14 Oct SBAIC Newsletter Highlights ME&A’s Mapping of Central American Migration
ME&A’s work mapping the impact of U.S. foreign assistance on irregular migration from Central America for the U.S. Embassy in El Salvador and US Government missions in El Salvador and Guatemala was recently featured in the Small Business Association for International Companies (SBAIC) newsletter and website.
The newsletter article highlighted how the ME&A-produced Geographic Information Systems (GIS) maps chart the impact of U.S. foreign assistance on some of the root causes of irregular migration, such as gang violence, natural disasters, and economic difficulties. Since the US Government mission in El Salvador Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MELI) initiative began in 2016, its GIS team has produced some 300 maps for the U.S. Embassy and US Government missions in El Salvador and Guatemala related to migration along with other issues, such as remittances, environmental management, and COVID-19 and natural disaster relief.
The article includes a quote from Randal Thompson, Ph.D, MELI Chief of Party, on how GIS, data, and digital technologies are a game changer for US Government missions in making data-driven decisions. It also includes a quote on GIS training and tools for collecting georeferenced data for mapping from Ricky Perez, who serves as a GIS specialist for MELI and as a member of ME&A’s Digital Technologies and Research Unit (DTRU).
The SBAIC article goes on to discuss MELI’s performance monitoring, verification, and evaluation support work for US Government mission in El Salvador and how, upon request, MELI also provides US Government missions similar services in Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, and Nicaragua. This approach maximizes US Government missions resources in addressing issues requiring collaboration across countries. Six of the ME&A-led initiative’s 31 performance monitoring, evaluation, and assessment activities so far have been for Guatemala, Mexico, and Nicaragua.
ME&A implements the five-year MELI initiative for the US Government mission in El Salvador. ME&A’s team provides US Government mission in El Salvador and other missions in the region continued performance monitoring, verification, GIS services, and evaluation support to measure program impact, results, and achievements. US Government mission in El Salvador awarded ME&A the MELI task order in 2016 under the Policy, Planning and Learning-Learning, Evaluation and Research (PPL-LER) IDIQ Contract to provide evaluation, monitoring, and assessment services for US Government missions and offices worldwide.
SBAIC is a membership organization established to promote the meaningful utilization of U.S. small businesses at U.S. government agencies providing foreign assistance, such US Government missions; the Millennium Challenge Corporation; Overseas Private Investment Corporation; and the U.S. Departments of State, Defense, Health and Human Services, and Agriculture.