Crime and violence remain a key development challenge for Central American countries. In the three northern triangle countries – El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras – crime rates are among the highest in Latin America and the world. 
At the community and individual level, crime and violence cause severe emotional and physical trauma; at the macro level, they impede sustainable economic growth and undermine citizen support for democratic stability.  
Analysis and understanding of crime and violence data at the country and at the regional level needs improvement. It is difficult to find reliable and comparable crime and violence statistics that can generate meaningful citizen security analysis and policy recommendations. Accurate, reliable and timely information is vital to effective decision-making. 
Furthermore, although there is a strong body of civil society organizations across the region that champion policy change and strategies, most are uncoordinated efforts, and little has been done to empower civil society organizations to constructively provide independent diagnosis and policy recommendations.    
The overall purpose of InfoSegura is to strengthen evidence-based policy making, and increase regional coordination and collaboration on effective citizen security strategies. InfoSegura supports crime prevention initiatives in the Central American region through two components: 1) Data management, which aims at improving the capacity of governments and civil society organizations in the collection, monitoring, systematization, and analysis of crime data at the national and regional level; and 2) increasing regional collaboration and networking to strengthen civil society’s capacity to engage at a regional level, and promote the exchange of expertise, evidence-based tools, best practices and successful models on citizen security issues.