Opportunities for youth development.

According to the study titled “Public Investment in the Young”, carried out by the Central American Fiscal Studies Institute (ICEFI) in Guatemala, per capita daily public investment in young people is equivalent to USD 0.36 (36 cents). This amount is considered an insufficient response to the serious difficulties and needs faced by this population segment. The reach of the Technical Training and Productivity Institute (INTECAP) is minimal in relation to the number of youths for whom training would mean access to an opportunity in the job market. In addition to tuition costs, the option is in practice inaccessible for the neediest. Analysts have pointed out that there is no programme in support of juvenile entrepreneurship at the Ministry of Economy.

The foregoing means the young are not being provided the required opportunities by which to support their personal, family and community development. This may well contribute to situations in which adolescents and young adults have few expectations they will be able to improve their lives. This makes them more prone to join street gangs, and as decent jobs are virtually non-existent, it is easy to slide into delinquency as a means of acquiring resources on which to survive. Opportunities to develop are scarcest in rural areas.