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Good practice Imported

MARIA — Honduras's AI Virtual Assistant for Violence-Against-Women Prevention

Honduras · Tegucigalpa · See the Honduras profile · See the Tegucigalpa profile

Evidence: Descriptive / self-reported Top 88% 33/100 · Ask Evidence Copilot about this practice

Honduras's Policía Nacional and Secretaría de Seguridad, with UNDP's Infosegura project, launched MARIA in April 2024 — a free 24/7 AI virtual assistant that has received over 2,000 messages from women, girls and adolescents seeking guidance on gender-based violence.

2,000+ messages
Messages received by MARIA nationwide (April 2024 to mid-2025)
MARIA — Honduras's AI Virtual Assistant for Violence-Against-Women Prevention

Details

Promoter
Secretaría de Seguridad / Policía Nacional de Honduras, with UNDP (Infosegura project) and USAID support
Period
April 2024 – present
Keywords
AI chatbot, gender-based violence prevention, citizen engagement, e-government

Context

In April 2024, Honduras's Secretaría de Seguridad and Policía Nacional, working with the UN Development Programme's regional Infosegura project and national bodies including the National Statistics Institute and the Honduran Youth Institute, launched MARIA (Módulo Automatizado de Atención y Respuesta a la Información) — a free, confidential AI virtual assistant aimed at women, girls and adolescents affected by violence.

Activities

The system operates 24/7 through a dedicated website and mobile-accessible chat, using artificial intelligence to help users identify warning signs of risk, receive legal orientation, and locate available support services and emergency numbers.

Results

By mid-2025, MARIA had received more than 2,000 messages from across the country with questions related to violence against women.

Conclusions

This usage figure comes from official communications rather than an independently audited dataset, and no data has been published on case outcomes, response accuracy, or user satisfaction.

Implementation
Indicative cost
Medium (€50k–€500k)
Time to results
Short (< 1 year)

Commonly funded by

National / regional programmes

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Data sources

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