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15 
 

 

For a Government that Works: ASJ’s Theory of 

Change, with a Case Study of Their Efforts in 

Education 
 

Carlos Hernández, Roland Hoksbergen, 
Katerina Parsons, and Kurt Ver Beek 

 

 
The Asociación para una Sociedad más Justa (ASJ) is a Christian, Honduran NGO that fights 

corruption and works to ensure that the Honduran government functions well for the benefit and well-

being of all Hondurans, especially the marginalized and vulnerable.  The paper begins by explaining 

ASJ’s theory of change and how it applies pressure and provides support to the government in bringing 

about more just outcomes for the general population of Honduras.  The paper proceeds to a case 

study of ASJ’s work in public education and explains how, over the last decade, ASJ has been 

instrumental in bringing about transformational improvements in hiring practices, number of class 

days, and overall institutional integrity in the Ministry of Education.    

 

 
 

Introduction 

 
The Central American country of Honduras faces 

numerous challenges, including one of the highest 

homicide rates in the world, generalized insecurity, and 

some of the highest rates of poverty and inequality in 

the Americas (World Bank n.d.). In response, foreign 

aid and both local and international nonprofits have 

invested in job creation, violence prevention, and the 

provision of services in such areas as health, education, 

and agriculture. Underlying these challenges, however, is 

a deeper, more insidious pair of issues – corruption and 

weak governance. Between 2014 and 2018, the 

percentage of Hondurans stating that corruption was 

the principal problem facing the country more than 

tripled from 5.8% to 17.1%, and while a majority of 

Hondurans found insecurity to be the most pressing 

issue, 32.7% of those surveyed believed that corruption 

was the primary cause of the nation’s violence 

(IUDPAS 2019).
1

  
 

 

Transparency International’s Corruption 

Perception Index ranks Honduras in the bottom third 

                                                        
1

 42.8% felt the principal problem in Honduras was insecurity, down from 70.5% in 2014. In 2018, 38.2% stated it was the 

economy, a significant increase from 25.3% in 2016.  
2

 La Asociación para una Sociedad más Justa (ASJ) has a U.S. affiliate called the Association for a More Just Society (AJS-US), 

which is largely dedicated to fundraising and supporting ASJ in Honduras. The acronym ASJ is used throughout this paper to refer 

exclusively to work done by the Honduran organization. For more information, see www.ajs-us.org/who-we-are/partnership. 

of the world its annual ranking of countries’ corruption 

(Transparency International), which reflects deeply 

entrenched failure in Honduras’ public systems of 

health, education, security, justice, infrastructure, and 

others. A study by the Central American Institute of 

Financial Studies found that in just a few major, 

emblematic cases of corruption, the country had lost 

$367 million, equivalent to 4.3% of the country’s GDP, 

35% of the Ministry of Education’s budget, or 70% of 

the budget of the Ministry of Health (“La Corrupción” 

2017).  

Despite the importance of corruption to the daily 

lives of so many Hondurans, few civil society 

organizations in Honduras address the topic, and 

Christian organizations that do are exceedingly rare. 

The Association for a More Just Society (in Spanish, la 

Asociación para una Sociedad más Justa, or ASJ), 

however, is a Christian organization focused around the 

idea of “making government systems work” through 

denouncing corruption and supporting the 

implementation of systemic government reforms.
 2

   

ASJ was founded in Honduras in 1998 by a group 

of friends, four Hondurans and two North Americans, 

https://www.ajs-us.org/www.ajs-us.org/who-we-are/partnership


Christian Relief, Development, and Advocacy 1(1),  summer 2019  

16 
 

who were frustrated by the limitations of their work in 

charity and development. They felt their interventions, 

though helping certain individuals, were doing little to 

tackle the corrupt, unjust government systems that were 

behind much of the country’s suffering. The founders 

wanted to work directly on improving the institutions 

that most affect the majority of people in Honduras, 

including public health, public education, and public 

security. From this goal came the mission “to be brave 

Christians dedicated to making Honduras’ system of 

laws and government work and be just for the poorest 

and most vulnerable of Honduran society” (ASJ 

website). 

ASJ works in vulnerable communities in 

Honduras’ capital city, work that helps them to 

understand the population’s interests and needs.  Its 

focus, however, is principally on a structural level, as it 

seeks incremental changes in the country’s most 

essential public systems. ASJ believes that this is one of 

the most effective and far-reaching strategies for helping 

the poor and marginalized. As ASJ works to build up 

the Honduran state’s capacity for effective governance 

and institutional accountability, it helps improve the 

population’s access to quality health, education, 

infrastructure, and other crucial public services, and 

contribute to safer lives and better opportunities for the 

population. In doing so, ASJ helps to build a more just 

society, one that serves all its citizens with competence 

and justice.  
At its heart, ASJ is a Christian organization, whose 

unstated mission is to evangelize the church to reclaim 

the justice aspect of their faith and to live it out as “brave 

Christians” focused on protecting those on the margins 

of society. ASJ consistently and publicly claims their 

Christian identity, while also unmasking corruption, 

working in violent and dangerous neighborhoods, and 

denouncing and pressuring government to do what is 

right for its people. These are very high-risk and 

uncommon Christian pursuits. This public 

proclamation of faith, backed up by concrete actions, 

allows ASJ to witness to Christians and non-Christians 

alike, modeling an active faith that is concerned not 

only with people’s eternal souls but also with their 

earthly well-being. 

This paper begins by describing ASJ’s theory of 

change. From a foundation of solid research and 

trusting relationships, ASJ both pressures and supports 

government institutions, contributing to reforms that 

make the country safer and more just. ASJ has led 

reforms in several major Honduran institutions, but to 

explain more fully how ASJ’s strategy works in practice, 

we will focus on ASJ’s work in public education. Over 

a period of eight years, ASJ played a major role in taking 

the education sector from a period of chaos and 

anarchy (Cerna 2014) in 2010 to a new era of public 

education in which students attend school more than 

200 days a year, teachers no longer buy teaching 

positions, and citizens are increasingly empowered to 

ensure quality education in their local schools. The 

paper closes by drawing together some key lessons from 

ASJ’s two decades of experience in ensuring that the 

government functions more as it should.  

 

Making Systems Work: ASJ’s  

Theory of Change 

 
With work grounded both in personal relationships 

and solid research, ASJ pressures the Honduran 

government to eliminate corruption and to make the 

reforms necessary to provide quality services to the 

population. ASJ employs three main strategies to apply 

this pressure.  One is speaking out through Honduran 

media, which brings important topics to light and 

informs the general public about corruption, 

negligence, and failures of public systems. A second is 

to mobilize organizations and civil society groups 

towards informed action, and a third is to make use of 

government systems themselves, bringing legal cases 

against violent offenders or government officials 

accused of illegal actions. All three strategies draw 

negative attention to problems in the government and 

incentivize government officials to change.  

The pressure ASJ applies on government agencies 

is similar to that utilized by other advocacy 

organizations, from the ACLU to Amnesty 

International to any number of smaller lobbying 

groups. What is unique about ASJ is that it doesn’t limit 

itself to calling the government to account; it also offers 

to help, first by suggesting viable solutions, and then by 

working alongside the government to implement those 

solutions. ASJ’s theory of change is summarized in 

Figure 1, with each component of the strategy described 

in further detail below. 

 
 

 

 

 

 



Christian Relief, Development, and Advocacy 1(1),  summer 2019  

17 
 

ASJ’s Strategy for Improving Government Performance  

 

 
This work is complicated, and when it touches 

powerful interests, it can be controversial and 

dangerous. Threats of physical harm to ASJ staff are 

common.  For many reasons, it is much easier to open 

a private school than to reform the whole public 

education system. Nonetheless, it has always been 

ASJ’s goal to strengthen government systems that serve 

everyone – not to create parallel systems that benefit a 

few. This philosophy is both practical and hopeful; 

practical because ASJ works within systems that 

currently exist, and hopeful because ASJ believes that 

the reforms it advocates can make a big difference in 

the lives of millions. 

 

The foundation: research and relationships 
 

ASJ’s work has been strongly influenced by the 

living situation of its co-founders, who chose in the 

organization’s early years to move from the suburbs of 

Tegucigalpa, the Honduran capital, to one of its 

marginalized barrios, a settlement that at the time was 

one of the city’s most dangerous neighborhoods. Living 

alongside Hondurans who were most affected by 

limited state resources greatly influenced ASJ directors’ 

understanding of which interventions would do the 

most good. This experience shaped one of ASJ’s 

central values, the importance of relationships. As an 

organization that works in defense of the poorest and 

most vulnerable, they feel they must know the poor and 

vulnerable intimately, and understand the way they live, 

the things they value, and the potential they have. 

Relationships with civil society allies and members of 

government have also been crucial to how ASJ works. 

Even though ASJ focuses on systems, they understand 

that those systems are made up of individuals, and 

knowing their motivations and goals is essential to 

advocacy and implementation of reforms.  

Complementing their emphasis on relationships is 

ASJ’s insistence on careful, detailed research. Advocacy 

falters when reports of corruption are dismissed as nothing 

more than opinion. ASJ therefore seeks out evidence 

that identifies, among other things, budget shortfalls, 

collusion, corruption, and weakness in government 

systems. It also works to present this information in a 

way that is clear and accessible, not just by politicians or 

experts, but by the general population. Research-based 

advocacy is not only convincing, it is also productive, as 

it offers an analysis of what went wrong as well as 

reasonable solutions.  

 

Applying pressure 

 

Research and relationships allow ASJ to identify 

needed reforms, which must then be followed up with 

action. Unsurprisingly, those who benefit from 

corruption have little interest in addressing it, especially 

when doing so is tacit acknowledgement of their own 

corruption or weakness. Even government officials who 

are not corrupt may feel powerless to bring about 

change. To counteract this stasis, ASJ tries to make it 

attractive for government officials to lead reforms rather 

than accept the status quo. 

As shown in Figure 2, ASJ found they could shift 

the cost-benefit scale through legal action and public 

media campaigns, especially if they were in alliance with 

other civil society organizations. Furthermore, broader 

social movements that raise awareness about injustice 

can tip the balance for politicians concerned about 

public perception and their own prospects for 

reelection. ASJ effectively uses all three of these 

methods to pressure the Honduran government to 

make reforms.

Figure 1: ASJ’s strategy utilizes both negative pressure and positive support to encourage and assist government 

agencies in the implementation of needed changes 



Christian Relief, Development, and Advocacy 1(1),  summer 2019  

18 
 

 

 
Figure 2: ASJ works through three parallel strategies to generate pressure that encourages the government to change  

 
Legal action  

 

Honduras has many good laws, but they are not 

enforced consistently. When ASJ brings criminal 

reports or corruption cases to the courts and ensures 

that they are heard and appropriately processed, they 

not only achieve justice in certain individual cases, but 

also demonstrate that the public system can indeed 

bring justice. 

Sometimes ASJ’s legal work directly implicates 

economic or political elites in acts of corruption. For 

example, ASJ released a report in 2015 demonstrating 

that the government had purchased medicine for 

children with malnutrition that had only four of the 

eleven required ingredients (“Astropharma intenta” 

2015). Deeper investigation uncovered that the 

offending medicine company, Astropharma, was 

owned by Lena Gutierrez, Vice-President of Congress, 

and several of her family members (“Lena Gutiérrez y 

sus parientes” 2015). ASJ’s investigators went deeper 

and found evidence not just of poor-quality medicines 

but of abuse of power – the same year Gutierrez joined 

Congress, the size of her family’s company government 

contracts increased over 100-fold (“Sin participación 

activa” 2011). 

This report resulted in the Honduran Supreme 

Court issuing an arrest warrant, and in June 2015, 

Gutierrez and three other members of her family were 

arrested (“Arresto domiciliario” 2015). The pressure 

that ASJ was able to exert through legal action not only 

stopped Astropharma’s illegal and unsafe dealings with 

the government, it put dozens of other medical 

companies on notice that they were being watched and 

that the consequences of corruption could be serious.  

While undeniably effective, such legal work is 

extremely unpopular with the powerful people it 

                                                        
3

 Data from Seproc, an independent media monitoring company: https://seproc.hn. Seproc provides this and other information to 

ASJ in weekly emails.  

targets, which makes it dangerous. After they went on 

record making accusations against the Gutierrez family, 

ASJ was threatened with legal action, and their 

executive director, Carlos Hernández, received 

multiple threats against his life. Such threats are 

common at ASJ. In 2006, on the road to a court 

hearing, Dionisio Díaz García, one of ASJ’s lawyers, 

was assassinated (AJS, “Dionisio” n.d.). In 2016, a 

board member was the target of an assassination 

attempt, resulting in the death of a bodyguard (AJS 

“AJS Condemns” 2016). Today, ASJ directors receive 

a constant barrage of threats against themselves and 

their families. They are not surprised by this. As 

founder Kurt Ver Beek says, “if you are not making 

people mad, you are probably not doing justice work” 

(Ver Beek 2018a). 

 

Media campaigns 
 

When ASJ cannot bring government officials to 

court, sometimes they can still bring them to the “court 

of public opinion,” generating awareness, 

accountability, and demand from the general public to 

promote positive change. 

There is a television in almost every Honduran 

house, and if not, a radio. As ASJ works on getting their 

messages into public debate and onto the national 

agenda, they take advantage of public media, one of 

their most effective tools for mass communication. In 

2017 alone, ASJ appeared in Honduran media 4,400 

times.
 3

ASJ’s Director of Advocacy is quoted an average 

of six times per day. Each of these appearances is an 

opportunity to impact the national dialogue, and 

influence government institutions. 

One example of this sort of campaign occurred in 

2015, after ASJ, together with a broader coalition of 

https://seproc.hn/


Christian Relief, Development, and Advocacy 1(1),  summer 2019  

19 
 

organizations, released a groundbreaking study 

analyzing impunity rates for homicides in Honduras. 

The study, which looked at homicides that had 

occurred between 2010 and 2012, reported that only 

4% of homicides in Honduras had resulted in a 

conviction; the remaining 96% remained in impunity 

(ASJ “Estudio sobre Impunidad”). ASJ organized a 

campaign “Overturn Impunity” (“Dale Vuelta a la 

Impunidad”), that invited individuals and organizations 

to film a simple video of them turning their hand over 

and speaking out against Honduras’ abysmal conviction 

rates.  

Prominent organizations and ASJ supporters in 

Honduras and the United States made dozens of 

videos, and the statistic decrying “96% impunity” 

became a major talking point in both Honduran and 

international media. People had already been asking 

why so few cases were being reported to the police, and 

why so few court cases resulted in convictions. This 

statistic gave people a concrete metric to discuss and 

compare internationally, resulting in more targeted and 

specific advocacy.  

Since this campaign, ASJ has been able to lead 

reforms specifically designed to reduce impunity rates. 

The reform of court management models, for example, 

which is described in the next section, increased case 

clearance in one court by 73%. One driver of openness 

for this sort of technical assistance is public support, and 

the media remains one of the best ways to inform and 

rally the public around these big goals.  

 

Social movements 
 

Awareness-building through the media is an 

important first step, but the likelihood of real change is 

greatly enhanced if public awareness leads to a social 

movement demanding change. As ASJ works towards 

an active, engaged public that holds government 

accountable, they empower communities to know their 

rights and responsibilities as citizens, and to lead 

coalitions of organizations in advocating change. 

Working in local communities, ASJ first identifies 

people affected by injustice, and then connects them 

with people who can help change their situation. As the 

movement grows, ASJ leads trainings for community 

members that teach individuals both how government 

systems are supposed to work and trains them in the 

actions they can take to hold these systems accountable. 

Once community members are aware of how the 

system can work, they are more likely to expect that it 

will, and to organize when it does not.  

ASJ leads community members in monitoring and 

auditing their local public schools and public health 

centers, documenting weaknesses, demanding change, 

and ensuring that the government continues to function 

after changes are made. Reports by community 

members become powerful tools in the maintenance of 

effective public services. Such social movements and 

their empowered citizens come to form a “bridge of 

trust” between populations who have learned not to 

trust the government and the government, which all too 

often has not been deserving of that trust.  

In their efforts to foster social movements, ASJ 

works directly with individuals in communities, but also 

invites other organized groups to join them. ASJ has led 

the creation of several coalitions that greatly strengthen 

the impact of their work. In 2009, ASJ helped organize 

a coalition of development organizations, Protestant 

and Catholic churches, and other groups to create 

“Let’s Transform Honduras,” a coalition advocating for 

improved education and health services. In 2012, ASJ 

launched the “Alliance for Peace and Justice” (APJ) to 

advocate for changes in Honduras’ security and justice 

sectors. 

This second alliance was born out of dissatisfaction 

with the deeply corrupt law enforcement system. In 

2011, uniformed police officers, in an attempted 

carjacking, murdered the son of the President of the 

National University, Julieta Castellanos. ASJ joined 

Castellanos, and, along with other influential 

organizations, like the National University, World 

Vision, the National Fellowship of Protestant 

Churches, and the development arm of the Catholic 

Church, lifted their voices to protest police violence and 

impunity. For years, the APJ refused to let police 

corruption be ignored. They carried out studies to 

better understand violence in Honduras, organized 

marches, press conferences, and events, and sat in 

meetings with members of Congress. All this work paid 

off when, in 2016, four members of APJ, two of whom 

were ASJ staff, were invited to lead the process of 

cleaning up and reforming the National Police. This has 

been a multi-year effort that resulted in more than 5,100 

suspect officers being fired, multiple prison sentences, 

and ultimately, a stronger, more effective police force 

(BID n.d.). 

The credibility and breadth of the organizations 

and institutions in these coalitions reinforce the 

importance of ASJ’s work and carry their messages 

even further, paving the way for dramatic reforms in 

public institutions. Informed by their experience with 

individuals, and accompanied by other organizations, 

ASJ has been able to channel social movements into 

successful reform.  

 

From pressure to support 

 

Unlike other organizations that engage in advocacy 

or organize citizens to protest and demand change, ASJ 

takes the addition step of supporting the government in 

its work. This strategy has become a unique and 

essential complement to ASJ’s advocacy work. In 



Christian Relief, Development, and Advocacy 1(1),  summer 2019  

20 
 

addition to demanding change, ASJ offers the support 

of technically competent staff to help the government 

design, implement, and monitor institutional change. 

As in its advocacy work, ASJ’s proposals and assistance 

are based on irrefutable research that facilitates the 

preparation of practical and technically sound 

proposals.  

In ASJ’s early days, nearly all its actions were public 

critiques that pressured the government to change. 

Over time, as ASJ continued to take cases public, always 

supported by good research, solid evidence, and 

practical solutions, their credibility increased to the 

point where government institutions began to seek its 

advice directly. This shift to supporting, and not just 

denouncing, was not simply opportunistic. ASJ 

discovered that it was often more effective to address 

problems through collaborative engagement than 

through public shaming that generated outrage but 

could also burn bridges with the people ultimately 

responsible for carrying out desired reforms.  

For their part, government officials’ motivations for 

seeking out ASJ’s help are not purely selfless. They face 

constant pressure to protect their reputation, and 

openness to transparency reflects well on them at 

election time. Indeed, ASJ found some government 

leaders who were genuinely disturbed by corruption in 

their institutions and welcomed ASJ’s help to identify 

and implement concrete improvements. They needed 

fresh ideas, and they were happy to have the support of 

the public as they worked to overcome internal 

resistance to change.  

One of the benefits of collaboration is that 

government institutions often provide access to their 

internal data, statistics, processes, and protocols. 

Sometimes such openness comes as a result of public 

pressure, but in other cases it is the result of ASJ 

showing institutions their willingness to put in the work 

to help them improve. Figure 3 illustrates how 

relationships and research inform proposals for 

improvement, the implementation of those proposals, 

and ongoing government oversight to hold authorities 

responsible for continual improvement.  

 

Supporting Government: Proposals, 

Technical Support, and Oversight 

 
Ideally, when the government cooperates, ASJ 

moves through the following four steps, reflected in 

Figure 3. First, ASJ diagnoses the problem through 

careful research. Second, ASJ recommends proposals 

for improvement. Third, it offers consulting expertise 

for the implementation of the plans, including 

determining budgets, management and accountability 

structures, and identifying necessary resources and 

funding. Finally, once a reform is implemented, ASJ 

offers oversight, monitoring progress to ensure the 

government continues to improve its service delivery to 

all Hondurans. Let’s consider each of these areas in 

more detail. 

 

 
 

 
Figure 3: ASJ collaborates with government institutions to help them implement reforms 

 

 
  



Christian Relief, Development, and Advocacy 1(1),  summer 2019  

21 
 

Research and analysis: When a government agency 

agrees to collaborate with ASJ, the first step is to create 

a detailed “baseline report” that identifies opportunities 

for improvement and serves as a benchmark against 

which to measure anticipated progress.  

In 2014, for example, ASJ signed a 

groundbreaking three-part agreement with the 

Honduran government and Transparency 

International, an international anti-corruption 

organization for which ASJ serves as Honduras’ 

chapter. This agreement authorizes ASJ to carry out 

audits of seven major government institutions, 

evaluating them by their compliance with legal and 

administrative standards for purchases, public 

contracts, human resources, and the management of 

statistical information.  

These detailed analyses, crafted after revising tens 

of thousands of pages of documentation and hundreds 

of hours of interviews, often uncover irregularities, 

inefficiencies, and occasionally, blatant instances of 

corruption. The baseline report assesses both 

transparency and effectiveness. In this preliminary 

study, public institutions have scored, on average, just 

33%.
 4

 Among the anomalies the studies have 

uncovered are “ghost” employees who never show up 

to work, restrictive calls for bids that prevent 

competition for million-dollar government contracts, 

and vehicles purchased with public money that end up 

in the homes of public officials – all instances of 

corruption that, together, take millions of dollars away 

from essential government services. Making such 

accusations is a serious matter, which makes it vital to 

have carefully documented evidence and a deep 

understanding of the law before making any findings 

public. 

 

Proposals for improvement: Once it completes the 

study, ASJ presents its findings publicly, often in a 

media event, typically accompanied by government 

leaders. At the same event, ASJ and government 

officials present their collaboratively designed 

improvement plans. While ASJ findings are often not 

favorable, they come as no surprise to government 

officials, with whom the findings have already been 

shared. The government is thus presented with a brief 

window during which they have the opportunity to 

create a plan, in collaboration with ASJ, to address 

deficiencies in their institution. This is no mere face-

saving formality. ASJ obtains signatures and a public 

                                                        
4

 Scores are calculated based on the compliance of Honduran government entities with legal requirements, protocols, and 

procedures in the area of Purchases and Contracts, Human Resources, and Statistics-based Management. ASJ research staff, with 

input from Ministry officials, compile a list of indicators for each of the three research areas. They then request and analyze 

information to determine compliance. For example, ASJ staff may request payroll documentation, and make in situ visits to verify 

whether employees on payroll actually show up to work. Compliance with these indicators is calculated, and the percentage of 

standards the institution meets is the overall score.  

commitment from the institution to be held 

accountable to specific, measurable improvements. 

The theme of the event is thus hope for the future, not 

scandal from the past. 

ASJ’s intention is not to disgrace or shame the 

ministers who cooperate with it to collect often-

damaging information about their institutions. Instead, 

though ASJ highlights instances of corruption, it also 

points out institutional strengths, and give ministers the 

opportunity to commit publicly to improvement. Many 

public officials have responded well to this strategy. 

Seeing that ASJ is not necessarily hostile towards them, 

they are open to work with ASJ to implement 

constructive reforms. 

 

Implementation of reforms: In ASJ’s supportive work 

with government, it finds that the will to improve is 

often not the only barrier to structural improvement. 

True, some government institutions resist change 

because the benefits from a corrupt status quo outweigh 

the costs. But others are willing to change, if only they 

had the resources, training, and technical expertise they 

need. The commitment to address these latter 

challenges sets ASJ apart from many advocacy and anti-

corruption institutions. Many NGOs critique the 

government, but few work actively to implement 

reforms. 

One example of ASJ’s work first proposing and 

then supporting the implementation of reforms can be 

seen in the implementation of new management 

models for Honduran courts. In 2015, ASJ signed an 

agreement with the Honduran Attorney General’s 

office committing to offer technical support to the 

judicial body in areas of investigation, transparency, 

accountability, access to information, and the 

protection of human rights. The heart of this agreement 

was a four-year strategic plan that included the 

implementation of a results-based management model. 

In 2016, this management model was piloted in the  

Special Court for Common Crimes in Tegucigalpa. 

This court was chosen for the pilot because of the large 

quantity of cases it received – approximately 20% of all 

cases processed by the Attorney General’s office. By 

December 2016, ASJ had carried out a careful 

diagnosis that resulted in a structural reorganization of 

employee responsibilities and job descriptions, case 

management strategy, assignment, and filing protocols, 

and even its physical space. As a result, the court 

adopted changes in administration, human resources, 



Christian Relief, Development, and Advocacy 1(1),  summer 2019  

22 
 

and customer service, resulting in more criminal 

reports processed, more trials, and, ultimately, a 

reduction in impunity See figure 4).  

Criminal reports had previously taken between five 

and seven days to be assigned to an attorney. With the 

implementation of a new ticket system, this was reduced 

to an average of 38 hours. In addition, the creation of 

an Early Response Unit increased the number of 

resolved cases by 73%, resulting in as many as 70 

additional processed cases per month.  

In addition to resolving a greater number of cases, 

new management models also eliminated certain 

possibilities for corruption. Under previous 

 

  

 

 

management, individuals who brought a case to the 

Attorney General’s office would know weeks before 

which judges had been assigned to their case, giving 

them an opportunity to approach judges in an attempt 

to illicitly influence their decision. Under the new 

structure, neither the plaintiff nor the judge is aware of 

case assignment until the day of the trial, bringing more 

transparency and objectivity to the legal process. 

ASJ’s work with Honduran courts and the Ministry 

of Education, described in the second half of this paper, 

are two examples of how ASJ accompanies the 

Honduran government in the implementation of more 

transparent and efficient management structures. ASJ 

has found that its willingness to volunteer its time and 

other resources to support the government as they 

implement these changes can be the difference between 

a reformed institution and simply a chastened one.  

 
Monitoring and oversight: Once government 

institutions have implemented reforms and changed 

their operating structures, ASJ returns after 18 months 

to monitor improvements using the same indicators 

from the initial baseline report. In every institution 

where changes were implemented, ASJ’s monitors 

found progress. For example, the payroll for all police 

officers used to be managed from a single Excel 

spreadsheet on a laptop with no password protection. 

Now, at ASJ’s suggestion, the security sector uses 

human resources management software with far better 

security. The Health Ministry has completely 

overhauled the way it purchases and distributes 

medicines, reducing theft and loss. Overall, ASJ saw the 

scores of their seven target institutions rise by an average 

of 26% in just three years, a substantial improvement in 

transparency and best practices. 

ASJ has thus found that cooperating with and 

supporting the government can be extremely useful for 

rooting out corruption, strengthening institutions, and, 

ultimately, offering more and better services to those 

who need it. Even so, some civil society organizations 

criticize ASJ for this approach because of discomfort 

with cooperating in any way with an institution where 

corruption is rampant. Critics argue that ASJ’s work 

legitimizes government actions in other areas that are 

still clearly corrupt. Proponents of this approach, 

including many ally organizations in Honduras, 

acknowledges the dangers of close association with 

government authorities, but see this as a healthy tension 

as they work to maintain a balance between protecting 

their organizational integrity and working with 

government institutions where positive change seems 

possible.  

In the process, ASJ prioritizes its apolitical stance 

and stays away from party politics and political 

ideologies. When advocating for change, ASJ has held 

meetings with as many as ten different Honduran 

political parties, including both minority parties and 

major players.  ASJ is driven not by the desire to see a 

particular ideology win out, but instead by the dream of 

seeing schools educating children, hospitals treating 

patients, and courts ensuring justice for all, regardless of 

income or status. ASJ has been involved in this work for 

20 years, through administrations of different political 

colors. Whichever party is in power, ASJ makes the 

effort to work with them.  

 
The impact of structural change 

 

The impact of all this work has been significant. 

Corruption has been called out, high-ranking officials, 

including a former first lady, have been arrested and 

jailed, more than a dozen drug traffickers or elites, 

including a former president, were extradited to the 

United States, and corrupt and non-functioning 

institutions are increasingly efficient and well-regulated.  

Among the most striking impacts is the dramatic 

transformation of the National Police, including the 

dismissal of more than 5,100 police officers, the 

training of new officers, a detailed rewriting of the laws 

0
20
40
60
80

100
120
140
160
180
200

Average
per

month,
2014

Average
per

month,
2015

Average
Oct and

Nov,
2016

Figure 4: Cases Resolved



Christian Relief, Development, and Advocacy 1(1),  summer 2019  

23 
 

and regulations, and day-to-day accountability that now 

infuses this institution. This has been a major 

achievement, but it is only one example of the 

transformation that ASJ has seen in Honduran public 

institutions. 

These reforms positively impact the Honduran 

public. ASJ’s neighborhood-specific interventions 

model the change that is possible; however, they also 

transform individual lives, showing people that they can 

and should expect more from their governing bodies, 

and that everyone can participate in demanding 

change.  

In summary, in all its work, ASJ takes seriously the 

calls of Biblical prophets to fight for justice for the 

oppressed and to root out corruption wherever they 

find it in Honduran government institutions. In its 

mission to fight against corruption and for justice, ASJ 

has learned that a brave commitment to their work can 

bring about real change, particularly when this work is 

rooted in careful investigations, indisputable research, 

and close relationships with the people involved. ASJ 

has found success through pressuring government to 

implement reforms via the media, legal action, and 

social movements; but the most significant 

transformation has come when ASJ supported the 

government in that change, working with government 

officials to propose, implement, and oversee reforms.  

ASJ’s theory of change is based on the practicalities 

of what has worked for it and the doors that 

circumstances and God’s providence have opened. 

The Christian faith on which ASJ is founded motivates 

it to act on behalf of the poor with a commitment to 

challenging oppressors and seeking justice. Partnering 

with citizens, civil society organizations, churches, and 

the government, it forms powerful coalitions for 

positive change in Honduras. To convey in greater 

detail how this theory of change functions, we transition 

now to a case of study of ASJ’s work in public 

education. 

 

 

Case Study: ASJ and Honduran Public 

Education 

 
Education in crisis 

 

In 2009 Honduras descended into chaos and 

anarchy when a constitutional crisis surrounded the 

removal of the president from office. One political 

faction had managed to remove president Manuel 

(Mel) Zelaya and send him into exile. They accused 

him of political malfeasance. Zelaya’s supporters, on 

the other hand, saw this as a coup and swarmed the 

                                                        
5

 Primary schools in Honduras cover grades 1-9, while secondary schools cover grades 10-12.  

streets in protest. The country was at an impasse, on the 

brink of violence, and imperiled by a deeply divided 

citizenry. 

Wanting to do something positive, ASJ called a 

meeting of some thirty NGO, church, and civic leaders 

who were concerned about the well-being of the 

country. This coalition, which came to be called 

Transformemos Honduras (Let’s Transform 

Honduras), met several times in 2009. They decided 

not to take sides in the political conflict, but to focus 

their immediate attention and efforts on the nation’s 

health and education sectors, both of which were highly 

corrupt and failing. Following ASJ’s lead, 

Transformemos Honduras (TH) started with some 

research to learn more about the character of the 

problems and their underlying causes. 

What they found was a failed education system due 

to embedded corruption that had built up over decades. 

Among their key findings: 

 

Limited class days: In 2009, due to political turmoil, 

students in Honduran primary and secondary schools 

attended classes only 90 days, less than half the 200 days 

required by Honduran law
5

. Unfortunately, the whole 

decade from 2001 to 2010 was not much better; average 

school attendance was only 125 days a year. Schools 

closed due to teacher strikes, late teacher arrivals on 

Mondays, early departures on Fridays, fumigation 

campaigns, and any other excuse that seemed 

somewhat reasonable. One-day holidays turned into 

week-long holidays (Cerna 2014, “Solo 95…” 2007).  

 

Frequent teacher strikes: During the ten years prior to 

2011, teachers went on strike for weeks or months every 

year. In 2005 teachers went on strike 34 different times, 

for all sorts of reasons. In addition to reducing the 

number of school days, these strikes were also a great 

opportunity for corruption. Marlon Escoto, secretary of 

Education from 2012-2017 says that strikes were one of 

the preferred methods of corruption for union leaders. 

They claimed to be using union dues as strike funds, 

but they were really pocketing a lot of money during 

these strikes (Escoto 2018). 

 

Ghost teachers: When TH went to confirm the 

presence of teachers in the different districts, they 

found that many ‘teachers’ drew salaries, but never 

showed up to work. About 80,000 teachers were being 

paid, but TH studies showed that around 25% of these 

were “ghosts,” who collected a salary without showing 

up to work.  

 

Politicized/clientelist hiring: Hiring decisions for 

administrators and teachers in the system often 



Christian Relief, Development, and Advocacy 1(1),  summer 2019  

24 
 

revolved around bribes, family connections, and even 

sexual favors. Oftentimes decisions were political. 

Political parties and teachers’ unions had developed a 

tense but symbiotic relationship since the educational 

system had been nationalized in the late 1950s. 

Members of Congress appointed loyalists to well-paid 

district leadership roles, making them “clients” of the 

politicians. In return, the teachers helped keep that 

politician elected.  

Over time, political leaders formed strong alliances 

with the leaders of the teachers’ unions. Honduran 

professor and independent researcher Edwin Medina 

says that if there were ten teaching positions to be 

distributed, union leaders and politicians would 

negotiate so that each would get to name five teachers. 

Demand was high for such life-long, well-paid positions, 

and aspiring teachers often paid $5,000 to get one, 

equivalent to a year’s salary at minimum wage (Medina 

2018). Supposedly, according to the 1997 law governing 

teachers in public schools (the Estatuto del Docente 
Hondureño), hiring decisions were based on merit, 

determined especially by a competitive examination 

and interview process called a “concurso” 

(competition). But this process was secretive and easy 

to manipulate, and no significant hindrance to corrupt 

hiring practices.  

In the symbiotic relationship that developed over 

time, politicians wrote laws and established rules that 

supported unions, and unions provided field support 

for favored political leaders. Two examples of political 

support for union leaders are the law requiring all 

teachers to affiliate with a teachers’ union and the rule 

requiring the government to deduct union dues from 

teacher salaries and distribute them directly to the 

unions. One example of how the teachers helped their 

political patrons is that polling stations were commonly 

set up in schools, with teachers managing the polls and 

the ballot boxes. There was thus ample opportunity for 

teachers to ensure that votes from their district went the 

right way.  

 

Low test scores: International standardized tests are 

rare in Honduras, but in 1997 Honduran students 

participated in a test overseen by UNESCO. Honduras 

came in last out of 11 Latin American countries. On a 

similar test in 2013 Honduras came in 10
th

 out of 15 

countries. The apparent gain was a sign of hope, but was 

small comfort when national testing showed that “for 

the sixth grade … from 2012 through 2016, 90% or 

more of the evaluated students were graded as ‘needs 

improvement’ or ‘unsatisfactory’” (Educación 2017). 

 

                                                        
6

 The ungovernability of the education sector is likewise lamented in a 2009 World Bank study (World Bank. 2009, 154-

57).  

Governance/management failings: Marlon Escoto was 

named secretary of Education in 2012, a position he 

held for five years. It was unusual for someone to serve 

five years in this position. Prior to Escoto’s tenure (and 

since), secretaries came and went at a pace of one per 

year, making it virtually impossible to exercise any 

reasonable authority or continuity. Similar to what TH 

had found in its own research, Escoto likewise 

discovered that the ministry had hardly any relevant 

information about the system. They didn’t know how 

many students were enrolled, how many schools 

existed, or how many teachers had been appointed, let 

alone who those teachers were by name and how much 

they were paid. There were no systems of evaluation for 

either curriculum or teachers. In general, there was 

virtually no oversight or evaluation for anything that 

happened in local schools (Escoto 2018).
 6

  

 

Real Change Begins 

 
After Transformemos Honduras formed in 2009, ASJ 

played a key leadership role by dedicating a budget and 

staff time to the work. Other TH participants included 

leaders from Christian NGOs like Aldea Global, 

Caritas, Compassion, Mopawi, and World Vision. 

Together, they pooled their knowledge about 

Honduran public education and helped plan strategy. 

They also put the grassroots networks of their separate 

organizations in the service of what became a social 

movement to end corruption and bring about change in 

both education and health.  

Based on the information already gathered, TH 

wrote three reports, one each on class days, ghost 

teachers, and the politicized hiring process. Confronted 

with how serious the systemic failings and corruption 

were, TH participants worried about associating their 

names with the reports. Anticipating reprisals, 

especially from the teachers’ unions, TH nevertheless 

went public with the findings. The press made a big deal 

about them and they generated much public discussion. 

Thankfully, the feared mobs outside the NGO program 

centers never materialized. It’s not clear why, but 

speculation among TH leaders is that the unions were 

caught off guard.  Or perhaps they simply didn’t feel 

threatened by this upstart social movement when they 

were confident that their relationships with corrupt 

government officials were secure.  

Unfortunately, the government didn’t react much 

either. TH’s coordinator, Blanca Munguia (Munguia 

2018), says they brought the reports to the authorities, 

including José Alejandro Ventura, the secretary of 

Education. But Ventura was not interested in change, 



Christian Relief, Development, and Advocacy 1(1),  summer 2019  

25 
 

likely because he was implicated in the corruption being 

reported.
 7

  

Settling in for the long haul, TH
8

 employed a three-

pronged strategy. First, they continued their research, 

taking advantage of Honduran transparency laws to 

request information on teacher payrolls from 

department offices.
 9

 Then it began to build a social 

movement, training parents to collect information 

about teachers and class days in their local schools. 

Furthermore, it studied education law to see where the 

law was good, but not followed, and where the law 

needed to be changed. TH also used every reasonable 

opportunity, especially popular media channels, to 

publicize that the system was deeply flawed and steeped 

in corruption. All of this together, the research, media 

presentations, and the broad base of support combined 

to keep pressure on the authorities to act. One school 

TH learned about, the Bello Oriente school in 

Tegucigalpa, was paying 63 teachers, but only 36 of 

these ‘teachers’ ever showed up at the school. TH 

repeated this fact often in media presentations, and the 

pressure on government authorities kept building. 

TH researched hiring practices with the intent to 

verify that people being hired to teach were indeed 

those who, as required by law, had scored highest on 

the test. Again, it found, in direct violation of the law, 

that hired teachers often had low test scores. It also 

found other anomalies: Some successful candidates had 

been part of the selection committees and then chose 

themselves for the positions. Others with low scores 

happened to be close relatives of members of the 

selection committee. All these findings were duly 

reported to local and national authorities and 

publicized in local and national media. 

Though secretary of Education Ventura was not 

interested in fighting corruption, he nevertheless 

seemed to feel the need to respond in some way to the 

pressure. His response was to review and update the 

education law. There were two main laws in Honduras 

at the time, the 1966 law that centralized the system, 

and the 1997 law that covered teachers, their hiring, 

salaries, promotion, union membership, and other 

human resource types of issues. Ventura invited 

stakeholders, including TH to participate in discussions 

about the law, and got a new law, the Ley Fundamental 
de Educación, passed at the end of 2011. TH hoped 

the new law would improve the structure and 

                                                        
7

 Ventura is currently on house arrest for charges of corruption related to a corruption case in which he was implicated while 

serving in a different government post. 
8

 It’s not easy to separate Transformemos Honduras from the Asociación for a more Just Society, mostly because ASJ plays a 

leading role in TH. Much of what TH is and does is heavily influenced by ASJ, its values, and its strategies.   
9

 Access to Public Information laws were an important part of ASJ’s strategy. While the laws were on the books when ASJ started 

this work, they were seldom, if ever, used, and it took nearly a year and persistent pressure before their first information request was 

filled. Even as responses later became more expedited, requests were frequently returned incomplete. Nonetheless, without ASJ ’s 

insistence, it is unlikely that this valuable tool would be in use at all.  

transparency of the hiring process, that hiring would 

henceforth be based on merit, and that any 

opportunities for corruption in hiring would be closed. 

But the new law did not include many provisions that 

TH/ASJ wanted, and to this day they continue to 

advocate for changes to the law. 

It was in 2012 that things finally started to improve. 

In response to TH pressure, President Porfirio (Pepe) 

Lobo dismissed Ventura and replaced him with Marlon 

Escoto. Escoto was not politically affiliated, but he was 

committed to fighting corruption, and very interested in 

working with TH. For the next five years, TH and ASJ 

worked closely with Escoto and members of his team 

to fight corruption and set up new systems that would 

efficiently and effectively provide quality education to 

Honduran children and youth. With the support of the 

Honduran president and TH, Escoto proceeded to 

make major changes, including the following: 

 

A digital system: Early in his tenure, with TH 

technical support, Escoto developed and implemented 

a digital information system called the “Sistema de 
Administración de los Recursos Humanos Docentes” 

(Administrative System of Faculty Human Resources) 

through which all teachers had to register if they wanted 

to get paid. It soon became evident that some teachers 

held multiple positions, sometimes in locations so far 

from each other that it would be impossible to teach in 

one school in the morning and get to the other in the 

afternoon. For such anomalies, indicated teachers had 

to visit the central office to explain. Naturally, many 

could not explain, and were thus released from the 

positions they were neglecting. 

As a result, the payroll shrunk. Escoto says there 

were some 80,000 teachers on the payroll when he took 

office. Several years later the payroll had been reduced 

to fewer than 55,000 teachers. Some 25,000 “ghost” 

teachers had been dismissed (Escoto 2018). 

 

Union power declines: In a huge change for unions, the 

government no longer withheld and distributed union 

dues, depriving them of millions of dollars. Teachers 

could now pay union dues voluntarily, but the majority 

chose not to. As a result, teachers’ strikes diminished 

and, by 2015, ended altogether. 

The end of strikes and the increased discipline in 

the system overall allowed the achievement of the 200-



Christian Relief, Development, and Advocacy 1(1),  summer 2019  

26 
 

day school year, for the first time in 2013, and then 

every year since. Carlos Hernández, executive director 

of ASJ, was cited in a local newspaper, saying that “In 

2013 the goal of imparting 200 days of class was finally 

achieved, thanks to the disciplinary measures adopted 

by the minister of Education Marlon Escoto” (Cerna 

2018). 

 

Merit-based hiring: The final major change was that the 

Ministry of Education got serious about following 

objective, competitive hiring procedures, both for 

teachers and departmental directors, thus greatly 

reducing corrupt hiring practices. 

Unfortunately, there have been problems of 

implementation for the new competitions. For teachers, 

the ministry has not yet been able to develop an 

adequate test, so no competition has taken place since 

2012. Teachers hired since 2012 are all interim hires 

who will have the opportunity to remain in a position of 

a similar level when the competition finally takes place. 

A test was given in late 2017, but it was nullified when 

94% of the applicants failed, showing that something 

was clearly wrong with the test itself. One explanation is 

that there had not been a test for five years, and, without 

telling the candidates, the ministry gave a new kind of 

test, one that assessed not only knowledge, as had been 

the norm, but also teaching skills. A new test was 

initially planned for December 2018, but as of March 

2019, it had been put on hold again in anticipation of a 

more rigorous analysis of the need for additional 

teachers (“Invalidan Concurso…” 2018). 

Competitions for departmental directors ran into 

problems too, including problems of quality, internal 

governmental turf wars, and corruption. The first new 

competition was held in 2016, but, like the 2017 teacher 

exam, was nullified when hardly anyone passed. Two 

government ministries (education and civil service) then 

began squabbling about which ministry should 

administer the competition. Finally, with those 

problems resolved and a new test scheduled, TH 

director, Blanca Munguía mistakenly received a text 

message intended for a select, politically affiliated group 

of candidates. It told them to show up a day or two early 

for the test so that they could be given answers to the 

exam. ASJ scoped out the situation, and after witnessing 

obvious violations at the hotel where selected 

candidates had been called to prep for the exam, shared 

what they had uncovered with Escoto and the president. 

On the day of the exam, over one hundred candidates 

were seated and ready to take it when a top-ranking 

official, presumably the president or someone under 

his command, called the administrator of the exam and 

told her to cancel it. With ASJ’s involvement and 

                                                        
10

 Much more detail is contained in the ASJ-TH Spanish-language report on the process; see ASJ-TH 2016. 
11

 See http://www.revistazo.biz/web2/  

oversight, the hiring process was re-initiated a few weeks 

later, and this time resulted in the successful and 

significantly more transparent selection of departmental 

directors. After all stages of the hiring process, which 

included the exam, candidate resumes, psychiatric 

exams, and interviews, close to 25% of the candidates 

were approved for placement.
10

 

 

A review of TH/ASJ strategies used in education 
 

A lot has happened in public education since 2010 

and TH and ASJ have been central players throughout. 

Marlon Escoto himself says candidly that reforms 

would not have happened without TH/ASJ 

involvement (Escoto 2018). Exactly which of TH/ASJ’s 

strategies were most influential is hard to say, so it may 

be useful to review the multiple types of TH/ASJ 

engagement. 

       

Research and communication: Seeing research as 

crucial to advocacy, TH/ASJ obtained pertinent, 

irrefutable, and abundant information, and then 

ensured that it got to the right people. Oftentimes that 

meant that TH/ASJ first shared its findings with the 

authorities. If the authorities chose to act on it, well and 

good. If they did not act, then TH/ASJ put on pressure, 

through media campaigns that included press 

conferences, TV interviews, and their own online 

publication, Revistazo.
11

  

 

Relationship building, grassroots empowerment, and 

social movements: TH has been a powerful vehicle for 

empowering local citizens to know their rights and to 

hold their local governments, including their schools, 

accountable. This has recently evolved into a follow-up 

program called Comunidades Fuertes (CF) (Strong 

Communities), a social support program located in four 

of Honduras’ most violent communities. CF embraces 

youth who may be attracted to gang activity and offers 

counseling to families that have been impacted by 

violence. In the process of supporting people, it also 

continues to train people in communities on their civil 

rights and the role they can play as monitors of 

educational practice in their local schools. These 

empowered citizens keep their local schools on track, 

monitoring especially the presence of teachers and 

principals in the schools.  

In recent years, however, in response to student 

weakness on standardized test scores, CF is training 

local teams of monitors to assess the quality of 

education. Teachers being present in the class is a good 

start, but a second step is to assess how teachers use the 

day and to what extent it includes effective teaching. 

http://www.revistazo.biz/web2/


Christian Relief, Development, and Advocacy 1(1),  summer 2019  

27 
 

Monitors thus trained take their positions in the hallway 

outside the classroom and count the minutes of 

different activities taking place inside, from ‘students 

copying from the blackboard’ to ‘teacher lecturing’ to 

‘teacher talking on her cellphone,’ etc. These results are 

compiled, written up in reports, and presented to 

school principals and district directors. In most cases 

principals take the reports seriously and develop 

improvement plans to address the shortcomings, which 

local teams then monitor throughout the next year.  

Dolores Martinez, coordinator of CF, tells of a 

principal in one school who rarely showed up, which 

was reported to the district director. The result was an 

improvement plan that required her to be at school 

every day. Dolores says that the principal was not happy 

with CF’s intervention, but she does now come to 

school every day, even if she still leaves earlier than she 

should (Martinez 2018). ASJ does not have plans to 

extend this program to the whole country on their own, 

but they are sharing the program with other 

organizations in the hope that they develop their own 

CF programs in communities throughout the country. 

 

Relationship building at high levels: Readers of this 

article may have noticed multiple reference to meetings 

with ministers of Education and with the President 

himself. Over the years and in all their work, ASJ, and 

now also TH, have built a rich network of relationships 

with leaders in all areas of Honduran life; government, 

business, media, international organizations, and civil 

society. It has established a reputation as a serious 

organization that does its research and pursues its 

mission with passion, persistence, and integrity. That’s 

why when ASJ learned of the corruption in the 

department director competition, they went straight to 

the president and got the exam cancelled.  

 

Citizens’ voices and legal action: One helpful program 

sponsored by ASJ is ‘Asistencia Legal Anti-Corrupción’ 

(ALAC) (Anti-Corruption Legal Assistance). This 

program allows people to anonymously report 

corruption through an email address, telephone 

hotline, or cellphone app called ‘Dilo Aquí’ (“Say it 

here”). The program began in 2016 and had fielded 

some 800 complaints by the middle of 2018. Two full-

time ASJ staff are assigned to this program. One recent 

complaint reported a teacher who was appointed to a 

position by his father, even though he scored an 

unacceptably low grade on the exam. ALAC staff 

                                                        
12

 The baseline study measured purchases and contracts and human resources, while the first evaluation added statistics 

management as a third element of study with its own indicators. Between the first baseline score in (2014-2015) and the second 

(2015-2016), the score for purchases and contracts decreased slightly, from 27% to 25%, after the Ministry failed to provide ASJ 

with documents supporting contracts for construction and remodeling of school buildings. The score for human resources 

increased from 47% to 62% (15%), while statistics management was evaluated at 57%. The average of these three areas is 48%.  

      

informed the Ministry of Education, which investigated 

the situation and deposed the teacher (Rivera Toledo 

2018).  

 

Proposals and support: In TH/ASJ’s collaborative 

support of the Ministry of Education, ASJ staff helped 

develop the online system the ministry uses to gather 

information about teachers and students. It also 

provided guidance on how to manage the competitions 

for teachers and departmental directors, including 

helping to write the tests and evaluate the results. As 

ASJ human resources expert Jimena Garcia says, “we 

help them in everything they want us to help them with” 

(Garcia 2018). Former secretary of Education Rutilia 

Calderón requested TH assistance in writing 

education’s strategic plan. She says that the most 

important part of what TH and ASJ offer is their 

recommendations and technical assistance. During her 

year as secretary, she preferred working with them over 

any other civil society organization, because instead of 

just denouncing failure, they contribute ideas and 

recommendations for how problems can be resolved 

(Calderón 2018).  

 

Monitoring/oversight: After the initial baseline study, 

ASJ did the first follow-up audit/evaluation during the 

years 2015/16. The report, which was presented to the 

new secretary of Education, Marcial Solís, showed 

some improvement in hiring practices, but some 

backsliding in acquisitions/contracts and 

information/data gathering.
 12  

 Vice minister of 

Education, Javier Menocal, said the ministry was not 

happy with the results, and that they planned to take the 

evaluation seriously and commit to doing a better job. 

He also noted his appreciation for ASJ and his intention 

to work closely with them to make the necessary 

changes (Menocal 2018). The second follow-up 

evaluation was being completed as this article was being 

written. 

 

Lessons Learned 

 

Among the lessons from ASJ’s experience in 

public education are the importance of solid research, 

good relationships at the grassroots and in the 

government, strategic use of the media, and 

collaborative support. Here are some additional lessons 

gleaned from ASJ’s experience thus far. 

 



Christian Relief, Development, and Advocacy 1(1),  summer 2019  

28 
 

Faith: As mentioned previously, faith is a central 

motivating factor for ASJ. The verse Micah 6:8 “He has 

shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the 

Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy 

and to walk humbly with your God” is ubiquitous in the 

daily life of ASJ, from murals on the office walls to web 

pages. Likewise, it is faith that motivates ASJ staff in the 

midst of danger. When threatened by violence, they 

remind themselves of I John 4:18, “There is no fear in 

love. But perfect love drives out fear…”  ASJ leaders 

emphasize how important it is to be brave in following 

Christ’s example as they work not for their own 

interests, but for the well-being of the most vulnerable.  

 

Fairness and consistency: ASJ’s reputation for integrity 

has been built over two decades by adhering to 

standards of justice and applying them fairly. Onan 

Calix, a current leader of the largest teachers’ union, 

said that he originally thought ASJ was their enemy, but 

then ASJ helped his union address a major injustice in 

the way the government was treating teachers who by 

law were supposedly exempt from retaking the 

application test. ASJ supported them and they won the 

case, which showed Calix that ASJ was a neutral player 

in service of justice for all (Calix 2018). 

 

Impartiality and nonpartisanship: In Honduras’ hyper-

partisan political environment, ASJ is often criticized 

for working too closely with the government. For 

example, Edwin Moya, a member of TH and 

longstanding, influential practitioner in the Honduran 

education sector, believes that ASJ is too closely 

affiliated with the current government. He argues that 

Hondurans are coming to see it as an ally of the ruling 

party. The fact that this is more perception than reality 

doesn’t matter to Moya, because he fears that over time 

the perception will undermine TH/ASJ’s influence 

(Moya 2018). Moya believes TH/ASJ should continue 

with its research and advocacy, but that working directly 

with the government crosses the line from advocacy to 

tacit acceptance, threatening the organizations’ 

credibility. Taking a more supportive position, Jorge 

Galeano, Executive Director of World Vision 

Honduras and a member of the TH leadership group, 

says that ASJ is neither friends nor enemies with the 

government, and that, “following the metaphor of the 

sun, ASJ should be close enough to stay warm, but not 

so close that they get burned” (Galeano 2018). As ASJ 

works closely with the Ministry of Education, they daily 

live the “healthy tension” that this balancing act 

requires. 

 

Work with those who will work with you: ASJ 

president, Kurt Ver Beek says the standard bell curve 

(see figure 5) helps explain with whom ASJ works. Ver 

Beek argues that every government agency has a few 

honorable champions and a few incorrigible villains, 

while the vast majority of government employees fall 

somewhere in the middle, influenced by risk/reward 

calculations on doing either wrong or right. ASJ works 

to identify and eliminate the most corrupt people in an 

institution, and enlist the bravest and most transparent 

in leading reform, thus changing the cost-benefit 

structures for the entire institution. For example, ASJ 

wanted to work with secretary of Education Ventura in 

2010, but was not successful. When Marlon Escoto was 

appointed, TH/ASJ enjoyed a productive working 

relationship and witnessed many significant reforms, as 

it did with his successor, Rutilia Calderón (Ver Beek, 

2018-2). 

Figure 5: ASJ works to shift the cost-benefit 

structure in institutions by implementing reforms 

that reward good behavior and hold 

consequences for bad behavior 

 
Competent staff: When ASJ offers recommendations 

and technical assistance, they come with experts and 

experienced staff in such areas as human resources, 

digital systems, teacher evaluation, statistical analysis, 

legal matters, test-making, and accounting. 

 

Fully Honduran: Of ASJ’s 130 staff members, all are 

Honduran except for Kurt Ver Beek, who volunteers 

his time as board president, and a handful of people in 

communications positions. This Honduran identity is 

vital when ASJ calls out Honduran officials for corrupt 

practices, because it is other Hondurans who are calling 

them out, not foreigners. Furthermore, Honduran staff 

are knowledgeable about the history, culture, and 

context of Honduran politics, allowing them to plan 

more effective interventions based on Honduran 

reality, and giving them a greater personal stake in the 

outcome. This also influences ASJ’s longevity in the 

country, because staff are likely to stay in Honduras for 

the long term.  

 

Civil society: Through its work with Transformemos 

Honduras, ASJ stays connected with Honduran civil 



Christian Relief, Development, and Advocacy 1(1),  summer 2019  

29 
 

society. By working with other civil society leaders in 

this coalition, ASJ enjoys the benefit of ideas that come 

to the table, as well as the support of other organizations 

that lend their support to TH/ASJ efforts. 

 

External funding: Much of ASJ’s funding comes from 

sources external to Honduras, which means that no 

Honduran business, foundation, or person can be 

accused of using ASJ as a supporter of their own 

personal interests. ASJ does not take money from the 

Honduran government, a policy important enough to 

be enshrined in their institutional imperatives. In order 

to stay sustainable as an organization, ASJ seeks out a 

diversity of funders, which in 2018 included the U.S. 

State Department, Millennium Challenge Account, 

Transparency International, the International 

Development Bank, German and Canadian foreign aid 

funds, and a variety of Christian foundations. In 

addition, U.S. partner organization AJS works with over 

1,000 individual donors per year. The facts that funders 

are so diverse, and that ASJ is so obviously led by 

Hondurans, have protected ASJ from charges of 

foreign meddling in Honduras’ internal affairs. 

 

Conclusion 
In the past eight years the educational system has 

undergone some amazing progress, though much 

remains to be done. Student test scores improved 

initially, but are still too low, which is why TH is now 

focusing on teaching quality. Textbooks are scarce and 

school buildings are often pitifully inadequate. 

Purchasing practices and data gathering at the ministry 

are still weak. The two key education laws are not as 

strong as they should be, and some sections are 

contradictory. Fair competitions for aspiring teachers 

are anticipated, but as of April 2019 had not yet taken 

place. There is always the possibility that the system will 

slide back into its old, corrupt ways. 

And yet, recall that ASJ’s mission is to make the 

government work, especially for the benefit of 

Honduras’ most vulnerable citizens, so we must 

acknowledge the revolutionary changes that have come 

about between 2010 and 2019. More than two million 

students depend on the Honduran public education 

system, which in 2010 was infested with corruption and 

barely functioning. In 2010, more than 25% of paid 

teachers never showed up; in 2019 that figure is less 

than 1%. Students who attended class only 125 days in 

2010 attended for over 200 days in 2018. Test scores 

improved as Honduras moved from dead last among 

Latin American nations to 10
th

 out of 15, and there is 

promise for more improvement in the future. In 2018, 

hiring is much less susceptible to longstanding corrupt 

practices. Community members are increasingly 

empowered to hold their local schools accountable. At 

all levels, from ministry officials to teachers in rural 

schools, a culture of evaluation and oversight is taking 

root. Transparency at all levels is expanding. 

ASJ’s work in public education is representative of 

their unique sense of mission. Many organizations, 

Christian and secular, do excellent work improving the 

well-being and opportunities of small pockets of 

individuals and communities. Such interventions 

typically run parallel to public systems that serve the 

vast majority of the nation’s citizens. Hundreds of 

people are helped through a one-time medical brigade, 

while millions suffer without access to quality hospitals. 

Volunteer teams build wells, giving a few communities 

access to running water, while the country’s water grid, 

serving millions, lies in shambles. Private schools 

provide excellent education for a few fortunate 

children, while public schools languish. ASJ 

appreciates the work of all these groups, while they 

have taken the path of working to impact the lives of 

millions. 

This case study illustrates the power of a theory of 

change that combines persistent pressure and oversight 

with an openness to suggest and help implement 

reforms. It illustrates that, even in country wracked by 

corruption, it is possible to bring about macro-level, 

structural change that bends toward a Kingdom-

inspired arc of justice. While difficult, dangerous, and 

time-consuming, this work is also rewarding and 

redemptive. ASJ staff view this work as consistent with 

their commitment to be faithful to God’s call to work 

for justice. It is a model other Christians committed to 

Kingdom living can learn from. 

 

 

References 

 
Asociación para una Sociedad Mas Justa (ASJ). August 

2018.  

ASJ. December 2017. “Informe de Evaluación a la 

Secretaría de Educación Período 2015 – 2016,” 

p.6. “Evaluation Report from the Secretary of 

Education, 2015-2016 “ (author’s translation).  

ASJ. “Estudio sobre Impunidad 2010-2012.” June 5th, 

2015.  

Association for a More Just Society (AJS). “AJS 

Condemns Assassination Attempt against AJS-

Honduras Board Member Jorge Machado that 

Resulted in Death of Bodyguard.” December 16, 

2016  

AJS. “Dionisio: The Life of a Brave Christian” n.d.  

ASJ-TH. 2016. “Informe de Veeduría Social al 

Proceso de Concurso Público de Directores y 

Secretarios Departamentales y Directores de la 

Unidad de Supervisión Departamental de la 

Secretaría de Educación.” Tegucigalpa, Honduras. 

October 20, 2016.   

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Christian Relief, Development, and Advocacy 1(1),  summer 2019  

30 
 

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Carlos Hernández is co-founder and Executive 

Director of the Association for a More Just 

Society (ASJ). A proud Honduran, he is a 

prominent leader in Honduran and Latin 

American civil society, particularly on the topics 

of governance and corruption.  

 

Author email: carlos_her69@yahoo.com  
 

 

Roland Hoksbergen is professor emeritus of 

Economics and International Development at 

Calvin College and a co-editor of this journal. 

He lived eight years of his adult life in various 

countries of Central America. 

 

Author email: hoksro@calvin.edu 

 

 

Katerina Parsons is the Director of 

Communications for AJS-US, the U.S.-based 

sister organization of the Association for a More 

Just Society. A graduate of Calvin College, she 

has lived in Honduras for four years.  

 

Author email: katerinaparsons@gmail.com  
 

 

Kurt Ver Beek is co-founder and President of 

ASJ, and is also a professor of sociology for 

Calvin College, where he leads the Honduras 

semester abroad program. He has lived in 

Honduras for nearly 30 years. 

 

Author email: kverbeek@gmail.com  

 

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mailto:carlos_her69@yahoo.com
mailto:hoksro@calvin.edu
mailto:katerinaparsons@gmail.com
mailto:kverbeek@gmail.com

