Ecuador issues methodology for technical tables against the recruitment of minors

The ministries of the Interior, Human Development, and Government, together with the National Council for Intergenerational Equality, issued the methodology for the implementation of the Technical Tables for the Prevention and Eradication of the Recruitment, Use, and Utilization of Girls, Boys, and Adolescents (METPRUUNNA). The instrument was published in the Official Registry, Second Supplement No. 368, from Quito, Monday, September 14, 2026, through Inter-institutional Agreement MDI-MDH-MDG-CNII-METPRUUNNA-2026-001.

The regulation responds to the declaration of national priority established by Executive Decree No. 21 of June 5, 2025, which created the Committee for the Prevention and Eradication of the Recruitment, Use, and Utilization of Girls, Boys, and Adolescents (COPRUUNNA). From this committee derives the National EPRUUNNA Strategy 2025-2029, whose Objective 3, “Security and Justice in the Environment,” establishes Action Line No. 13, which gives rise to the technical tables.

A growing problem in the territory

The document justifies the measure with alarming figures: a 640% increase in the homicides of girls, boys, and adolescents between 2019 and 2023, and nearly 500,000 young people outside the educational and labor systems—spaces that criminal offers exploit. The methodology seeks to break the historical punitive approach and recognize the dual victim-offender status of recruited adolescents, applying specialized and restorative justice.

Two levels of territorial articulation

The tables are installed at two levels, formally integrated into existing security councils:

• Provincial METPRUUNNA: within the Provincial Security Councils, chaired by the Governor, with a dual technical secretariat for protection and security, and quarterly ordinary sessions.
• Cantonal METPRUUNNA: within the Municipal and Metropolitan Citizen Security Councils, chaired by the Mayor, with bimonthly ordinary sessions.

Both structures include permanent members (ministries, National Police, Armed Forces, GAD, CNII, and SNAI), non-permanent members (Judiciary Council, Attorney General’s Office, Public Defender’s Office, Ombudsman’s Office, ECU 911), and strategic actors from civil society, academia, and international cooperation.

Four phases of implementation

The methodology proposes a process structured in four operational phases to translate national policy into concrete results:

• Formation: formalization of the inter-institutional commitment and signing of the minutes in the corresponding security council.
• Linking and strategic alignment: training workshops for officials on the phenomenon and the EPRUUNNA.
• Planning and execution: development of the Provincial Territorial Action Plan and the Cantonal Operational Plan.
• Monitoring and evaluation: quarterly cantonal and four-monthly provincial reports, with evaluation carried out by the Permanent Subcommittee of the COPRUUNNA.

The document was prepared with technical contributions from GIZ, UNICEF, and the IDB, and prioritizes the territories identified in the Recruitment Vulnerability Index (IVR).

The publication converts a political guideline into a concrete operational tool for local governments, which now have a clear framework to coordinate the prevention, care, and reintegration of children facing one of the most serious phenomena of the Ecuadorian security crisis.

Source: Official Registry, Second Supplement No. 368, September 14, 2026, p. 2 (official reference: MDI-MDH-MDG-CNII-METPRUUNNA-2026-001).