some adjustments to the scope 
 of work, discussed with and approved by USAID, the Project prioritized its activities in this 
 component to address a key actor for the credibility of the criminal process as a whole, the 
 Attorney General’s Office (AGO). The Project funded the modernization of two waiting 
 rooms in regional offices of the AGO in addition to other USAID funded efforts to equip and 
 furnish its central offices after the 2001 earthquake. The project also helped modernize the 
 AGO’s computer system in order to facilitate the later connection of a digital network among 
 its regional offices. Enhanced information technology support was expected to improve the 
 overall functioning of the AGO and thus, improve public confidence in the institution. 
C) Successful Establishment of Rural Legal Centers to Improve Access to Justice in 
Selected Sites. 
In spite of previous USAID efforts, when the project started, the concept of mediation had 
 very little visibility in El Salvador. In three years, the use and visibility of mediation grew 
 substantially. At the end of the program, seven Casas de Justicia and Centros de Mediación
 dotted the Salvadoran landscape, six of which were the direct result of Project efforts. Since 
 their respective inceptions, the three Casas de Justicia (developed with municipal 
 government counterparts) and Centros de Mediación (developed with the Public Defender’s 
 Office - PGR) had carried out 736 mediations and had provided legal assistance in 1,587 
 cases. Most significantly, as studies show that approximately five persons are affected by 
 
1
 Reffered in Spanish as Fiscalía General de la República (FGR). 
3
 each mediation, it was expected that thousands would be impacted. By the end of the Project 
 all six mediation centers were totally funded by the project’s counterparts. In view of the 
 preliminary results of the first three PGR centers, towards the end of the project, the PGR 
 signed an agreement with USAID to expand mediation services to other regional offices 
 throughout the country. 
D) Strengthening of Selected Law Schools. 
El Salvador boasts nineteen law schools and approximately 16,500 law students. As part of 
 this component, the project sought to improve the quality of education provided to these law 
 students and thus, the quality of graduates produced. It set about this goal with the intent of 
 introducing legal clinics and the clinical methodology. At the end of the project six of the 
 ten largest law schools had legal clinics, four of which were the direct result of project efforts 
 with counterparts. In these four law schools, geographically distributed throughout the 
 country, 831 law students had been exposed to the clinical methodology. Moreover, the 
 clinical methodology had been incorporated in varying degrees into law school curricula and 
 a new generation of law students were about to be exposed to the mechanics of oral advocacy 
 through Project training. 
1.3 Justice Project – ProJusticia (2004 – 2005).
The Justice Project USAID/El Salvador (ProJusticia) was initiated on March 1, 2004, carried out by 
National Center for State Courts/DPK Consulting, under the contract Nº. AEP-1-00-00-00011-00 TO 
# 808. Its original execution period was from March 1, 2004 – June 30, 2005. The project period 
was extended from July 1 – August 31, 2005. The proposed project goals were designed to give 
continuity to activities developed under previous USAID efforts and to integrate innovative and 
socialized activities and strategies to address implementation challenges. The total contract awarded 
was $2,843,248. The project components worked on were: 
A) Greater Consolidation of Criminal Law Reforms.
Main activities and its results included: 
o Updating and institutionalization of the ECJ Training Programs: in order to offer 
public courses to which the legal community of the country could be invited (including 
Evidential law; Criminal Procedure Law; Criminal Law; and Commercial Law and Civil 
Procedure); 
o Continue work of AGO Mentor Program and launch PGR Public Defense Program:
which was done through technical assistance provided by international consultants; 
o Promotion of Code Reform to Incorporate Rules of Evidence: the implementation of 
criminal procedural and code reform with oral trials has required a focus on rules for 
admission and evaluation of evidence. Work was conducted on drafting reforms to the 
Criminal Procedure Code to incorporate new evidential regulations. A drafting 
commission was formed. The draft code incorporated inputs contributed by similar, 
previous initiatives (PAS Project). The drafting commission made several presentations 
before the Plenary of the Criminal Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice, the Justice 
Sector Coordinating Commission, and the AGO regional and sub-regional heads. The 
proposed draft law of inclusion of the rules of evidence creates standardized procedures 
so that the judges and courts may decide on the admission or exclusion of evidence. The 
4
rules establish norms for the presentation, rejection, admission, evaluation and 
sufficiency of the means of evidence presented by the parties in a judicial process. The 
legislative draft law for the reforms to the Criminal Procedures Code in evidential matter 
was prepared between March of 2004 and March of 2005. Unfortunately there was not 
an opportunity to discuss the thematic contents of the legislative proposal with the justice 
operators or with the general society. This lack of consultation brought a sense of 
mistrust of the operators toward the legislative law draft as they felt that legislation 
threatened judicial independence. Wide national debate is still needed to analyze the 
evidential problems and the proposed solutions; 
o Support Legal Clinics: the project provided direct technical assistance, in order that the 
law schools, in a participatory way, may identify the needs to reformulate the general 
study plan and its academic programs with the implementation of the clinic courses. The 
four schools with clinics (Universidad Francisco Gavidia – UFG; Universidad 
Tecnológica – UTEC; Universidad de Oriente – UNIVO; and Universidad Católica de 
Occidente - UNICO) received technical assistance during the PAS project in different 
clinical methodology tools, such as oral and interview techniques, and case handling. 
Technical assistance was also provided in order to develop a manual for clinic education 
instructions to guide the new legal clinics and to elaborate support materials, training in 
orality techniques, interview techniques, case handling and their follow-up. 
B) Promote the Development of Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) Mechanisms. 
At the end of the program a total of 26 Mediation Centers had been established: fifteen 
 Mediation Centers of the Public Defender’s Office (PGR); two Mobile Mediation Units; 
 three Mixed Mediation Centers (PGR/Municipalities); and six Municipal Mediation 
 Centers were operating, which is considered one of the major outputs of the program. To 
 support the strengthening of the centers’ administrative area, several workshops were carried 
 out for the PGR to prepare the “National Development Plan.” It included the elaboration of 
 the Strategic Plan, the Annual Operative Plan, and the Feasibility and Sustainability Plan. 
 Another activity was the inclusion in the municipal contravention draft law of a clause in 
 which the option of mediation is given previous to any other procedure by the 
 municipalities; however, this proposed law draft did not prosper in the Legislative Assembly. 
 Work was carried out to train national trainers, who will continue training other mediators in 
 different regions of the country. National and international consultants were used so that 
 trainers could learn the techniques and methods which they can later on replicate as trainers. 
 Within the strategy of promotion of ADR mechanisms in commercial matters, technical 
 support and training was provided to the Mediation and Arbitration Center of the Chamber of 
 Commerce and Industry of El Salvador. 
C) Promote Economic Governance Initiatives. 
Although reform efforts were focused on consolidating the criminal reform process, a review 
 of the legislation and of the justice sector in the civil and commercial area was begun. This 
 reform process is essential for the inclusion El Salvador in the new world economic order, 
 which demands transparent and efficient judicial systems. USAID provided support to the 
 Civil Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice to revise and readapt the Civil and 
 Commercial Procedures Code, with the objective of modernizing the legislation and the 
5
 justice administration in civil and commercial matters. One of the main characteristic of this 
 draft law is the introduction of oral procedures and rules of evidence. 
D) Windows of Opportunity: Need for Special Programs. 
During the development of the project, there were various windows of opportunities that 
 were taken advantage of and supported by the project. They included: investigation and 
 observational tours in civil and commercial matters, ADR, and legal clinical methodologies; 
 editing and production of formative and training videos on “preliminary hearing”, 
 “competences in oral advocacy” and mediation tools; among others. 
2. Joint Training of National Civilian Police and the Attorney General’s Office.
The first interventions in this area were done between the years 2000 and 2003 as part of contracts 
with DPK # 519-C-00-00-00059-00 and 519-C-00-01-00154-00; main achievements are described as 
part of component 1 “Greater Understanding of Roles and Improved Performance of Responsibilities 
under the new Criminal Procedure Code” in literal 2 of this annex. The amount invested under these 
two contracts for these activities was $650,000. 
In order to continue providing support in this area, a new contract was signed with DPK in 2003 
with the purpose of carrying out training activities for police and prosecutors. The total amount 
awarded under this contract (No. 519-C-00-04-00014-00) was $500,000. This project started its 
activities on November 2003 in the Central Offices of the National Civilian Police. Its main purpose 
was to contribute to increase the knowledge of police officers and prosecutors in the criminal 
process through the development of training courses in judicial, technical, and scientific matters. 
The project was organized to accomplish the following training courses and/or activities: 
A) Courses on Crime Scene Management. 
These courses contributed significantly to improve coordination among the institutions 
involved in the crime investigation. One of the major achievements in the development of 
the courses offered under the project was the addition of participants from specialized units 
of the police (DECO/Elite Division against Organized Crime-Control, Legal, Civil Riots) and 
the staff of teachers at the National Academy of Public Security. 
B) Courses on Chain of Custody. 
Two seminars were organized for regional and sub regional prosecutors and police heads to 
present the Operational Manual for the Chain of Custody and the training plan for this 
course. The seminars sought the opinions of the participants regarding areas that they 
considered important to include in the courses and to get their support in the development of 
such courses. The experience was productive. Police and prosecutor personnel attendance 
was high, which resulted in greater participation of specialized units of both institutions. 
C) Courses on Criminal Investigation. 
The criminal investigation courses were implemented in the five country regions between 
June 7 and July 7, 2004. Ninety percent of the participants attending the training took the 
Crime Scene Management Course, which contributed to the success of the courses because 
6
the participants already knew the methodology of the previous course and they participated 
actively in its development. One positive aspect of the broad participation in the course is 
the positive relationship that was developed among the participants during the two weeks, 
which contributed to improve the coordination between both institutions during their daily 
work. 
D) Forensic Techniques Course for Trainers. 
From May 2 to 8, 2004, a study tour to San José Costa Rica was taken by the PNC and AGO 
 trainers. Twenty (20) police officers and 15 public prosecutors participated in the tour. The 
 course was developed at the INECCRIF (American Euro Institute of Criminality and 
 Forensic Sciences) in the Latina University (U Latina) facilities in San José. The trip was 
 successful as the trainers had the opportunity to increase their knowledge in specific areas 
 related to criminal investigation, scientific reasoning, ballistics, forensic medicine, and chain 
 of custody. The supporting material delivered during the course served to complement the 
 courses about criminal investigation and chain of custody. That material will continue to 
 serve as reference for the participants in the future. 
 
E) Intensive Specialized Training for Regional Coordinators. 
Two study tours to Puerto Rico were conducted to observe the oral accusatory system. The 
 regional and sub regional heads of the AGO and PNC went on this observational trip. The 
 program’s goal was to observe how crime investigation is carried out in an accusatory system 
 that has been functioning for a significant period of time and is conducted in Spanish. 
 During the trip emphasis was made in the inter institutional coordination and organization of 
 the institutions to guarantee an effective work in the crime investigation; visits were made to 
 the Puerto Rican Police, Investigation Units, Forensic Science Institute, the Prosecutor’s 
 Office, and the Judicial Center. The study tour was productive for the participants as they 
 could observe the accusatory system in action and exchange ideas with Puerto Rican 
 prosecutors and policemen. The tour contributed to improve relationships between the police 
 chiefs and prosecutors, one of the main objectives of this activity. 
 
F) Course on Sexual Crime. 
Two of the main issues in El Salvador’s justice system are intra-familiar violence and 
 sexual crimes. The course was offered to prosecutors and investigating personnel that work 
 nationwide in this specialized area, as well as the trainers involved with the Crime Scene 
 training courses which allowed them to share the content of the course in their own 
 institutions. The participation of investigators and prosecutors from every region allowed for 
 participants to share knowledge regarding how this type of crimes are investigated, current 
 regional differences regarding the value of evidence and judicial resolutions in this kind of 
 cases. 
 
 G) Course on Criminal Investigation with emphasis on gang-related crimes. 
 During the last years, El Salvador experienced an increase in crimes committed by gangs that 
 operate nationwide; most of all homicides, robberies, theft, and sexual assault. This made the 
 government of El Salvador and justice system institutions use all possible means to fight this 
 kind of organizations. As a result, the “Plan Super Mano Dura” was put into effect. It 
 included reforms to Criminal and Criminal Procedure Codes, as well as prevention efforts 
7
 and policies to fight gang violence. The project contributed to the increased enforcement 
 and prosecution process through the development of a training course on criminal 
 investigations in gang related crimes. The course was based on the following topics: the 
 historical background of gangs; gang types, characteristics and organization; the gang 
 situation in El Salvador; and intervention strategies, legislation, and inter institutional 
 coordination. Investigators and prosecutors knowledgeable of gang crimes and training 
 personnel participated in the courses. 
3. Community Policing (ICITAP’S PIP-COM Program support).
In 1992, after a lengthy civil war, the Peace Accords that were signed by all combatants established 
a framework for a democratic society under the rule of law. The Accords called for the creation of a 
National Civilian Police (PNC) initially composed of 20% ex-FMLN (Farabundo Marti National 
Liberation Front), 20% ex-armed forces and 60% new recruits. Initial support by the Department of 
Justice's International Criminal Investigative Training Assistance Program (ICITAP) focused on 
PNC organizational strengthening, investigative training, the creation of a Police Academy and 
curriculum development, and the establishment of a police laboratory and forensics training. 
In this post-conflict situation crime began to escalate rapidly. Homicides, violent crimes and 
kidnapping for profit were a growing concern. Salvadorans began to express their outrage that the 
police could not provide adequate security. Given this situation, U.S. Government assistance placed 
more emphasis on teaching the PNC how to better combat crime. 
In March 1999, after a detailed evaluation of police training and methods in El Salvador, the PNC 
with support from ICITAP initiated a proactive, flexible community-oriented patrol strategy in the 
city of Mejicanos, an area of 240,000 residents. This methodology focused on using modern, 
internationally accepted police patrol methods, and deployed police officers based on crime data 
analysis with the flexibility to adjust to changing crime patterns. This community-policing program, 
commonly referred to as the PIP-COM program, had an immediate positive affect. Based on this 
success, the PNC quickly expanded this program to the greater San Salvador metropolitan area 
during 1999 and 2000. 
USAID assistance was focused on bolstering the effectiveness of the PIP-COM program by 
providing the PNC with the tools they needed. Inadequate communications, basic patrol 
transportation and access to crime related information had all been major obstacles to combating 
crime. With the funding made available under project 519-0436, USAID/El Salvador provided much 
needed portable police radios and bicycles to support these activities in hard to reach communities. 
Assistance was also provided to modernize the PNC's records systems and case-tracking system. 
This allowed fundamental access to basic records such as court orders, outstanding warrants, stolen 
property and criminal histories. Up to then, these basic policing tools had not been available to 
police officers in El Salvador. Funds assigned for these activities were $2,450,000. 
4. Inter-Agency Agreement with the Department of State (PAO).
USAID and the Department of State signed an Inter-Agency Agreement (IAA) under Activity 519-
0436.02, Ref. #519-0436-632B-USIS, in order to provide funding to carry out the following 
8
activities: 1) Specialized International Visitors (IV) programs; 2) professional/academic exchanges; 
3) observational visits; 4) Fulbright scholars’ researches; 5) voluntary visitors; and 6) grants. All of 
these programs in support of the Legal/Judicial Protection activities. Counterpart for this activity was 
the Public Affair’s Office (PAO) of the American Embassy in El Salvador. A total of $1,070,000 
was assigned for this activities. 
Some of the specific programs carried out under the IAA included: 
ƒ International Visitors (IV) Program: 
o “American Council of Young Political Leaders (ACYPL) Program.” 49 Salvadoran 
community and political leaders went to the United States to observe the U.S. Political 
Process – from the Federal to the municipal level - and citizen participation in the 
political process and in community activities. 
o Six Salvadoran officials went to San Juan, Puerto Rico and to Washington, D.C. to study 
and observe how the Puerto Ricans and Federal governments have developed and 
implemented codes of ethics 
o The Local Committees for Crime Prevention from Cojutepeque and Sonsonate visited 
San José, California to observe and learn about the San José model of community crime 
prevention through citizen participation. 
o A group of 7 Salvadoran experts went to the US for three weeks and visited mayor cities 
with successful anti-gang and youth protection program models which can be applied to 
El Salvador. 
ƒ U.S speakers came to deliver seminars, workshops and/or trainings on the following subjects: 
community crime prevention, gangs, sexual crimes investigations, forensic studies/ facial 
reconstructions over skeleton remains, ethics and human rights. 
ƒ Three Fulbright Scholars in the field of “Legal Education” came through the IAA. Host 
institutions were the University of El Salvador (UES), the Central American University “Dr. 
José Simeón Cañas” (UCA) and the Universidad Tecnológica (UTEC). 
ƒ Grants were provided to the justice sector related institutions and NGO’s for the implementation 
of activities that furthered democracy objectives. Grants were provided to the following 
institutions: 1) Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE); 2) Human Rights Institute of the UCA 
(IDHUCA); 3) the National Association of Forensic Studies (ACFES); 4) PROBIDAD, a 
transparency NGO; 5) National Judiciary Council (CNJ); 6) Public Defender’s Office (PGR); 7) 
National University of El Salvador (UES); 8) Gerardo Barrios University (UGB); and 9) 
National Council for Public Security (CNSP). 
ƒ Through the three grants provided to the CNSP, the following activities were carried out: 
o A study was conducted in the influence of gangs in schools. The study included six 
schools all of them in high risk communities, in which the CNSP has been working in 
crime prevention programs with the European Union’s pro-jóvenes program. 
o A training (diplomado) in prevention of violence was carried out, 35 people consisting of 
community leaders and school officials were trained in prevention of violence and how to 
approach youth at risk. These persons are currently working with the CNSP in the crime 
9
prevention programs in the schools and in the sport complexes of various high risk 
communities. 
o A training (diplomado) in Fundraising was carried out. This activity focused on bringing 
closer high risk communities to the private sector and vice-versa, with the objective of 
working on the development and improvement of those communities. The communities 
the CNSP works with are high risk, often plagued by gangs and crime. The crime levels 
not only affect the people living in these areas, but also affect those private sector 
companies located in those high risk zones. This activity has opened up an opportunity 
for the communities to work together with the private sector in order to improve their 
communities, to improve public spaces, therefore reducing crime in those areas. The 
CNSP plans to continue this activity. 
10
ANNEX 5
SUMMARY OF PROGRAMS AND ACTIVITIES IMPLEMENTED UNDER THE SO 
Extended Description by Project
Activity No. 519-0436 
“DEMOCRATIC CONSOLIDATION AND GOVERNANCE PROJECT” 
CITIZEN PARTICIPATION & GOVERNANCE AREA
Citizen Participation and Governance activities helped to achieve two Intermediate Results: IR1 
“More Politically Active Advocacy Organizations.” 
This component supported greater citizen participation in decision-making processes by promoting 
civil society advocacy and oversight, transparency initiatives and legislative strengthening. Creative 
Associates International, Inc. (CREA), under C.A. No. 519-A-00-00-00041-00, was the grantee with 
a sub-contract with the University of Texas for the legislative strengthening program. The initial 
cooperative agreement with USAID was to conclude after two and a half years, by September 2002, 
but when USAID/El Salvador’s overall mission strategy was extended following the 2001 
earthquakes, the CREA project was also extended for a total of five years. The total cooperative 
agreement awarded was $7,933,474 with a cost share by CREA of $809,496.
The Project was organized into four main components: 
A) Civil Society Advocacy. 
The Civil Society component of the project was designed to provide financial support, 
training, and technical assistance to Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) interested in 
implementing advocacy projects on a regional or national level. The activities in this 
component focused on selecting proposals to award sub-grants, monitoring and evaluating 
the sub-grants during the implementation of the project, and building capacity in the selected 
CSOs by providing training and technical assistance, including written materials in advocacy 
and institutional strengthening related issues. The impact of the project can be measure at 
three levels: 
o Impact on national Policies and Regulations. During the course of the project, two of 
the national-level proposals were adopted by the respective decision-makers, one a series 
of measures to modernize and create greater transparency in the Attorney General’s 
office and the other a group of legal reforms passed in the Legislative Assembly that 
improves the ability of single parents to claim child support from the non-custodial 
parent. 
o Impact on Municipal Policies. Advocacy in the municipal arena en El Salvador has a 
greater possibility for success than that on a national level. This is reflected in the fact 
that all of the five counterpart projects that sought changes to municipal ordinances were 
highly successful. In each case, the ordinances were created within a participatory 
1
process facilitated by the organization with local citizens, municipal council members, 
and local representatives of national government entities. 
o Impact on Organizations. The project created a skills index for advocacy and one for 
institutional strengthening that would measure the initial skills level and strength of 
counterparts. Most organizations approximated, met or exceeded their target scores in 
advocacy skills; the most consistent advances across the board were in planning and 
systematizing the experience, primarily because these elements were a required part of 
very project and thus unavoidable. Other clear advances were seen in lobbying, media, 
alliances and work with constituencies, although these tended to vary among groups, as 
did the expectations; most organizations either met or came close to meeting the target 
goals set out for institutional strengthening the board, organizations consistently 
advanced in financial matters and external relationships. Advances in fundraising, 
strategic vision, and leadership in the first-cycle projects and in sustainability for second 
cycle projects were more difficult to attain, although clear advances were achieved in 
each organization, primarily in gender training, strategic planning and sustainability 
planning. Most of the projects included significant components of education, 
consultation and social mobilization. Using participatory methodologies, the counterpart 
organizations brought people to the table to express their opinions about possible 
solutions. In most projects, the proposals were consulted with the citizens directly 
affected by the problem in order to assure that the proposal was well grounded in real 
needs and that solutions were viable. Proposals were frequently added to or changed as a 
result of the consultation process. 
B) Legislative Assembly. 
The Public Participation in the Legislative Process Program (Participation Program) 
implemented by the University of Texas in Austin (UT) under subcontract #271/2000 with 
Creative Associates International, Inc. was designed to be compatible with the citizen 
participation components of the Modernization Plan of the Legislative Assembly of El 
Salvador. This program component was organized in two main activities: 
o Establishment and Institutionalization of the Legislative Support Unit. The primary 
objectives of this unit are to strengthen relationships between the people and their 
representatives and to promote effective public participation in the legislative process. 
The Unit is in charge of the following areas: 1) Civic Education Program: to provide 
civic education about the Assembly and the way laws are made through specific 
programs aimed at schools and various population groups. The programs are 
complemented by educational materials like books, videos, pamphlets, etc; 2) Public 
Participation: The objective of this area is to promote and facilitate more public 
participation in the development of public policy through the organization of consultative 
forums, seminars, public hearings, community meetings, and special events solicited by 
the Assembly Governing Board or work commissions; 3) Technical Support to 
departmental offices: This area gives technical assistance to departmental offices for the 
planning and implementation of their activities, allowing Assembly representatives of 
each department to be better liaisons with the Assembly in San Salvador. Opening 
departmental offices has created a closer relationship between the population and the 
2
Assembly, contributed to decentralizing legislative work, and helped to spread 
information about how the Assembly operates.; 4) Public Hotline: The objective of this 
area is to provide the public with a direct link to their Assembly representatives and to 
respond efficiently to their requests for information and assistance. The hotline helps 
provide accurate and timely information about the state of legislation, future activities, 
legislative projects, and programs; 5) Legislative Intern Program (LIP): This program 
grew out of the need to establish a link between the Assembly and the intellectual 
community in order to help representatives and technical advisers from the legislative 
commissions conduct research in areas of national interest. The LSU planned the LIP 
directly and was instrumental in its creation. 
o Creation of the Constituent Services Office. The Assembly has now concluded the 
project of establishing its Constituent Services Office. The new office is a shining 
example of unique, specialized, and comprehensive public administration service to 
citizens. It emphasizes transparency and legislative accountability and seeks to promote 
the highest values and a culture of democratic participation in El Salvador. Citizens will 
be able to have access to documents about the Assembly, such as: plenary session 
agendas and work commission agendas; announcements about legislative activities; 
legislative initiatives and bills that are before Congress; work commission findings and 
resolutions; legislative decrees; documents in the archive and legislative library; general 
information on the make up, representation, and proportionality of the legislatures, 
political parties, and administrative organization of the Assembly, among other things. 
C) Electoral Reform. 
This sub-activity was developed under CREA’s C.A. but with funds from Project No. 519-
0391 “Democratic and Electoral Processes”, please refer to Chapter III, Numeral 3, in the 
core document, for a summary of activities and results. 
D) Transparency. 
The project spanned a number of areas that sought to encourage a deeper commitment to 
norms of transparency and accountability by government institutions, while also developing 
the capacity of civil society organizations, at the local and national level, to play a key role in 
this regard. Main interventions are depicted as follows: 
o Social Auditing. In the development of this project, CREA established and coordinated a 
partnership with the Research Triangle Institute (RTI) and the Foundation for Municipal 
Development (FUNDAMUNI). Both are organizations sponsored by USAID/El 
Salvador that promote citizen participation and institutional strengthening in local 
government. The team and its facilitators were the force behind the social auditing project 
in nine municipalities. In the nine municipalities where social auditing took place, the 
following impact was achieved: 1) a team of facilitators from the RTI and FUNDAMUNI 
partnership was trained to provide accompaniment and practical assistance to the Citizen 
Auditing Commissions (CCC); 2) key actors in local government were trained and 
sensitized about social auditing as a mechanism for preventing corruption. These include 
mayors, council members, and representative leaders of local development committees, 
community associations and boards, and a micro-region made up of five municipalities; 
3
3) a process of negotiation and open dialogue was generated during the review process, 
and a municipal ordinance for social auditing was passed in each of the participating 
municipalities; and 4) the approval of the ordinance responded to concerns expressed by 
the municipal councils and local leaders by institutionalizing the social auditing mission 
and making sure it didn’t disappear with a change of administration. 
o Access to Information. In El Salvador, there is currently no legislation to expand the 
responsibilities of the municipalities in terms of access to, and provision of, public 
information to citizens. With this Access to Municipal Information project, three 
municipalities in the country began a process of discussion and learning in order to reach 
consensus on, approve, and apply local ordinances for transparency and access to 
information. All three municipalities approved their ordinances in open town meetings in 
front of the representatives of civic organizations, development committees, community 
assemblies and NGOs. 
o Code of Ethics. In June 2001, two consultants were contracted to support the work of the 
government rapporteur; and important progress was made in the comparative legal 
research needed to advance in this project and a colloquium with leading legal specialists 
was held. This report was well-received and widely disseminated among Salvadoran 
government officials and civil society actors. The governmental counterpart for this effort 
was the National Commission on Sustainable Development (CNDS). 
In addition, more funds for this purpose were made available in response to the April 14, 
2000, Agreement for Anti-Corruption Cooperation between the Department of State and 
the Government of El Salvador (GOES). The State Department, through the Bureau of 
International Narcotics and Law Enforcement allocated $350,000 for 1) the development 
of one or more codes of ethical conduct for the GOES, and 2) the establishment of an 
Office of Government Ethics within the GOES. 
With the signing of the Ethics Code cooperative agreement, the costs of the two CNDS 
consultants as well as that of the government rapporteur, along with all other costs related 
to this issue, were paid for through this new agreement. Although there was some 
discussion about the possibility of drafting a code that would be applicable to all 
government officials, in the end the work was oriented exclusively toward the executive 
branch. Further efforts were made throughout 2002-2004 to dialogue with the 
government about the set-up of a government ethics office. A draft law was sent by the 
Court of Accounts, later designated by the Presidency as to whether the office should be 
located within the Legislative Assembly, but did not get out of the review committee. The 
installation of an anti-corruption office was also part of current President Antonio Saca’s 
original campaign platform. At the end of the year 2005, the Government of El Salvador 
finally approved a new Ethics Code for the executive branch, paving the way for 
increased accountability of public servants and reduced corruption. Nevertheless, as the 
project closed (April 2005), and with no further steps by the government on the 
immediate horizon at that time, USAID decided to distribute the equipment originally 
purchased for the ethics office to the office of the Attorney General as well as the Office 
of the Presidential Commissioner for the Defense of the Consumer. 
4
o Civil Society Projects. During the second half of the project, beginning in 2003, CREA 
began to solicit proposals from civil society organizations to work specifically on 
transparency-related matters. While some of these were advocacy initiatives, in general 
they could include a wider range of activities, including studies and education, due to 
the limited role civil society had hitherto played in promoting transparency in the 
country. The projects and CSO’s assisted were: 1) Fundación Siglo XXI: this project 
provided education and disseminated information about the structure, allocation and 
budget performance of the autonomous road fund-- the Fondo de Conservación Vial
(FOVIAL); 2) FESPAD: In this project, “Observation, Study, Debate and Strengthening 
of the Judicial System in El Salvador,” FESPAD set out three goals: first, to determine 
and demonstrate the degree of internal democratization in the administration of justice; 
second, enquire into the status of access to justice in geographic, economic and 
educational terms, along with generally demonstrating the level of efficiency –an 
indicator of external democratization -- in three specific areas of the law: labor, family 
and criminal; and finally, to inform the public and the legal community about the 
background, content and dimensions of the Judicial Branch Modernization Project, 
being implemented by the judiciary; 3) APES: “Project for Transparency and the Right 
to Public Information” sought to sensitize journalists, public opinion leaders, social 
movement leaders, and politicians in the country – and by extension, civil society – 
about the importance of demanding transparency and an effective right to public 
information, in order to strengthen democracy in El Salvador; 4) FUMA: This project 
sought to improve the quality of citizen participation and social auditing in the 
community consultation groups of the Basic Integrated Health Systems (Sistema Básico 
de Salud Integral- SIBASI) in Sonsonate in order to improve civic engagement in the 
principal decisions regarding health in 16 municipalities in this department; 5) 
PROBIDAD: This organization’s first project, “Education on the Budget and 
Government Purchasing to Prevent and Control Corruption,” sought to produce guides 
that would provide knowledge of certain areas of government administration, In its 
second project, “Transparent Websites in Central Government Institutions,” Probidad
sought to promote the use of the Internet as a platform for transparency in central 
government institutions in El Salvador; and 6) IUDOP: although several institutions 
have done work on transparency, efforts specifically aimed at evaluating the public’s 
opinion on these issues have been few and unsystematic. To fill this gap, two studies 
were planned. The first study involved a nationwide survey, representative of the 
Salvadoran population, to collect data on public opinion and perceptions of corruption 
in government institutions and among their officials, primarily in the judicial area. The 
second study dealt with the opinion and self-perception of the Salvadoran private 
enterprise sector with regard to corruption. This study attempted to delve into the group 
self perception of the business sector as a private agent for service provision and in its 
relationship with the State. 
5
ANNEX 6
SUMMARY OF PROGRAMS AND ACTIVITIES IMPLEMENTED UNDER THE SO 
Extended Description by Project
Activity No. 519-0436 
“DEMOCRATIC CONSOLIDATION AND GOVERNANCE PROJECT” 
LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA
Local Government activities helped to achieve IR3 “Strengthened Local Government”. 
This component targeted selected municipalities to improve their transparent management of public 
resources, increase their ability to provide basic services to their communities, and to provide 
technical assistance in designing and implementing strategic plans with citizen participation. Policy 
dialogue was also supported to help clarify municipal roles and responsibilities regarding 
decentralization of additional public services, as well as the design and implementation of a National 
System of Transparency for Local Governments. Prime implementers were Research Triangle 
Institute (RTI) and the Salvadoran National Mayors Association (COMURES) and its counterpart of 
selected municipalities. 
1. Democratic Local Governance Activity - DLGA (2002 – 2005).
This activity was managed under Contract No. 519-C-00-03-00013-00 with RTI International, from 
November 2002 to February 2005, and the main objectives were to strengthen the participation of 
Salvadorans in the democratic processes at local level and also to strengthen the administrative and 
financial capabilities of the municipalities in order to meet the demands of the population in a timely 
and satisfactory manner. Total amount awarded for the contract was $3,800,000. 
The project was organized to accomplish the following activities: 
A) Dialog Encouragement for Local Development. 
o Conferences. Even though the political conditions for opening broad debates on 
sensitive topics were very restrictive during the greater part of the time of the project, it 
was possible to convene de following conferences, with the participation of international 
experts: 1) “The Present Decentralization Situation in Latin America”; 2) 
“Methodologies for Local Economic Development”; 3) “Decentralization Strategies of 
the Potable Water and Sewer Systems in El Salvador; and 4) “Execution of a Local 
Development Agenda.”
o Applied Studies and Research. The project carried out the following applied 
investigations: 1) Technical proposal regarding the feasibility of introducing a 
securitization mechanism to back the municipal bonds; 2) Proposal to reconsider the 
establishment of the property tax in El Salvador; and 3) Technical proposal on the 
1
design of a Web portal for local development in El Salvador. Additionally, a base 
document was prepared jointly with the stock exchange authorities to define the 
conditions under which the municipalities would be able to issue municipal bonds.
o Increased availability of and access to information. The programming for this activity 
included designing and implementing: 1) a local development portal web; and 2) a 
series of indicators on municipal management regarding administration, finances, and 
service rendering activities. Both activities were successfully designed and 
implemented. 
 
B) Rendering of Technical Services for the Municipalities. 
o Citizen Participation Component. Including: 1) Preparation of the Participatory 
Strategic Plan (PEP) in the selected municipalities under the program. All of the 
participating municipalities prepared, concluded and approve their long term strategic 
plans in participatory manner; 2) Create participatory instances for the Strategic Plan’s 
management and control. It was encourage the establishment of a Local Development 
Committee (CDL) in each participating municipality and, by the end of the project, 24 
CDLs (out of 28 targeted municipalities) were establish and operating; 3) Promotion and 
implementation of transparency mechanisms which included the organization and 
implementation of municipal budget accounts rendering meetings, open council 
meetings, communications plans and the establishment of social audit committees to 
follow-up the execution of them most relevant municipal investment projects. 
o Administration and Finance Component. Activities included: 1) Municipality’s 
organization restructure which allowed, among other results, a better definition of the 
roles and functions that generate contracts and/or relocation of key personnel; 2) Systems 
improvement for personal and property assets administration which allowed the 
establishment of an automated model guide for the registration and valuation of public 
and private properties and constructions; and 3) Financial resource administration 
systems improvement. At the end of the project, 20 municipalities have formally 
established the governmental accounting system (SAFI). 
C) Rendering of Technical Services to Service Companies. 
o Assistance to Potable Water and Sanitation Companies. Main activities included: 1) 
Preparation of an administrative and financial diagnosis of the assisted companies; 2) 
Preparation, updating and training on the automated invoicing system (SASA) which was 
duly installed and operating in 12 water companies assisted by the project; and 3) 
Implementation of double entry accounting systems. These activities allowed increasing 
the coverage and quality of the services and rapid attention to users’ complaints. 
o Assistance to Solid Waste Management Companies. The main achievements were: 1) 
initiation of the construction of the two micro-regional sanitary landfills; 2) 
Municipalities have detailed knowledge of the financing of services rendering – 
2
particularly on the hygiene services; and 3) preparation of the sanitary landfill design of 
the MIPANOR (Micro Región Paracentral Norte) and MICUSAM (Micro Región 
Cuscatlán-San Martín), which serve 20 municipalities. 
C) Development of Experimental Prototypes. 
o A web portal for Local Development. At the end of the project, a prepared visual 
prototype of the portal was ready. The establishment and operation of a technical office 
was achieved thanks to COMURES’ interest in coordinating the portal. It has been also 
established an editing committee, including important public and private institutions at 
the national level. http://www.desarrollolocal.com.sv
o Municipal Management Performance Indicators. The main achievements at the end of 
the project were: 1) a series of indicators to measure local government performance had 
been designed for the administrative, financial, and basic services provision systems; 2) 
new indicators had been tested satisfactorily in the 28 municipalities assisted by the 
program; 3) the technical manuals have been prepared and validated for the correct 
application of this indicators; and 4) technicians from local NGOs and participating 
municipalities had been trained on the systems and procedures for applying these 
indicators in the municipalities.
o Technological Improvements to SAFIMU II. Main activities included: 1) training 
technical operators in pilot municipalities regarding the comprehensive operation of the 
system, with the purpose of assuming maintenance and responsibility for the system, at 
least at the primary level; 2) training Ministry of Finance and Court of Accounts officers 
regarding the nature and capabilities of SAFIMU II; 3) design and integration of the set 
of SAFIMU II systems, to forma a system capable of identifying and registering urban 
and rural properties, registering construction built on these properties, and registering 
automatic valuation according to parameters; and 4) design and integration into the set of 
SAFIMU II systems the full remunerations payroll corresponding to the full strata of 
personnel in the municipality.
o Strategy for Local Economic Development in a Model Municipality. The Municipality 
of Acajutla was selected based on established criteria and by the end of the project an 
economic development commission for the municipality had been established and 
legalized and it was composed of representatives of the municipality, from the productive 
sector, and the local community. A short-, medium-, and long term economic 
development strategy had been prepared and approved by the economic development 
commission. 
2. COMURES Institutional Capacity Strengthening Project (2001 – 2005).
At the end of 2001 USAID approved the project: “Strengthening the Institutional Capacity of 
COMURES” to be developed under Cooperative Agreement No. No. 519-A-00-01-00219-00, which 
had foreseen its implementation until September 2004, however, two consecutive extensions were 
approved and the project finalized in April 2005, estimating a total investment of US$ 1,600,000.00 
3
of which, USAID contributed US$ 1,200,000 and COMURES provided a counterpart of $400,000. 
The general objective of the project was to: Strengthen the institutional capacity of COMURES to 
defend municipal interests and respond to the needs of its members trough providing support for 
studies, research, and proposals; municipal associability; and management and service capacity 
strengthening. 
The project was organized to accomplish activities that supported COMURES through the 
strengthening of its seven strategic: 
A) Strengthening of Municipal Autonomy and Legal Framework. 
The legal and judicial assistance that COMURES provides to 262 municipalities of the nation 
constitutes one of the major individual and collective demands, and has been one of the 
services supported by the project that has managed to have a great impact on the process of 
strengthening municipal autonomy and the administration of local governments. COMURES 
is in a process of clarification and permanent appeal of municipal matters, to do that requires 
a concatenated effort in defense of the rights of its members, and for which it has established 
strategic alliances with the instances tied to local development, strengthening their response 
capacity before municipalities and achieving greater credibility among its members. The 
association has strengthened its negotiation role before national and international sectors 
establishing leadership in topics of municipal interest, with a clear agenda to promote 
municipal autonomy within the appropriate legal framework. 
B) Strengthening of Municipal Finances. 
COMURES is an institution that is positioned as a negotiator of the financial strengthening of 
its members, not only because of the achievement of an increase of 1% in transfers from the 
GOES to the Municipalities, but also because of its negotiation for cooperation, support, and 
consultation projects to improve self income of the municipalities with the generation of 
proposal for new taxes, among other aspects. The association has installed capacity, 
technical tools, and trained personnel to propose the creation of modern tax instruments, 
reform to legislations, and counseling for municipalities to modernize their tax structures. 
The project generated an important scientific data base that is useful for the definition of 
actions oriented at improving financing conditions for local development. At the same time, 
as member of CONADEL the topic was placed on the agenda for political discussion. 
C) Decentralization. 
The practical processes stimulated from the local level by municipalities contribute to 
building a vision concerning decentralization before the lack of clarity of a national policy. 
The municipalities participating in the processes of decentralization have increased their 
technical, management, and financing capacities and have managed to take ownership of the 
transfer of technology individually and collectively. The proposal and experiences promoted 
by other actors are conceived as sectorial interpretations of the processes of decentralization 
and do not include the participation of the municipal governments, requiring a greater 
propositive capacity before changes in national and local administration. 
4
D) Municipal Modernization. 
The municipalities are aware of the fact that the same dynamics of development demand the 
promotion of modernization in all processes of their administration as local governments, and 
as a result it is necessary to make use of tools that facilitate the process. At local government 
level through the USAID project contributions were made to the strengthening of 
management capacity above all in those items that allow it to broaden its development vision 
and that seek through the promotion of citizen participation in the planning processes to 
contribute to the democratization of the nation an of governability. With the advancement 
the topic has had, paradigms have been broken regarding the incapacity of local 
governments, since even with the limitation of the present modernization, it has been 
demonstrated and supported from the local level that with local development an important 
contribution is being made to national development. The alliances established at various 
levels allowed other areas of training to be reinforced to strengthen management abilities and 
at the same time comply with national regulations. 
E) Contribution to Citizen Security. 
As a result of the set of initiatives promoted and accompanied in terms of Citizen Security, 
the project for Strengthening of Institutional Capacity of COMURES, has not only 
strengthened and empowered its capacities to orient its members regarding territorial 
processes for approaching issues, but also has managed to tie the approach of the topic to the 
modernization of Local Governments and to the demand of municipalities to deepen the 
processes of decentralization; before the demand of greater and better services offered to the 
population. COMURES and its members alongside the National Government have placed on 
the national agenda the promotion of public modernization as one of the mechanisms to 
strengthen processes of transparency and citizen participation, agreeing in discussion within 
the CONADEL framework. 
F) Citizen Participation and Transparency. 
COMURES and its members alongside the National Government have placed on the national 
agenda the promotion of public modernization as one of the mechanisms to strengthen 
processes of transparency and citizen participation, agreeing in discussion within the 
CONADEL framework. Follow up to the mandate of the last congresses and in 
correspondence to the institutional mission of proactivity, COMURES has a comprehensive 
proposal to approach the topic of citizen participation and transparency that integrates the 
multiple dimensions of the reality of municipal administration, having municipalities become 
the first instances of the state to propose serious, practical and comprehensive mechanisms to 
approach the matter. 
G) Institutional Strengthening of the Association and Associability. 
COMURES with the support of the USAID Project saw its institutional capacity strengthened 
with the employment of Experts on various topics of national interest (REF, Decentralization, 
5
Solid Waste, Legal Counseling, Finances, and Modernization) in addition to the 
administration capacities of the CDA’s, through the employment of 10 Technical Advisors 
and their assistants. The Portfolio of Services for members provides opportunities for 
Technical Counseling in various areas: Legal, Technical, Association, Communication, and 
Administration. The various areas reflect a substantial increase of direct attention to 
Municipalities, which has generated at the same time an increase in recognition of the levels 
of trust had by members in its Association. This defines the challenge to continue raising the 
levels of response in terms of quality and opportunity sought by members. The institutional 
capacity for response and proposal has been strengthened through the quantitative and 
qualitative increase of the studies and research concerning topics of municipal interest. In 
addition of the building of multiple positioning originated by the opinion of the CDA’s and 
that contribute to the national vision. This capacity has permitted COMURES to gain 
recognition from other actors as the ideal promoter of local development. The impact in the 
application of tools is visualized in the qualification and broadening of services provided to 
members, in the association projection it represents due to the modernization of its services, 
internally in COMURES as well as in the municipalities themselves, and in the improvement 
of the Association image with the launching and modernization of its technological 
programs. COMURES has managed to apply successful methods for the building of its 
Association Agenda, a result of the National Congresses for Municipalities, and those that 
make decisions functional, which translates into the elaboration of the National Association 
Agenda, at national level and territorial level. At the same time, it has managed to 
institutionalize consultation procedures and the building of positioning. COMURES has 
been strengthened technologically with the acquisition of high level computer equipment and 
software packages, furnishings, photographic equipment, projection equipment, telephone 
equipment, destined for the central offices as well as the Technical Units of the CDA’s. The 
impact of this donation of equipment has represented greater administration capacity, 
especially in the CDA’s, since it has allowed working conditions to improve as well as the 
operation of its Technical Units. 
6
ANNEX 7
SUMMARY OF PROGRAMS AND ACTIVITIES IMPLEMENTED UNDER THE SO 
Extended Description by Project
Activity No. 519-0388 
“MUNICIPAL DEVELOPMENT AND CITIZEN PARTICIPATION PROJECT” 
The Municipal Development and Citizen Participation Project (MDCPP) was designed to assist the 
government of El Salvador (GOES) in strengthening municipalities by improving services through 
effective financial management and greater citizen participation in local governance. The key 
substantive areas targeted in MDCPP were municipal finance and management, citizen participation, 
and policy dialogue and reform, complemented by indigenous urban management training and 
technical assistance. The main implementer was the Research Triangle Institute (RTI) from 1993 to 
2001 under contracts No. CO-519-C-00940010600 and No. OUT-LAG-I-806990000900. The total 
investment of this project was $8,844,990. 
Interventions under this activity helped to achieve IR3 “Strengthened Local Government”. 
The Municipal Development and Citizen Participation Project was made up of three components: 
A) Policy Reform and Formulation. 
It included technical assistance and training to move forward with the national 
decentralization and municipal development strategy and to identify, analyze, and facilitate 
the reforms and formulation of policies leading to more autonomous and participatory 
municipal governments. MDCPP looked to COMURES to help promote efficient lobbying 
that would strengthen the municipal sector, through technical assistance on the analysis and 
formulation of first drafts of laws that would eventually become legislative reforms. Certain 
goals set during the life of the project required a change of legislation by the GOES. Among 
these were: tax reforms to strengthen local capacity to generate own-source revenues; 
changes in the law regulating FODES, to increase the amount of transfers from the central 
government to the local governments; decentralization of the water and sanitation sectors, 
which would be promoted by supporting ANDA’s decentralization program and by assisting 
the pilot water projects; strengthening of the decentralized road maintenance enterprises; and 
institutionalization of transparency mechanisms and alternate ways of local funding. 
During the first year, efforts were concentrated mainly on supporting COMURES’s 
initiatives before the congressional representatives to the National Assembly, through the 
assistance of a full-time specialist. The specialist supported COMURES in the negotiations 
that were being carried out together with the Interior and Public Security Commissions 
within the National Assembly, and contributed to the successful establishment of a Municipal 
Issues Commission. 
Also during this period, COMURES exerted great influence regarding the policies on 
increasing transfers from the central government to 6 percent of the national operating 
1
budget. Additionally, the project collaborated with the Association in drafting a regulation 
for distribution of funds to the municipalities. The main activities developed under this 
component were: 
o Tax Reform: The project concentrated on proposals for policy analysis and tax reforms 
related to company assets, on raising the capacity of COMURES to propose projects and 
dialogue with the private sector, and on the financial sustainability of project activities. 
In the end, two alternatives were presented. The first was to continue trying to adjust the 
existing taxes on assets, so that the General Law on Municipal Taxes could be observed. 
The second was to develop different options for local taxation, basing them on common 
practice from other countries. Under the first alternative, a decision was made to prepare 
a demonstration law and apply it in four of the project municipalities. The work was 
shared with COMURES, the Commission on Municipal Matters of the National 
Assembly, and the private sector. Unfortunately, it was not possible to continue as 
planned, due to the political election period under way. To continue with these efforts, 
during a strategy was designed to continue supporting COMURES’s taxation agenda 
after the elections for 1998 and 1999 were over. The strategy included the previously 
discussed second option, based on developing empirical studies of the different forms of 
municipal taxes such as real estate taxes, property taxes based on market value, 
“piggyback” taxes, and a simplified value-added tax (VAT) for small taxpayers. The 
whole analysis process was accompanied by lobbying and discussion with influential 
national interests: the Ministry of the Treasury, the Fondo de Inversión Social para el 
Desarrollo Local (FISDL), ISDEM, NGOs, private sector associations, universities, and 
the Modernization Commission. Because of the increasing demand for financing for 
urban infrastructure, ISDEM became interested in the possibility of issuing bonds. The 
project therefore carried out an investigation of the potential bond market, which lead to 
conclude that there were key impediments to developing a viable bond market in El 
Salvador were: a very young capital market, lack of a secondary market, urgent 
improvements needed in local government financial administration; and uncertainty 
regarding how to evaluate credit risks. 
o Decentralization of Rural Road Maintenance: The project, in keeping with 
COMURES’s concerns, decided to carry out a case study on one of three municipal/rural 
road maintenance companies: Sociedad de Alcaldías Municipales del Departamento de 
Sonsonate, S.A: de C.V. (“SASO”), created in 1992 in response to the need to repair the 
rural and service roads. At that time it was impossible to find adequate machinery on a 
lease basis; even if it had been available, the Ministry of Public Works was not likely to 
support its acquisition at the departmental level, at least where the municipalities were 
held by political parties opposing the central government. This experience was shared 
during a regional workshop regarding decentralization held in Costa Rica in 1998, and 
sponsored by FEMICA. This trip also helped to present to the manager and the members 
of the Board of Directors the experience of the Sustainable Service Roads Program, 
sponsored by the German Agency for Technical Cooperation (GTZ). As a continuation 
of this activity, a national forum was held, organized by the project with the support of 
GTZ, to share the SASO experiences and the outcomes of the GTZ service roads program 
in Costa Rica with the Ministry of Public Works, the State Modernization Board, the 
2
municipal enterprises responsible for maintenance, and the departmental mayors’ 
councils. This effort pushed forward the maintenance program initiated by the Ministry 
of Public Works. 
o Decentralization of the Water Supply Services: the main activities and results under this 
activity were: 1) Tetralogía Water Supply System in the municipalities of Alegría, Berlín, 
California, Tecapán, Santiago de María, and Mercedes Umaña, all belonging to the 
Department of Usulután; 2) Water Supply System In San Julián, Sonsonate; 3) Suchitoto 
Aqueducts and Sewerage Administration Company; and 4) Water Supply System In 
Ereguayquín,Usulután.
o Municipal Transparency Mechanisms: To stimulate the openness of the local 
governments and to involve the community in subjects such as the municipality’s legal, 
administrative, and financial management, the project began a series of actions to 
promote transparency mechanisms. These three aspects of municipal management were 
not previously accessible to the citizens. Among the transparency mechanisms promoted 
by the project were the following: 1) Open Council Meetings; 2) shared budgets; 3) 
rendering of accounts on budget execution; 4) Dialogue with entrepreneurs; 5) and 
appearances on open telephone radio talk shows. 
o Sharing Experiences Among Cities: The most visible and significant aspects of this 
program, guided by the project and in coordination with COMURES, were the 
seminars/workshops on shared cities, the first to be carried out in this country on this 
subject. The purpose of these workshops was to allow mayors and senior managers to 
obtain greater knowledge regarding other creative and innovative experiences in urban 
development, including methods, ideas, and successful projects. Whenever it was 
possible, the presentations during the workshops were carried out by the mayors 
themselves. 
o Technical Assistance and Training with National Institutions: In coordination with 
FISDL and the Commission on Municipal Matters of the National Assembly, a workshop 
was held with 27 of the 28 mayors of the municipalities participating in the MDCPP, 
representatives of the Commission, and officials of the FISDL. Also, during 1999, 
support was given to FISDL and to an IADB consultant in the development of the 
operations manual. A main goal was to include participative experiences in the project 
approval process, to help institutionalize methodologies for citizen participation in this 
area. The Project’s technical staff collaborated in this work, preparing the National Local 
Development Strategy document that now serves as a framework for the decentralization 
and local development work of the national government. 
o Technical Assistance for Strengthening Municipal Governments and Motivating 
Citizens to Participate: The project supported the Corte de Cuentas of the Republic in 
executing a project titled “Technical Assistance to Strengthen the Administrative 
Development of Municipal Governments and Motivate Citizen Participation in Social 
Accountability.” This project received financing from USAID. International experts 
offered on-site training to the technical auditors of the Court and internal auditors of the 
3
municipalities. Eighteen municipalities of the MDCPP participated in the program, as 
did local leaders, mayors, internal auditors, municipal trustees (síndicos), treasurers, and 
accountants, as well as 24 auditors of the Corte de Cuentas. 
B) Municipal Strengthening. 
Included technical assistance and training to develop the administrative, technical, and 
financial capacity necessary for municipal governments to respond effectively to the needs of 
their constituents by providing improved, expanded public services on a sustainable basis. 
o Financial Management: The main purpose of strengthening the area of municipal 
finances was to increase local governments’ capacity to collect own resources. Initially, 
during the pilot test, the actions of the project were oriented toward updating the service 
tariffs and modernizing the municipal tax laws, in accordance with the legal mandate 
established by the General Law on Municipal Taxes. Later, the technical assistance 
activities centered on generating current savings by implementing income-generation 
measures as well as by rationalizing current expenditures. The objective was to obtain 
resources that would allow for self-sustaining services, normal maintenance, and 
investment with own resources. The main achievements were: 1) the tax base was 
expanded through updating of the real estate cadastre as well as the register of 
companies. The municipalities played a very important role, adapting to the 
methodologies used and contracting local human resources. In all, 72% of the municipal 
cadastres were updated, corresponding to 20 participating MDCPP municipalities; 2) 
Collections were expanded and systematized in each phase—normal, administrative, and 
judicial—as the General Law on Municipal Taxes stipulates; 3) the project assisted with 
modernization of tax documents and reassessment of taxation related to public services; 
4) the legal framework for tax administration was correctly applied, thereby making the 
tasks related to the technical review of balances more efficient, accommodating assets 
declared by companies, and maintaining two-way communications with entrepreneurs 
and citizens. Moreover, greater local responsibility was promoted in terms of current 
expenditures. Budgets were planned and implemented such that new municipal financial 
resources were reoriented toward maintenance of and investment in public services. 
o Administrative Management: In addition to improvements in local financial capacity, the 
Municipal Strengthening component of the project had the purpose of strengthening and 
consolidating the technical and administrative capacities of local human resources, 
allowing employees to respond adequately to the ever-growing requirements of the 
different sectors of the population, through efficient, economic, and transparent public 
services. The actions that were carried out strengthened the local planning processes. 
The municipalities developed local development plans jointly with their communities and 
drew up participative annual municipal work plans. They defined clear goals and 
objectives in the context of a shared vision, permitting the integration of the goals and 
objectives with the municipal budgets, within which funds have been assigned, and 
thereby ensured economic responses to priority needs. In the area of administrative 
internal controls, the municipalities now have manuals on internal work regulations, 
4
organization, responsibilities, and procedures. Nevertheless, when electoral changes 
happen in local governments, these procedures tend to be abandoned in favor of more 
familiar traditional approaches. 
The design of the Sistema de Administración Financiera Integrada Municipal (SAFIMU) 
began in July 1996 and was completed by the end of 1997; the project provided for a 
team of financial specialists to carry out this effort. It was developed under the 
directorship of a supervisory committee made up of representatives of USAID, ISDEM, 
and GTZ. The pilot application in three Municipalities was scheduled for mid-July 1997 
to mid-January 1998 in the municipalities of Sonsonate, Texistepeque, and Juayúa. 
Although the original idea had been to replicate the SAFIMU process in other 
municipalities, this step was not possible because of all the technical problems that had to 
be countered in the pilot application. At the end of the project, the municipality of 
Juayúa had adopted SAFIMU quite willingly. All of the accounting, treasury, and 
cadastre officers were using it. The budget document of the City Hall for that year was 
issued on this system; accounting transactions occurred almost in real time; billing was 
being carried out with the system (although the process for the massive issuance of 
notification-invoices takes a very long time); and the tax registry and control were up to 
date. 
o Municipal Services: Regarding the rendering of services, the project implemented 
different work strategies during the three implementation stages. During the first stage, 7 
pilot municipalities were chosen for assistance that centered on selected public services 
that had been identified by the local government together with the community. The 
concept was to obtain funds from USAID/El Salvador through the SNR and to invest in 
the improvement of services, in connection with assistance received in the administration 
and finance areas. All of this was done in order to create a model for the municipalities 
participating in the project, as well as for the remaining (nonproject) municipalities. The 
following projects were carried out following this methodology: 1) water supply system 
for the municipality of Ereguayquín; 2) water supply system for the municipality of San 
Julián; 3) solid waste collection and disposal system for Usulután; and 4) solid waste 
collection and disposal system for Sonsonate. 
C) Local Democratic Development. 
It included technical assistance and training to increase and enhance citizen participation in 
the local democratic decision making process. This included further developing existing 
practices such as cabildos abiertos (open town meetings), increasing nongovernmental 
organizations’ (NGOs) and community organizations’ access to the democratic process, and 
identifying new mechanisms for broadened participation. A public awareness campaign also 
was developed and implemented which educated citizens on their rights and responsibilities 
in a local democratic government. In its initial stages, the MDCPP emphasized efforts to 
sensitize and expand the vision held by municipal governments of increasing communication 
with their citizens and making room for citizen participation. The first stage of the project 
bolstered the attitude and vision of the mayors, council members, and municipal officials 
regarding opening local government to greater communication and participation by the 
5
citizens. This new attitude and vision in turn supported the second phase of the project, 
which focused on facilitating dialogue between municipal officials and different sectors of 
the community. The goal was to cooperatively define and implement a development agenda 
and to enlist cooperation by the local actors. Grant agreements were entered into with NGOs 
to strengthen the dialogue and participation process; these NGOs were chosen during open 
and public processes; mayors of participating municipalities, along with representatives of 
ISDEM, COMURES, USAID, and RTI participated on the selection committee. The initial 
goal of these efforts was to stimulate the establishment and usage of processes and 
mechanisms to jointly involve civil society and local governments in the identification and 
solution of problems. In the original selected municipalities, the civil groups were organized 
and initiated communication with the local government to work on the local agenda. The 
NGOs assisted efforts to develop a local agenda for a period of approximately eight months. 
Notably, 18 municipalities incorporated the three priorities established by the participants in 
the planning process into their investment plans (own resources, FODES, and FISDL). And 
in 15 municipalities, participatory action plans were developed as support tools for the 
municipal administration. At the conclusion of the grant agreements, some NGOs continued 
facilitating the process with their own resources and/or resources obtained from other 
agencies, including SACDEL (in Puerto El Triunfo and Olocuilta), FUNDE (in Nejapa, 
Jiquilísco, Sonsonate, and Acajutla), and FUSAI (in Nejapa). 
6
ANNEX 8
SUMMARY OF PROGRAMS AND ACTIVITIES IMPLEMENTED UNDER THE SO 
Extended Description by Project
Activity No. 519-0391 
“DEMOCRATIC AND ELECTORAL PROCESES PROJECT” 
The goal of the Project was to strengthen democratic institutions and practices and its purpose was to 
strengthen the integrity and inclusiveness of the Salvadoran democratic and electoral processes. 
Interventions under this activity helped to achieve IR2 “More Effective Electoral Administration.” 
3.1 PHASE 1 (1993 – 1996).
Activities were carried out under contract No. 519-0391-C-00-3151-00 with Creative Associates 
International Inc. with a total budget of $2,591,930 including $781,756 in sub-grants to local NGOs 
and $278,786.49 in procurement for the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE). The project began on 
September 1993 and ended on July 1996. 
The first phase of this project took place during the so called “Elecciones del Siglo” (1994 
Presidential Election, the first one after the Peace Accords); efforts focused on assisting with 
documentation, voter registration/awareness, civic education, and inscription of official voter rolls 
(carnetización). The work comprised of retrieving and copying 250,000 birth certificates for the 
TSE and canvassing targeted municipalities on a door to door basis. Pre-electoral activities covered 
133 municipalities in all 14 departments. 
In the post-electoral phase, assistance was provided so that 21 NGO’s organized 10 sub-projects 
which specifically dealt with issues surrounding women, environmental awareness, youth, 
community radios, and local communities. At the conclusion of the sub-projects, the NGOs were 
able to organize 242 community forums covering many pertinent subjects. Of particular importance 
were the 32 local forums held on citizen safety during the “Let’s Participate in Democracy” sub￾project. 9,062 people participated in the ten sub-projects and the NGOs worked in all 14 
departments. 
3.2 PHASE 2 (1996 - 1998).
Activities were carried out under contract No. OUT-AEP-I-801-96-0003-00 TO # 801 with the 
International Foundation for Election Systems (IFES) with a total budget of $4,137,393. The project 
began on October 1996 and ended on April 1998; the objective was to strengthen the integrity and 
inclusiveness of Salvadoran democratic and electoral processes through the implementation of 
activities designed to improve the voter registry, and the administration of, and citizen 
confidence/participation in, the electoral process. Main achievements include: 
1
ƒ An NGO network of 23 local organizations which implemented a national voter outreach/civic 
education campaign with the TSE during the post registration an pre-election period of 1997 
elections was established. 
ƒ An agreement was reached with the Japanese Embassy to collaborate in three key programs: 
expanded civic education and voter outreach coverage; free Election Day rural transportation; 
and post election evaluation. 
3.3 PHASE 3 (1999 – 2003).
Assistance was provided under the Electoral Reform component of the C.A. No. 519-A-00-00-
00041-00 with Creative Associates International ($875,000 of the total budget was invested in this 
activity); and through a Grant awarded to the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), No. 
519-G-00-99-00032-00, for the amount of $380,203. It is important to mention that additional funds 
were granted to the UNDP under such agreement: 40 million colones from project 519-000099 were 
provided in order to assist the Registro Nacional de Personas Naturales (RNPN); such amount is not 
included as part of the total cost of the SO (chapter VI, core document) given that funds were in 
local currency; however, this activity was crucial for the achievement of the IR. 
Main interventions and achievements of this phase are: 
ƒ Important electoral reforms were drafted related to the electoral code, electoral procedures code, 
organic law of the TSE, and political party law. For six months, the TSE magistrates studied the 
proposals to reach consensus agreements about their contents before presenting them to the 
Legislative Assembly in April 2002. Although only minor changes were eventually introduced 
into the current legislation, electoral reform continues to be a key issue in the political agenda. 
These reform proposals should provide a substantive basis for further discussion. 
ƒ A process of strategic planning, organizational restructuring and a re-engineering of key 
processes, including the electoral register and the electoral process was performed in the TSE. 
This support resulted in an improved set of processes for carrying out the 2003 municipal and 
legislative elections. 
ƒ A technical unit, under which the TSE’s computers were organized, was created and placed 
under the direct authority of the magistrates. As a result, the logistics for voting and vote 
counting improved, both in 2003 as well as in 2004. 
ƒ In addition, the collateral support obtained through the support of Gigante Express led to the near 
completion of a detailed electoral map, which will be used once residential voting is put into 
place. The servers supplied in 2003 contributed especially to the useful introduction of the 
Documento Unico de Identidad-DUI in the 2004 elections. 
ƒ Support was provided to the Registro Nacional de Personas Naturales (RNPN), through a grant 
awarded to the UNDP, in the construction of a historical database, which is the second phase 
toward the establishment of a new civil registry and the issuance of a single identity card known 
as the DUI. USAID/El Salvador granted the sum of ¢40,000,000 in local currency (about $4.59 
million) to the United Nations Development Program-UNDP to provide support for this program 
to the RNPN. 
ƒ The DUI was used for the first time as a voter card in the 2004 election, and due partly to its use, 
the 2004 elections had an historic 67% voter turnout. The historical database for the new civil 
registry was relied upon to issue a total of 3.6 million single identity cards (DUI). 
2
ANNEX 9
Principal Implementer Partners, Contact Information 
1. DEMOCRATIC CONSOLIDATION AND GOVERNANCE ACTIVITY (519-0436) 
ƒ DPK Consulting 
605 Market Street, Suite 800 
San Francisco, CA 94105 
Phone: (415) 495-7772 
Fax: (415) 495-6017 
dpk@dpkconsulting.com 
ƒ Ministerio de Gobernación
Centro de Gobierno, San Salvador, El Salvador 
www.gobernacion.gob.sv 
ƒ National Center for State Courts – NCSC 
300 Newport Avenue 
Williamsburg, VA 23185-4147 
Phone (888) 450-0391 Fax (757) 564-2034 
Questions or Comments - email 
webmaster@ncsc.dni.us 
ƒ Consejo Nacional de la Judicatura (CNJ)
www.cnj.gob.sv 
ƒ Office of Public Affairs, U.S. Embassy to 
El Salvador, (Interagency Agreement) 
ƒ National Civilian Police (Policía Nacional 
Civil – PNC)
www.pnc.gob.sv 
ƒ International Criminal Investigative 
Training Assistance Program (ICITAP) 
http://www.usdoj.gov/criminal/icitap/ 
ƒ Procuraduría para la Defensa de los 
Derechos Humanos – PDDH
www.pddh.gob.sv 
ƒ Attorney General’s Office (Fiscalía 
General de la República)
www.fgr.gob.sv
ƒ Checchi and Company Consulting, Inc. 
1899 L Street NW, 
Suite 800 
Washington, DC 20036 
Telephone: 202-452-9700 
Fax: 202-466-9070 
checchi@checchiconsulting.com
ƒ Public Defender’s Office (Procuraduría 
General de la República)
www.pgr.gob.sv 
ƒ El Salvador’s Legislative Assembly 
www.asamblea.gob.sv
ƒ Creative Associates International, Inc. 
5301 Wisconsin Ave., NW Suite 700 
Washington, DC 20015 
Tel. 202-966-5804 
Fax: 202-363-4771 
Email: creative@caii.com 
ƒ World Learning Inc. 
Kipling Road, P.O. Box 676, Brattleboro, 
Vermont USA 05302-0676 
Phone: (802) 257-7751; Toll Free Within the 
US: (800) 257-7751 
TTY: 802-258-3388; Fax: 802-258-3500 
1
Email: info@worldlearning.org 
www.worldlearning.org 
ƒ The University of Texas at Austin, sub￾contractor of Creative Associates 
www.utexas.edu 
ƒ Consejo Nacional de Desarrollo Sostenible 
– CNDS
ƒ Research Triangle Institute International 
– RTI 
PO Box 12194 
Research Triangle Park, NC 27709-2194 
E-mail: listen@rti.org 
Telephone: 919-485-2666 
Toll-free: 1-866-RTI-1958 
www.rti.org 
ƒ Instituto Salvadoreño para el Desarrollo 
Municipal – ISDEM
4a. Calle Poniente entre 41 y 43 Av. sur No. 
2223 Colonia Flor Blanca, San Salvador 
Teléfonos 267-6590, 267-6500 
www.isdem.gob.sv
ƒ Corporación de Municipalidades de la 
República – COMURES 
www.comures.org.sv 
ƒ Red de Cooperantes para el Desarrollo 
Local - RECODEL
ƒ Fondo de Inversión Social para la Vivienda 
– FISDL
www.fisdl.gob.sv 
ƒ Comisión Nacional para el Desarrollo 
Local – CONADEL 
2. MUNICIPAL DEVELOPMENT AND CITIZEN PARTICIPATION PROJECT (519 - 
0388). 
ƒ Research Triangle Institute (RTI) 
PO Box 12194 
Research Triangle Park, NC 27709-2194 
E-mail: listen@rti.org 
Telephone: 919-485-2666 
Toll-free: 1-866-RTI-1958 
www.rti.org 
ƒ Fondo de Inversión Social para el 
Desarrollo Local (FISDL) 
10a. Av. Sur y Calle México. Barrio San 
Jacinto. San Salvador. El Salvador. Teléfono 
(503) 2244-1200. Fax (503) 2244-1370 
www.fisdl.gob.sv 
ƒ Corporación de Municipalidades de la 
República – COMURES 
www.comures.org.sv 
ƒ ISDEM 
4a. Calle Poniente entre 41 y 43 Av. sur No. 
2223 Colonia Flor Blanca, San Salvador 
Teléfonos 267-6590, 267-6500 
www.isdem.gob.sv
3. DEMOCRATIC AND ELECTORAL PROCESS (519-0391). 
ƒ International Foundation for Election 
Systems – IFES 
1101 15th Street, N.W., Third Floor, 
ƒ Registro Nacional de las Personas 
Naturales (RNPN) 
Col. "Gral. Manuel José Arce", C. "Douglas 
2
Washington, D.C. 20005 
(202)828-8507, fax: (202) 452-0804 
www.ifes.org 
Vladimir Varela" y Av. Caballería, San 
Salvador (Torre RNPN) 
Teléfonos: 2-279-4182; 2-279-4248; 2-279-
4305; 2-279-4315 
www.rnpn.gob.sv 
ƒ Creative Associates International, Inc. 
5301 Wisconsin Ave., NW Suite 700 
Washington, DC 20015 
Tel. 202-966-5804 
Fax: 202-363-4771 
Email: creative@caii.com
ƒ Tribunal Supremo Electoral – TSE
www.tse.gob.sv
ƒ The United Nations Development 
Program (UNDP) 
www.pnud.org.sv 
3
ANNEX 10
Complete List of Lessons Learned 
1. ACTIVITY 519-0436: “DEMOCRATIC CONSOLIDATION AND GOVERNANCE 
PROJECT” 
1.1 Rule of Law activities.
1.1.1 PAS Project:
i. Work with other donors to address deficiencies of the judiciary: The Project recommends 
that USAID continue to work with other international donors and coordinate with them to 
address the deficiencies of the judiciary. This is especially true in the context of judicial 
administration. The Project began to address deficiencies in judicial administration through 
the judge mentor program, and it recommends a continued focus, in tandem with other 
international donors, on this aspect of the judiciary. 
ii. Continued Support for Code Reform: The Project recommends that USAID continue to 
support counterparts in their efforts to enact comprehensive code reform. As long as the 
current justice system remains a hybrid between the inquisitorial and accusatory systems, 
there will continue to be large-scale inefficiency and unfairness. Judges already educated in 
rules of evidence can be targeted and relied upon as a starting point to develop discussions 
that would generate changes within the system.
iii. Greater Support for Administrative Reform: The ultimate goals behind increasing the 
understanding and performance of justice sector actors under the criminal and criminal 
procedure codes are to increase the efficiency and fairness of the criminal justice system. 
Through assisting counterparts with training and technical assistance in substantive areas, the 
Project has done exactly that. However, sometimes the substantive performance of justice 
sector actors is substandard because of a failure in the administrative realm. 
iv. Continue Joint Training Activities: The Project recommends the continuation of crime 
scene training. This recommendation is strongly supported by the results of the Project´s 
evaluation of the impact of the training. In most cases, those who have received training do a 
better job of maintaining the integrity of the crime scene and preserving evidence than those 
who have not. 
v. Relationship of Casas to Mayors’ Offices and Community Activities: As USAID is well 
aware, based on its discussions with the mayor in Suchitoto, a Casa needs to be fully 
involved in the local municipal activities and activities in the mayor’s office. Any attempt to 
separate the Casa from the mayor’s office, in a well-meaning attempt to depoliticize the 
Casa, will detract from the Casa´s efforts to show clearly to the mayor its utility. Without 
1
belaboring this point, the Project recommends that the Casa be fully immersed in community 
and municipal activities. 
vi. Integration of Casa with other USAID Efforts: Furthermore, efforts should be made either 
to involve or relate the Casas to other ongoing projects of USAID in the field of local 
development, a conclusion already reached by USAID. As USAID related to the Project, a 
good example of this relationship would be between the Casa and ongoing citizen 
participation projects. Another example would be relating the Casa to a local development 
project designed to increase municipal revenue. If the two (the new Casa and the municipal 
revenue project) are tied in the mind of the mayor, then the additional costs generated by the 
Casa de Justicia are perceived to be covered by the additional revenue generated by the 
improvement of municipal revenue collection practices. Thus, from this point of view, the 
Casa does not represent a net loss of funds available in the municipal budget, a conclusion 
that is very conducive to financial sustainability. 
vii. Relationship of Casas to Local Universities: The Project recommends that the Casas be 
encouraged to form relationships with nearby universities that have studies in law. Such 
relationships, formalized to the greatest extent possible by written agreements, will increase 
the prospects for sustainability by providing another source of mediators, possible technical 
assistance, and a potential source of notary services. 
viii. Continue supporting the UTEC, UNIVO, UNICO, and UFG: The Project obviously 
recommends that USAID continue to support the four law schools with whom the Project 
currently works or will soon work. One of the Project´s consultants – an expert in legal 
clinics and the clinical methodology – after working with the UNIVO and the UNICO￾suggested that it will take two to three more years of technical assistance to see well￾functioning clinics in these two law schools. One of the reports produced by the other 
international consultant who worked at the UNICO implicitly supports this assertion. 
Although both consultants´ comments addressed only the UNIVO and the UNICO, the 
Project recommends that USAID have a similar time line with the other two law schools. 
ix. Continue to work with technical personnel at the CSJ with regard to the legal clinics: 
The Project also recommends that USAID continue to work at the technical level of the 
Supreme Court (CSJ) in its efforts to provide quality control to legal education. It is critical 
to provide follow-up to the recently signed agreements between the Universities and the 
Supreme Court so that the law Schools provide opportunities for law students who have 
already graduated to conduct their “práctica jurídica” in order to gain the Supreme Court’s 
Authorization. 
1.1.2 Justice Project:
i. Integrality of strategy: Reform projects must be conceived integrally, though do not 
necessarily have to have complex goals. The reform process by its nature is a gradual 
process. 
2
ii. Multidisciplinary: Successful reform and modernization efforts should not depend on the 
exclusive vision of jurists, but also include other experts such as methodologists, 
pedagogues, psychologists or anthropologists, to mention some specialties. 
iii. Participative: The basis of successful planning requires the involvement of all counterparts 
or interested persons that can and want to provide data of their experience for the execution 
of the projects. 
iv. Respect for local idiosyncrasies: The municipal ADR experience required not only 
participative methodologies, but also different communication methodologies in each 
location. Each municipality or locality, be it rural or urban, has different “momentums” of 
action and reaction. The conflicts are different and the vision of the justice system often 
different. Similarly working with the institutions interested in commercial alternative dispute 
resolution mechanisms such as businesses and the commercial bar requires understanding of 
other local idiosyncrasies. 
v. Need for political commitment: A great commitment is required from the institutional 
heads or local authorities. Lack of consensus over justice reform is the best road to failure. 
Without the sense of ownership, it is not possible to advance. 
vi. Defense of the fundamental rights and of human dignity: The defense and protection of 
the fundamental rights cannot be forgotten in trying to achieve efficiency. No result justifies 
this forgetfulness. 
1.1.3 Joint Training of National Civilian Police and the Attorney General’s Office.
The police and prosecutors training project recommends that the national Civilian Police and 
the Office of the Attorney General of the Republic develop a joint training plan that 
continues the training courses on Crime Scene Management, Criminal Investigation, and 
Chain of Custody. Considering that both institutions are the main columns of the justice 
system that guarantee proper crime investigation and successful criminal process. On the 
other hand, as a result of the training courses, it is considered indispensable to train the 
prosecutor’s personnel in basic juridical areas, such as nullities, resources, evidence means, 
rules of evidence, etc., to reinforce their participation during the penal process. 
1.2 Citizen Participation and Governance activities.
Lessons Learned about Advocacy: 
Characteristics Needed for Political Advocacy Work: 
i. Willingness to take risks. Organizations tend to see advocacy projects as risky since their 
initiative may or may not be approved by the government after all the work they do. In the 
preparatory phases of these projects, organizations frequently worried about the wisdom of 
risking their reputation on their ability to do successful advocacy work. The board of 
3
directors of OEF, for example, expressed serious reservations along these lines but was 
finally convinced by the executive director to take the risk. The decision to participate or lead 
an advocacy campaign should not be taken lightly, because it has serious implications: any 
organization that decides to go forward will have to continue risking their image with public 
positions, alliances with other organizations and citizen action in order to be successful. 
ii. Analytical and flexible. Advocacy processes require a willingness to constantly reevaluate 
strategies and activities, and to change them when necessary. Few organizations are able to 
create a strategy at the beginning of a campaign that will work for the whole period of the 
campaign. This is true not only because of a lack of experience, but also because the situation 
itself tends to change frequently, and organizations have to react to new scenarios. The most 
successful groups are able to evaluate their work objectively, admit their mistakes, and 
correct them quickly. 
iii. Openness to building productive relationships with various sectors. Another important 
characteristic for organizations is a willingness to work in partnership with a variety of 
different people and organizations. All 20 organizations supported by CREA were surprised 
at some point in their campaign to find they had made inroads with individuals and sectors 
where they had not expected to find support. Advocacy work requires the building of positive 
and productive relationships of trust. This is true whether with other organizations, 
government officials, or individuals. This characteristic was mentioned repeatedly by 
Legislative Assembly deputies and journalists in the interviews as the most important change 
that most CSOs need to make in order to be more effective. 
iv. Ability to build relationships of trust with government actors. Openness is particularly 
important in relationships with government officials, since they are generally the people who 
have the authority to pass the policy proposal. Relationships between organizations and 
officials in El Salvador are tense and mutually distrustful and have been so for decades, a 
legacy of the war and authoritarianism. Changing this and creating relationships of trust 
requires time and serious effort. Unfortunately, the burden of changing the nature of the 
relationship will almost always be borne primarily by the CSOs, which will have to provide 
initiative, creativity and steadfastness in order to overcome the mistrust. 
v. Commitment to the initiative. The organizations that have won the passage of their 
legislative initiative have sustained a strategically focused effort over a medium-term period 
of time. Making just a fleeting effort or attempting to win it all at once does not usually help 
to achieve the proposed objective. In the same way, handing a draft proposal to the 
appropriate government authority without giving it any follow-up does not usually 
accomplish much. No matter how much time has been invested in an initiative, it will die if 
the promoting organization abandons it. 
Skills Necessary for Political Advocacy Work: 
vi. Organization. The ability to organize people—to form a coalition or start a new civic 
organization—is one of the most important and underestimated skills for advocacy work. 
There is a general perception that organizing work is easy or obvious. Our observation is that 
4
it requires quite a bit of talent and facilitation/negotiation experience to be able to: identify a 
common interest, get people actively involved, come to agreements on strategy, and achieve 
a working balance among the many individual and organizational leadership styles. 
vii. Media. The least developed capacity in all of the organizations is the ability to create 
communications strategies and work effectively with the media. In spite of the importance of 
media work for influencing public opinion and getting out a message, most organizations still 
do not prioritize it. They do media work reluctantly, if at all, and find it even more stressful 
than lobbying government officials. Given its importance, however, media work deserves 
special attention. 
viii. Lobbying. People who lobby government officials need to have certain qualities and skills. 
Some of the most important are: ability to create positive relationships with people of 
different ideologies, political parties, religions, points of view, etc.; ability to understand and 
bring together diverse interests and negotiate a solution; analytical ability and an 
understanding of the issue involved; commitment to the issue and ability to stay with the 
initiative over the long term; willingness to take risks; and problem-solving ability. 
ix. Monitoring. Civil society groups are just beginning to explore how to monitor policy 
implementation and audit the processes and procedures of government institutions. There 
have only been a few experiences so far, but they have been encouraging enough to indicate 
that there is a great deal of potential for work in this area. 
x. Research. Researching the way governments function and monitoring their policies requires 
analytical skills and a minimally acceptable academic methodology, if the resulting research 
is to be credible. Research must be very relevant to the advocacy issue for it to have an 
impact. In addition, the results should be expressed clearly and disseminated widely. 
Collaboration between academics and advocacy organizations is ideal. An academic adviser 
may orient the research of an organization, or an arrangement might be made whereby the 
academic organization produces the research and the organization does the advocacy work. 
xi. Opinion Surveys. If an advocacy organization needs to conduct a survey, it will need to seek 
the help of a respected survey organization. The organizations must accompany the process, 
however, by providing documents and specific information about the survey topic. The 
advocacy organization can also assist by providing the support necessary to produce the most 
useful executive summary, since survey reports tend to be presented in a very academic form. 
xii.Information. The monitoring phase of an advocacy process requires a medium-term time 
commitment; projects of less than one year have met with a great deal of difficulty because 
of the lack of relevant information. In some cases, the only thing that could be documented 
was the government’s lack of will to turn over the needed information. 
xiii. Objectivity. The objectivity of the research is fundamental. It is difficult for the same 
people that do the advocacy work to do the monitoring and research work. They tend to be 
too involved in the issue to avoid having preconceived notions about possible policy 
responses, and this lack of objectivity contaminates the research.
5
Lessons Learned about Training and Technical Assistance: 
xiv. Training in a formal setting is efficient in terms of getting basic ideas across to a large 
number of people, but technical assistance or coaching someone who is already experienced 
in the needed skill is more efficient for honing the skills of an individual organization. 
xv. No amount of training or coaching can take the place of experience. The most notable 
instances of increased abilities observed during this project have been with organizations that 
have used the training provided as a springboard, directly using what they have learned, 
making mistakes and correcting them. 
xvi. Training programs must be coherent and offer the same basic training units to all 
participants on advocacy. However, a great deal of flexibility is also necessary in providing 
institutional strengthening to compensate for and resolve the weaknesses of individual 
organizations that hamper their ability to carry out an advocacy campaign. 
Lessons Learned about Project Selection and Management of sub-grants: 
xvii. The potential for success of a given sub-grant is determined by the interest and drive of the 
organization. Skills can be taught, whereas a passion for the issue and a determination to 
change the status quo cannot. Donors supporting advocacy projects should look first at 
organizations that are already doing advocacy, with no external funding, since these are the 
most clearly committed. 
xviii. Donors should allow a great deal of flexibility in changing plans in advocacy projects, 
without allowing a total lack of planning to take over. Grantees should be encouraged by the 
donor to be analytical, and to change strategies and activities if necessary to improve the 
possibilities of success in the advocacy proposal. 
xix. Advocacy projects are fundamentally labor intensive, so funding should be made available 
for project staff. Organizations may be able to win the approval of their proposal without 
publications or paid media spots, but they cannot be successful without organizers, lobbyists, 
and researchers. While projects will vary, in our most recent experience, some projects 
required two to three full-time staff with a variety of skills working for 2-3 years to carry an 
advocacy campaign to successful completion. 
Lessons Learned in the Legislative Assembly Program: 
Civil Education Program: 
xx. Clarify and reorient program objectives. It should be clarified whether the program 
objective is to give presentations only to students at disadvantaged schools or if it is also 
available to other organized civil society groups. Our recommendation is the latter since that 
will help the program reach a wider spectrum of civil society. 
6
xxi. Reorient the program and tie-in with activities of the departmental offices. The 
presentations given by DO interns and staff have been an excellent multiplier mechanism. 
More joint work should be done to maximize available financial and human resources. 
xxii. Develop lesson plans for teachers. One way to reach more students would be to implement 
a second objective of the program by developing civic education curriculum materials. The 
Sitio Infantil and the educational pamphlets are essential, but lesson plans for teachers in 
coordination with the Minister of Education would have an even greater impact. 
xxiii. Conduct more activities with organized civil society groups. One of the objectives of 
the Civic Education Program is to reach “diverse population groups.” So far—primarily 
because of limitations in time and human resources—the Program has not done everything 
possible towards this objective. 
xxiv. Improve communication between the Legislative Support Unit (LSU) and other units 
of the Assembly. One possible problem could be the lack of ongoing communication with 
other units in the Assembly. Communication is necessary for spreading information about 
legislative work and for supporting the facilitators. One specific suggestion is for the LSU 
director to meet with the directors of other Assembly units at least twice a year.
xxv. Increase participation of Assembly members and alternates. The Civic Education 
Program should try to make sure that an Assembly member is present at all its talks. When a 
member cannot e present, the program should invite one of the alternates. 
xxvi. Raise funds to bring more students to the Legislative Assembly. Inviting more groups 
to the Assembly requires meeting space and money for transportation. Funds could be raised 
for these purposes, with private enterprise perhaps covering some of the costs. 
xxvii. Produce and distribute civic education materials. In addition to developing lesson plans 
for teachers, the Civic Education Program should produce and distribute other civic 
education materials. It should get involved in updating a video about the Assembly, which 
has the potential to be a very effective teaching tool. The Program’s PowerPoint 
presentations, which are of interest to adults and older students, should appear on the 
Internet. In addition, the Program should find ways to reproduce and distribute more 
“Conozcamos la Asamblea” and “Una Guía Informativa” pamphlets. Many Assembly 
members, for example, give talks in schools in addition to the schools they visit with the 
Civic Education Program. One possibility would be to have these members distribute 
Program materials. 
Public Participation Program: 
xxviii. While many of those who attend the events value the opportunity to participate, they also 
demand that their opinions and contributions be taken seriously and not end up simply as 
meeting notes or a list of proposals that goes nowhere. A forum might be organized perfectly 
in terms of the logistics and methodology, but if the results aren’t a true tool for decision￾7
making, the transparency of the activity and the image of the organizers—or in this case the 
Assembly itself—can be compromised. 
Technical Support to the Departmental Offices: 
xxix. Guarantee changes in the Internal Regulations of the Assembly to regulate the 
functioning and existence of the departmental offices. This would protect the DOs from 
any partisan interference and would assure institutional work for the benefit of the 
population.
xxx. Design and approve an annual work plan that includes specific activities to support the
institution, programs, and representatives of the department. The plan should include clear 
goals, objectives, and strategies to be implemented within a specific time period. 
xxxi. Develop a strategic plan for disseminating information among the population about the
activities of the DOs and the results of their work. The relationship between the DOs and the
Press Unit should be strengthened in order to identify new ways to promote the work in the
media.
xxxii. Reorient the responsibilities of the interns in order to make sure that all of the DO work 
areas benefit from their contributions. The Operations and Attributes Manual should be 
reviewed to include the responsibility of interns in DO activities.
xxxiii. Reorient the activities of the Civic Education Area to incorporate more civil society 
groups in the presentations about what the legislative branch does. This is one activity that 
must be coordinated between the Civic Education Area and the Legislative Support Unit. 
xxxiv. Do an annual evaluation of the DOs to follow up on the operative plans. It is 
important to involve all of the Assembly representatives, technical administrators, and 
Legislative Support Unit representatives, as well as people from the Legislative Operations 
Department. 
Legislative Intern Program (LIP) 
xxxv. Improve communication between the LIP and the Legislative Analysis Unit. A more 
fluid, coordinated, and efficient communication should exist between the LIP and the 
Legislative Analysis Unit in order to keep interns from receiving contradictory information. 
In order to maintain the independence, good reputation, and objectivity of the LIP, a greater 
coordination is recommended between the analysts in terms of the research work and aspects 
of form and administration. 
xxxvi. Look for ways to get the public interest studies out to the public. The LIP, together 
with the Analysis Unit, should design a plan to let people know the reports exist and to make 
them more available internally in the Assembly. The research could also be very useful for 
governmental, non-governmental, and academic organizations. 
8
xxxvii. Make sure that the format of the research papers is flexible, according to what kind 
of study it is. This should be possible without losing the ability to systematize and organize 
the information. 
xxxviii. Strengthen the initial training and orientation process for the interns. Many of the 
interns have given suggestions for improving the initial training they receive. They indicate 
that the orientation should be better planned and more ongoing, and that it should include 
more practical aspects. 
xxxix. Work to maintain an exchange with international students. International interns will 
provide the Assembly with new perspectives and knowledge that enrich the institutional 
work. This kind of work is also of benefit to the international interns. 
Lessons Learned in the Electoral Reform Program: 
xl. The issue of political will, or lack thereof, continues to be the most salient impediment to 
reforms. USAID/CREA sought to respond to what appeared to be sincere desires to bring 
about reforms, but the TSE was ultimately unable to extract itself from its still partisan 
political design to find a consensus for moving forward, either on electoral law or 
institutional reforms. Historical political dynamics – accentuated by the politicization that 
tends to occur around electoral moments – interceded, leading to an inability to implement 
many of the proposed reforms. It remains to be seen whether or how any of the reforms 
proposed can be implemented with further depoliticization of the make-up of the TSE. 
xli. Timing is also a crucial factor. In the case of organizational redesign, it has to be carried out 
early enough in the term of a TSE administration in order for it to be fully implemented. As it 
happened, electoral events of 2003 and 2004 interfered somewhat - at both a logistical and 
political level - with the implementation of these recommendations. As has historically been 
the case, the new set of magistrates elected in 2004 was slow to recognize the validity of 
previous reform efforts. 
Lessons Learned in the Transparency Program: 
Social Auditing Program: 
xlii. Participants believe that the process has “opened the doors” of the local governments, a 
theme that was repeated in nearly every municipality. 
xliii. Community co-responsibility for local projects promotes transparency in municipal 
administration. 
xliv. Citizen auditing requires dissemination of public information. 
xlv. More openness in the municipality allows both the community and foundations to have 
greater levels of trust and leads to better financing of local government projects. 
9
xlvi. Communities are divided along political lines, families are breaking up, and trained staff 
members sometimes join the ongoing flow of migration out of the country. These elements 
limit social auditing processes. 
xlvii. Disinformation and the political-ideological rivalries among opposing political party 
leaders cause some local leaders to oppose participation processes. 
xlviii. Weakness and administrative deficiencies in the municipality can be obstacles to citizen 
participation and accountability. 
xlix. While commissions can take on a life of their own, it is unclear whether they will form in 
municipalities where initial training and assistance are not available. 
Access to information: 
l. Perhaps the most prominent lesson learned in this exercise is that the passage of municipal 
ordinances of this nature may serve as pilot experiences, but for any ultimate impact to be 
felt there would need to be changes made at a national level. In part, CREA’s support in the 
civil society advocacy arena for changes to the municipal code was an implicit recognition of 
this reality. 
li. Although the political will of municipal authorities is essential, municipalities need a great 
deal of assistance in determining, alongside civic leaders and organizations, just what kinds 
of information are most useful. They then need assistance in the preparation of mechanisms 
and information that enables citizens to have easy access to this information. 
lii. The idea that information which is “public” in principle, yet in practice has been parceled out 
only at the discretion of government officials, is still a novel concept, not only for municipal 
authorities, but also for citizens. Efforts to promote municipal transparency laws from above, 
without proper input from citizens as to their real needs and concerns, will not likely succeed 
in motivating citizens to use these mechanisms. 
Code of Ethics: 
liii. Although the Executive branch displayed the initial political will necessary for the 
realization of the project, the failure to implement the code and office of ethics before the 
project’s conclusion, or even shortly thereafter, slowed the momentum of the process. It also 
may suggest reconsideration as to whether or not the political will exists to carry this project 
any further. Many parts of the process could have been more participatory and open to the 
public. Although some participation occurred, it was not always consistent—i.e., the same 
group of persons was not always involved—and it was perhaps not sufficiently broad as to 
have generated a base of support for carrying out the code. Although public statements of 
commitment were made to this process, the public release of different documents would have 
both indicated a real openness to seeing this process succeed, as well as created a more 
informed group of persons and organizations who could push for the approval and 
implementation of the code and office of ethics. 
10
Civil Society Projects: 
liv. Transparency initiatives supported by CREA International are usually about transparency in 
one specific area. These projects are often also advocacy projects and have all of the same 
characteristics, so many of the lessons learned discussed with respect to advocacy projects 
also apply to this area. 
1.3 Local Government Activities.
1.3.1 Democratic Local Governance Activity - DLGA (2002 – 2005).
Lessons Learned in Citizen Participation: 
i. Encourage and strengthen local leadership. Any effort aimed at achieving or increasing 
the adherence and participation of municipal officers and natural leaders of the local 
community must be considered essential to the success of participatory process for local 
development. 
ii. Encourage permanent dialogue and consensus. People need the sense that they have been 
listened to with respect, that their opinions have been taken into consideration in a decision￾making process, and that they have been allowed to voice their preferences in setting 
priorities for action. The sectorial participatory discussion groups set up in all the 
municipalities of the project proved to be particularly effective as centers of permanent 
dialogue. The groups provided verification of the programs and commitments that were 
made and permanent reformulation and adjustment of their respective short-and long-term 
programs. 
iii. Establish clear and encouraging objectives. It is necessary to break the long-term 
objectives down into a coherent set of gradual quantifiable objectives to be achieved in the 
short, medium, and long term. Verifying achievement in each of the operational objectives 
will motive to increase participation in the process. 
iv. Maintain enthusiasm with activities. It is vital to try to implement balanced planning￾action process, defining and executing a calculated program of activities easily recognized by 
the public with a high level of community participation and low operating costs. Examples 
may be street and quarter cleaning; artistic and cultural activities or similar events; and 
ceremonies such as contests, inaugurations and awards ceremonies, and similar events. The 
creation of a small fund specifically intended to finance this type of encouragement activity 
is strongly recommended. 
v. The participatory processes need time to consolidate. The consolidation of a participatory 
process entails a great change of the cultural authoritative patterns that have been deeply 
rooted in many communities for many generations. The individual and collective adoption of 
new behavior models is a gradual process that should be accompanied by technical assistance 
for a minimum period of three years. 
11
vi. Local teams, well trained, work full time. The technical assistance provided by the project 
to a specific municipality must be transferred to a local technical team in the municipality. It 
would be worthless to have a mayor and council members available and willing to cooperate 
if a technical team capable of managing operations of the project has not been set up. 
vii. Balance and independence in credit management. It is important to always maintain a 
sound balance with regard to credit distribution based on the activities carried out and the 
achievements made in each stage. In practice, each one of the political parties will try at a 
given time to take credit for the project, claiming merit that may rightfully belong to the 
citizens and local participation organizations. The need to ensure that the project is identified 
as a strictly technical and fully independent activity, with decisions made above the particular 
interests of political or economic groups, is unmistakable. 
Lessons Learned in Management and Finance: 
viii. Match and make compatible systems, manuals, and procedures. Accounting and 
budget systems compatible with national accounting systems are best, and these efforts will 
always find natural allies such as the Ministry of Finance and the National Audit Office. 
ix. Make objective the real cost of the provision of the services. Without clearly identifying 
the real cost of each of the services provided by a municipality, it is simply impossible to 
define a policy for the reasonable management of such services, and consequently, define the 
management of the existing budget deficits. 
x. Promote the implementation of internal audits in municipalities. Four of the 
municipalities covered by the project took the initiative of hiring internal audit services 
charge with detecting any mistake that may arise during the setup and operation of the 
recently implemented accounting and budget system. Such self-evaluation efforts proved 
helpful and encouraging and must be promoted and incorporated in a future project from the 
beginning. 
Lessons Learned in Supply of Basic Services: 
xi. Participation of users. Based on the evaluation of the achievements of the potable water 
and solid waste companies assisted by the DLGA, the most successful companies were those 
reporting a higher level of effective participation of the users of the services provided.
xii. Intensification of educational campaigns for users and authorities. Based on the 
experience provided by the DLGA’s technical assistance provided to 16 decentralized water 
and cleaning companies, new projects of similar nature should consider a proportionally 
greater effort to conduct more permanent and more intensive educational campaigns aimed at 
the communities of users as well as the authorities and executives of the decentralized 
services companies.
Lessons Learned in Local Economic Development: 
12
xiii. An intersectoral institution that coordinates and economic development strategy at 
local level. Any municipality that intends to start a long-term strategy for economic 
development must promote form the beginning the constitution and operation of an 
independent and fully representative organization designed to: a) make a diagnosis of the 
local economic reality; b) generate a long-term intersectoral local development strategy; c) 
facilitate, coordinate, and follow-up the actions programmed by each of the sectors; d) 
facilitate the attraction of internal and external productive investments; and e) take necessary 
steps to obtain financial and technical contributions form international and local organization 
that promote development.
xiv. Active incorporation of the private sector. One of the things most important to 
entrepreneurs is encouragement and recognition by the local organizations of the significant 
role that they have in the generation of wealth and employment inside de municipality.
xv. The facilitating role of the municipality. The municipality must adjust to the role of a 
facilitator of the process. Its main action must be the generation of an adequate channeling 
of public resources in order to provide the road, port, communication, educational, and 
sanitation infrastructures identified and programmed by the long-term strategy for local 
economic development.
xvi. An explicit support commitment from public and private agencies at national level. It 
is highly advisable to obtain from the beginning an explicit support commitment form an 
agency of the national government (Ministry of Tourism, Economy, Internal Affairs, 
Agriculture, or other) and form an association of the private sector (FUSADES, FORTAS, 
FUNDEMAS, or other.)
1.3.2 COMURES Institutional Capacity Strengthening Project.
i. There are issues that require alliances with those directly responsible as in the case of the 
Ministry of Treasury and the Court of Accounts in order to convey information regarding the 
LACAP Law. 
ii. The promotion of Municipal Code reforms and its harmonization with other laws affecting 
municipal autonomy require greater negotiation and political lobbying before the Executive 
and Legislative branches. 
iii. Having proposals has facilitated having discussions regarding decentralization reached all the 
way up to being included in the CONADEL agenda. 
iv. The municipalities expressed their political willingness to carry out their administrations with 
transparency and the topic was retaken in terms of Municipal Code Reforms. 
v. It is clear that solid waste management is a topic of national dimensions that must be 
assumed in a comprehensive and interinstitutional manner with a country vision and as a 
process. 
13
vi. It is important to legalize inter-municipal associations that allow the full exercise of their 
competencies to carry out common programs and projects; also to provide support in the 
development of a strategic vision and clarity of initiatives for Local Development. 
vii. COMURES reaffirms itself as a valid interlocutor of the municipalities, promoting a more 
harmonious relation between Central Government entities and the Legislative Assembly. 
Taking proposal that are clear and have been arrived at through consensus, which respond to 
association needs. 
viii. There’s the challenge to broaden and make technical legal assistance provided to 
municipalities more efficient. 
ix. In order to support municipalities in the full exercise of their competencies and their 
municipal autonomy, COMURES carried out counseling sessions for the Provincial Councils 
of the Municipalities. This modality must be continued since it generates the empowerment 
of COMURES by council members and employees. 
2. MUNICIPAL DEVELOPMENT AND CITIZEN PARTICIPATION PROJECT (519-
0388). 
i. Greater local involvement in municipal and regional development is vital, especially citizen 
input into the development process. El Salvador’s approach has been more technical, 
focusing on local revenue generation, grant reform, and improved local management 
capacity. However, recent experiences with community participation activities have certified 
that local involvement quickly shows benefits in the form of demand-based urban services. 
ii. The experience of the water sector highlighted the difficulty of managing the development of 
public infrastructure in a centralized manner. Efforts are now under way to devolve the 
management of these projects to local governments. This represents a clear break with the 
past, although further progress is needed. 
iii. It is important to differentiate among municipalities and regions and to deploy different 
development strategies for different conditions. El Salvador has tended to focus much 
attention on regional equity issues. The essence of this strategy is to continue to target a 
variety of central programs to areas of high poverty or other factors, but to grant a higher 
degree of autonomy to larger cities where economic conditions make it possible for such 
cities to develop at a faster pace. USAID is in a position to capitalize on this strategy, which 
emerged during the past few years. 
iv. Policy development, technical assistance, training outreach, and investment capital all need 
to be linked. MDCPP’s success has led other donors to recognize these linkages. A case in 
point is the Inter-American Development Bank’s Municipal Development Project, which 
follows on the model pioneered by USAID under MDCPP. 
14
v. In urban government management, USAID, through the Municipal Development and Citizen 
Participation Project, has played a key role in drawing attention to efficiency improvements 
in local water supply. The development of the water decentralization activity attracted other 
donors, particularly the IADB, through implementing technical assistance programs in sector 
reform programs. 
3. DEMOCRATIC AND ELECTORAL PROCESS (519-0391). 
i. Civil Society has a role to play in decision making especially those problems which directly 
affect local communities. Dialogue at the local level must be taken to the national level 
where it can generate enthusiasm and support for initiatives affecting common citizens. 
ii. It is important to foster NGO independence of political parties, otherwise NGOs will 
continue to be seen by the TSE and other government agencies primarily as political 
proselytizers rather than neutral educators for electoral and democratic processes. This will 
especially be seen to be the situation during pre-electoral phases. 
iii. Individual NGOs should comprise a network unless consortia come to the table when a 
network is being established. 
iv. The issue of political will or lack thereof, continues to be the most salient impediment to 
reforms. The TSE was ultimately unable to extract itself from is still-partisan political design 
to find a consensus for moving forward, either on electoral law or institutional reforms. Even 
assuming greater political will, however, there are enormous bureaucratic obstacles to 
administrative reform in government institutions. 
15
Strategic Objective 519-002 
More Inclusive and Effective Democratic Processes 
Summary Performance Data Table 
FISCAL YEAR
INDICATOR 
LIFE OF 
PROGRAM 
TARGETS FY2002 FY2003 FY2004 FY2005 
Target 41,3131 - 
13,145 
(5% cumulative 
increase) 
13,771 
(10% 
cumulative 
increase) 
14,397 
(15% 
cumulative) 
SO LEVEL:
Cases filed in criminal courts in targeted geographic 
areas (New/Modified) 
Actual 64,821 12,519 
(Baseline) 15,428 19,295 14,670 
Target 5 5 4 5 - - - Number of congressional sponsored constituent 
service offices established by department Actual 3 3 3 3 - - - 
Target 60,025 56,996 59,358 60,025 - - - Households in target municipalities receiving 
selected municipal services (garbage and final 
disposition 
(Selected for reporting in the Annual Report) Actual 70,742 58,771 59,594 70,742 - - - 
Target 23 
(cumulative) 11 16 21 23 
IR LEVEL:
Significant submissions by civil society organization 
(CSO) coalitions or CSOs to the legislature and/or 
other GOES authorities 
(Selected for reporting in the Annual Report)
Actual 60 15 22 442 60 
Target 103 Legislative committees holding at least one public 8 9 10 6 
hearing per year 
(Selected for reporting in the Annual Report) Actual 12 6 9 12 3 
Target 3,300,000 3,000,000 3,300,000 - - - - - - 
Eligible voters with valid documents 
Actual 3,291,564 1,950,000 3,291,564 - - - - - - 
Number of municipalities with formerly established Target 15 4 12 15 - - - 
and operating community oversight committees Actual 17 9 13 17 - - - 
Target 16,000,000 11,633,597 14,000,000 16,000,000 - - - Locally generated funds/revenue in targeted 
municipalities 
Actual 14,131,042 10,555,005 14,131,042 16,204,741 - - - 
Target 25,000,000 12,425,000 20,000,000 25,000,000 - - - Funds allocated for investment in services and 
infrastructure in targeted municipalities Actual 20,071,224 14,439,153 26,568,900 20,071,224 - - - 
Target 10% 
(35.4 days) - 3% 
(38.1 days) 
6% 
(36.9 days) 
10% 
(35.4 days) Percent of reduction in average case preparation 
duration for homicide cases in targeted areas (New)
(Selected for reporting in the Annual Report) Actual 10% 
(35.4 days) 
39.30 days 
(Baseline, 
average) 
9.8% 
(35.5 days) 
10% 
(35.4 days) 
11.8% 
(34.7 days)
Target 21 18 21 - - - - - - Number of police delegations with adequate 
communication equipment (New) Actual 15 15 15 - - - - - - 
Target 7 
(cumulative) Number of mediation and justice centers established 2 4 5 7 
(New) 
(Selected for reporting in the Annual Report) Actual 25 2 6 8 25 
P:\democracy.pub\Democpub\DG PMP\DG summary of perfomance data table & indicators NOV05.doc
 
1
 The life of program target figure for this indicator that appears in past reports is 14,397 cases number that represents the FY2005 target; 
 to be 
es 
however, this target doesn’t reflect the real impact of the program given that the indicator value of each year is not cumulative (cases are 
independent from each other). Given that, it has been decided to set as life of program target, the total number of cases that were expected
filed during the intervention period and the same logic has been followed for the actual number of cases filed in the life of project. 2
 The number of Significant Submissions for FY2004 is 8, however, there was a miscalculation in the past which lead to sub estimate the 
cumulative number by 14 submissions that were not taken into account which are now reflected in FY2004. 3
 The life of program target for this indicator will remain as the FY2004 target given that what is being measured is the number of committe
holding at least one public hearing in the Assembly, being the best result expected during the life of project 10 committees out of 16. 
 
in targeted geographic areas.
SO LEVEL RESULTS: 
INDICATOR: Cases filed in Criminal Courts 
YEAR PLANNED ACTUAL 
FY 2002 
(Baseline) N/A 12,519 
FY 2003 (5% cumulative 
increase) 
15,428 
13,145 
FY 2004 (10% cumulative 
increase) 19,295 
13,771 
UNIT OF MEASURE: Number of cases. 
SOURCE: Independent consultancy made 
direct requests to the targeted Courts. 
INDICATOR/DESCRIPTION: The 
geographic areas targeted for USAID 
assistance were partially redefined in 20
now they are: San Miguel, Sonsonate, 
Usulután and Santa Ana. The reported 
number includes the entire criminal cases 
filed before the Justices of the Peace since 
that is the only way to start the criminal 
process, and it also avoid the possibility 
uplicating num
01; 
of 
bers with higher level 
F DATA 
: 
and 
s. 
of this indicator will begin in FY 
2003.
FY 2005 (15% cumulative 
increase) 
14,670 
d
criminal courts. 
METHOD OF DATA COLLECTION: 
Supreme Court Reports. 
FREQUENCY/SCHEDULE O
COLLECTION: Annually. 
RESPONSIBLE FOR DATA COLLECTION
DPK Consulting, Inc. (U.S. Contractor) 
Eva Patricia Rodriguez, USAID CTO. 
COMMENTS: Estimates for FY 2003 and FY
2004 and FY 2005 may be adjusted in the 
first semester of FY 2003 as the number of 
population and courts in the targeted areas 
varies. This may affect our year projection
Tracking 
14,397 
 
Number of Congressional sponsored Constituent Service Offices established by 
epartment. 
INDICATOR: 
D
YEAR PLANNED ACTUAL 
CY 1999 
(Baseline) 1 2 
CY 2000 3 
3 
CY 2001 4 3 
FY 2002 5 3 
FY 2003 3 
4 
UNIT OF MEASURE: Number of Departmental 
Offices. 
SOURCE: Legislative Assembly. 
INDICATOR/DESCRIPTION: A Departmental 
Constituents Service Office is a new outreach 
mechanism for Congressional representatives to 
have more direct contact with their constituents
A Service Office is staffed and paid for by the 
ational Assembly and must have at lea
. 
st one 
total of 14 departments in El 
orts, reports from the Legislative 
REQUENCY/SCHEDULE OF DATA 
: 
tee) and 
ress 
lists and may be more beholden to 
olitical party structures than to citizens they 
 target of five Offices was extended out to 
FY 2004 5 3 
N
scheduled visit per month by Deputies. 
There are a 
Salvador.
METHOD OF DATA COLLECTION: 
Creative Associates Inc. (U.S. Grantee), 
Grantee rep
Assembly. 
F
COLLECTION: Annually. 
RESPONSIBLE FOR DATA COLLECTION
Creative Associates Inc. (U.S. Gran
Mauricio Herrera, USAID CTO. 
COMMENTS: This indicator assists in capturing
the progress of participation of civil society and 
civil society organizations in the legislative 
process. This is especially important when taking 
into account that Deputies are elected to Cong
by regional 
p
represent. 
Due to the severe effects of two devastating 
earthquakes in 2001, and its corresponding impact
on the Assembly’s budget, the time to reach the 
overall
2004. 
 
 
INDICATOR: Households in target municipalities receivin arbage and 
final disposition). 
g selected municipal services (g
YEAR P ACTUAL LANNED
CY 1998 
(Baseline) 
27,683 33,516 
CY 1999 42,327 41,723 
CY 2000 47,105 50,082 
CY 2001 51,815 49,043 
FY 2002 56,996 58,771
FY2003 59,358 59,594 
UNIT OF MEASURE: Number of households 
served.
SOURCE: Municipal cadasters; billing data for 
services rendered. 
INDICATOR/DESCRIPTION: Having this 
collection, 
ekly, and disposition in a 
 do not 
eive services; it is known 
of recipients are 
ouseholds. The data at right, therefore, 
present a reasonable, not an exact, count of 
70,742 
service is defined as: regular garbage 
at a minimum once we
landfill. 
METHOD OF DATA COLLECTION: 
Municipal documents. 
FREQUENCY/SCHEDULE OF DATA 
COLLECTION: Annually. 
RESPONSIBLE FOR DATA COLLECTION: 
Research Triangle Institute –RTI (U.S. Contractor) 
and Ana Luz de Mena, USAID CTO. 
COMMENTS: Although municipal records
differentiate between households, businesses, 
schools, etc., that rec
that the vast majority 
h
re
household services. 
FY2004 60,025 
SELECTED FOR REPORTING IN THE ANNUAL REPORT. 
INTER
 
MEDIATE RESULT LEVEL RESULTS: 
RESULT NAME: More politically active advocacy organizations. 
INDICATOR: Significant submissions by Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) coalitions or CSOs to 
the legislature and other GOES authorities.
YEAR PLANNED ACTUAL 
CY 1999 
(Baseline) 0 0 
CY 2000 2 2 
CY 2001 6 6 
FY 2002 11 15 
FY 2003 
16 22 
FY 2004 21 444
UNIT OF MEASURE: Cumulative Number. 
SOURCE: Creative Associates Inc. (U.S. 
ES 
S autonomous agencies, 
OES regional directors and members of the 
es Inc. (U.S. Grantee) 
F DATA 
tee) and 
sed as 
ram under 
 the first semester will 
 reported. 
 
FY 2005* 23 60 
Grantee).
INDICATOR/DESCRIPTION: “Significant 
submissions“ are defined as a draft bills/laws, 
position/policy papers, proposals or relevant 
studies. “Decision makers” are defined as GO
ministers, heads of GOE
G
Legislative Assembly. 
METHOD OF DATA COLLECTION: 
 Creative Associat
& CSO reports. 
FREQUENCY/SCHEDULE O
COLLECTION: Annually. 
RESPONSIBLE FOR DATA COLLECTION:
Creative Associates Inc. (U.S. Gran
Mauricio Herrera, USAID CTO. 
COMMENTS: A US Organization will be u
an umbrella organization to implement all 
activities contemplated under the Citizen 
Participation and Governance Results Package, 
including the civil society advocacy prog
a Cooperative Agreement. 
* In FY 2005, only data for
be
SELECTED FOR REPORTING IN THE ANNUAL REPORT. 
 
4
 The number of Significant Submissions for FY2004 is 8, however, there was a miscalculation in the past which 
lead to sub estimate the cumulative number by 14 submissions that were not taken into account which are now 
reflected in FY2004. 
 
RESULT NAME: More Politically Active Advocacy Organizations. 
INDICATOR: Legislative committees holding at least one public hearing per year.
YEAR PLANNED ACTUAL 
CY 1999 
(Baseline) 0 0 
CY 2000 1 1 
CY 2001 5 6 
FY 2002 8 
6 
FY 2003 
9 9 
FY 2004 10 12 
UNIT OF MEASURE: Number. 
SOURCE: Legislative Assembly.
INDICATOR/DESCRIPTION: A “public 
hearing” is defined as a committee meeting 
announced by the Legislative Assembly at which 
citizens may submit input or testimony. The 
announcement may be done in any newspaper, 
radio spots, newsletter or WebPages. The 
numbers at right should be read as “the number 
f committees that held at least one public 
otal of 14 standing legislative 
eda 
F DATA 
reative Associates Inc. (U.S. Grantee) and 
, USAID CTO. 
 only data for the first semester will 
 reported. 
 FY 2005* 6 3 
o
meeting.” 
There are a t
committees. 
METHOD OF DATA COLLECTION: 
Files kept by Assembly/Dr. Armando Pin
Navas, Manager. Assembly records. 
FREQUENCY/SCHEDULE O
COLLECTION: Annually. 
RESPONSIBLE FOR DATA COLLECTION:
C
Mauricio Herrera
COMMENTS: 
* In FY 2005,
be
SELECTED FOR REPORTING IN THE ANNUAL REPORT. 
 
 
ESULT NAME: More Effective Electoral Administration. 
 
R
INDICATOR: Eligible voters with valid documents. 
YEAR PLANNED ACTUAL 
CY 2000 
(Baseline) 
N/A 0 
CY 2001 1,500,000 108,451 
FY 2002 3,000,000 1,950,000 
UNIT OF MEASURE: Cumulative Number. 
SOURCE: National Registry (RNPN) data.
INDICATOR/DESCRIPTION: Eligible people are 
defined as those 18 years old or older. Eighteen is 
the legal age to obtain the Documento Unico de 
Identidad (DUI) or single-identity card and to vote. 
r the number of people with the DUI; 
ses the 1992 Census to project the number of 
F DATA 
 –RNPN 
e 
is 
at the DUI will be used as the eligible 
oting document in the March 2004 Presidential 
e 
ng out of electoral related 
that time. 
 
FY 2003 
 
3,300,000 3,291,564 
METHOD OF DATA COLLECTION: 
RNPN reports fo
u
eligible people. 
FREQUENCY/SCHEDULE O
COLLECTION: Annually. 
RESPONSIBLE FOR DATA COLLECTION: 
The Registro Nacional de Personas Naturales
and Mauricio Herrera, USAID CTO. 
COMMENTS: As of November 1, 2002, the DUI will 
be the only official identity document; however, due 
to delays in the initial emission of the DUI, the 
traditional voter registration card will be used for th
March 2003 legislative and mayoral elections. It 
planned th
v
elections. 
This indicator will be tracked only into FY 2003 as th
Mission plans on phasi
activities at 
 
 
RESULT NAME: Strengthened Local Government. 
INDICATOR: Number of municipalities with formerly established and operating community 
oversight committees. 
YEAR PLANNED ACTUAL 
CY 2001 
(Baseline) 2 2 
FY 2002 4 9 
FY 2003 12 13 
UNIT OF MEASURE: Cumulative number. 
SOURCE: Research Triangle Institute –RTI 
d by 
LLECTION: RTI and 
F DATA 
year 
easure the extent of greater transparency 
 public management.
 
FY 2004 15 17
(U.S. Contractor) and municipalities. 
INDICATOR/DESCRIPTION: A community 
oversight committee is formerly establishe
a municipal ordinance. To be considered 
operating, it must meet at a minimum bi￾monthly and keep acts of their meetings. 
METHOD OF DATA CO
municipal reports. 
 
FREQUENCY/SCHEDULE O
COLLECTION: Annually. 
RESPONSIBLE FOR DATA COLLECTION: 
RTI and Ana Luz de Mena, USAID CTO. 
COMMENTS: Data is collected by fiscal 
and FY 2001 is the baseline. 
This indicator is being used as a proxy to 
m
in
 
 
RESULT NAME: Strengthened local government. 
INDICATOR: Locally generated funds/revenue in targeted municipalities. 
YEAR PLANNED ACTUAL 
CY 1996 
(Baseline) 
N/A 3,934,490 
 
CY 1997 4,721,388 
 
5,339,288 
CY 1998 6,140,181 6,498,608 
CY 1999 7,478,694 7,703,415 
CY 2000 8,716,948 8,512,351 
CY 2001 10,069,355 10,077,142 
FY 2002 11,633,597 10,554,154
FY 2003 14,000,000 1/ 16,204,741 
UNIT OF MEASURE: Total amount in U.S. dollars 
of service fees and local taxes. 
SOURCE: Municipal Accounting/SAFIMU in those 
ets though 1998 is for 
rom 1999 – 2002 targets are based on 28 
F DATA 
.S. Contractor) and Ana Luz de Mena, USAID 
4 
overnments. 
his may affect out year projections. 
FY 2004 16,000,000 1/ 14,131,042 
municipalities that have it. 
INDICATOR/DESCRIPTION: The data at right 
represents the total amount of revenue generated
from local fees and local taxes combined each 
year. Information and targ
18 target municipalities. 
F
selected municipalities. 
METHOD OF DATA COLLECTION: 
RTI and visit to municipalities. 
FREQUENCY/SCHEDULE O
COLLECTION: Annually. 
RESPONSIBLE FOR DATA COLLECTION: 
RTI (U
CTO. 
COMMENTS: Estimates for FY 2003 and FY 200
may be adjusted in the first semester of FY 2003 
as the Mission's local government strengthening 
project plans on graduating several municipalities 
and including some new target local g
T
1/ Metas modificadas por incluir los 15 nuevos municipios. 
recimiento de los ingresos propios se han visto afectado negativamente por: a) El aumento del FODES; b)las campañas 
ectorales de alcaldes 2002 y presidenciales 2003 y c) La disponibilidad de fondos FISDL de concursos que les da más fondos 
donados. 
Los datos para el FY2004 se ven afectados porque solo se contaban con datos a junio/04, proyectándose para el último trimestre 
los mismos del 2003 para ese trimestre. 
NOTA: El c
el
 
RESULT NAME: Strengthened Local Government. 
INDICATOR: Funds allocated for investment in services and infrastructure in target municipalities. 
YEAR PLANNED ACTUAL 
CY 1996 
(Baseline) 
N/A 1,253,343 
CY 1997 3,664,305 1,587,892 
CY 19981 3,675,880 7,390,044 
CY 1999 6,889,538 7,682,483 
CY 2000 10,407,000 9,529,743 
CY 2001 11,660,000 11,534,884 
FY 2002 12,425,000 14,439,153
FY 2003 20,000,000 1/ 26,568,900 
UNIT OF MEASURE: Total amount in U.S. 
dollars (per year) 
SOURCE: Municipal records. 
INDICATOR/DESCRIPTION: This 
indicator monitors funds derived from two 
sources: GOES funds transferred to 
municipalities and funds generated locally by 
LLECTION: 
F DATA 
tractor) and Ana Luz de Mena, 
nt 
cluding some 
ew target local governments. This may 
eceive 6% of 
ational Budget by law. 
FY 2004 25,000,000 1/ 20,071,224 
the municipalities. 
METHOD OF DATA CO
Municipal documents. 
FREQUENCY/SCHEDULE O
COLLECTION: Annually. 
RESPONSIBLE FOR DATA COLLECTION: 
RTI (U.S. Con
USAID CTO. 
COMMENTS: Estimates for FY 2003 and FY 
2004 may be adjusted in the first semester 
of FY 2003 as the Mission's local governme
strengthening project plans on graduating
several municipalities and in
n
affect out year projections. 
1/ Municipalities began to r
N
 
1/ Metas modificadas por incluir los 15 nuevos municipios. 
Los datos para el FY2004 se ven afectados porque solo se contaban con datos a junio/04, proyectándose para el último trimestre 
los mismos del 2004 para ese trimestre. 
 
RESULT NAME: Improved Court Case Preparation and Management. 
INDICATOR: Percent of reduction in average case preparation duration for homicide cases in target 
geographic areas. 
YEAR PLANNED ACTUAL 
FY 2002 
(Baseline) N/A 39.30 days 
(Average) 
FY 2003 3% (38.1 days) 9.8% (35.5 days) 
FY 2004 6% (36.9 days) 10% (35.4 days) 
UNIT OF MEASURE: Cumulative percent 
reduction in the number of days. 
SOURCE: Attorney General’s Office, 
nate, 
n 
. 
nal 
TA COLLECTION: 
ases that apply alternative 
for this indicator is FY 2002. 
Tracking of this indi
2003. 
FY 2005 10% (35.4 days) 
Regional Offices of San Miguel, Sonso
Usulután and Santa Ana. 
INDICATOR/DESCRIPTION: This 
indicator will measure the reduction in the
average time duration (in days) that 
prosecutors take to prepare their homicide 
cases. It will be measured in four target 
geographic areas, in the Departments of Sa
Miguel, Sonsonate, Usulután and Santa Ana
METHOD OF DATA COLLECTION: DPK 
Consulting, Inc. (U.S. Contractor) requests 
specific information from the four regio
offices of the Attorney General’s Office. 
 
FREQUENCY/SCHEDULE OF DATA 
COLLECTION: Annually. 
RESPONSIBLE FOR DA
DPK Consulting, Inc. and Eva Patricia 
Rodríguez, USAID CTO. 
COMMENTS: This indicator only considers 
the cases actually reach the judicial system 
and does not take into consideration the 
number of c
solutions or are closed before reaching the 
court level. 
The baseline 
cator will begin in FY 
11.8% 
(34.7 days) 
SELECTED FOR REPORTING IN THE ANNUAL REPORT. 
 
RESULT NAME: Improved Court Case Preparation and Management. 
INDICATOR: Number of police delegations with adequate communication equipment. 
YEAR PLAN ED N ACTUAL 
CY 2000 
(Baseline) 
7 5 
CY 2001 12 12 
 
FY 2002 18 15 
UNIT OF MEASURE: Number of police 
delegations (cumulative) 
SOURCE: ICITAP reports. 
INDICATOR/DESCRIPTION: Number o
police delegations with portable radios to 
support community-policing programs. 
inimum adequate communication i
f 
s defined 
here are 21 police delegations in El 
LLECTION: PNC 
F DATA 
P and Eva Patricia Rodríguez, USAID 
 
of 1 radio 
this indicator may not be tracked in 
FY 2003. 
FY 2003 21 - 
M
as 1 radio for every 4 officers. 
T
Salvador. 
METHOD OF DATA CO
through ICITAP. 
 
FREQUENCY/SCHEDULE O
COLLECTION: Bi-annually. 
RESPONSIBLE FOR DATA COLLECTION: 
ICITA
CTO. 
COMMENTS: Calculations are based on the 
number of radios provided by the PNC plus
portable radios and parts provided by USAID.
In 2000, it is calculated that the PNC had 
about 1,500 workable patrol type radios. In 
FY 2001, USAID provided 1,000 radios and in
FY 2002, 800 additional radios. In total, the 
PNC needs about 4,500 radios to meet the 
minimum adequate coverage ratio 
for every four officers. 
Depending on Congressional authority to 
allow USAID/El Salvador to continue working 
with the PNC and the community policing 
initiative, 
 
RESULT NAME: Increased Used of the Justice System. 
INDICATOR: Number of Mediation and Justice Centers established. 
YEAR PLANNED ACTUAL 
FY 2002 
(Baseline) 2 2 
FY 2003 4 6 
FY 2004 5 8
UNIT OF MEASURE: Cumulative number of 
Centers. 
SOURCE: Counterpart institutions 
INDICATOR/DESCRIPTION: A Mediat
Center provides mechanisms for alternative 
dispute resolution. Host municipalities 
and/or the P
ion 
ublic Defender’s Office may 
onsor these Centers. A Center is staffed 
terpart 
d 
COMMENTS: Tracking of this indicator 
began in FY 2002. 
FY 2005 7 25 
sp
and paid by for the host country coun
institution. 
METHOD OF DATA COLLECTION: 
Counterpart reports. 
 
FREQUENCY/SCHEDULE OF DATA 
COLLECTION: Annually. 
RESPONSIBLE FOR DATA COLLECTION: 
DPK Consulting, Inc. (U.S. Contractor) an
Eva Patricia Rodríguez, USAID CTO. 
SELECTED FOR REPORTING IN THE ANNUAL REPORT.