PVE Monthly highlights - October 2022

PVE Highlights - October 2022

Please also find the highlights attached in a handy PDF format, for ease of access and dissemination. The PDF file includes a monthly special issue that will spotlight a new PVE project each month. For the October issue, discover UNDP Tunisia's evidence-based practice towards more effective national PVE programmes and policies.

Global highlights

• The PVE HQ team launched a Tableau-based Project Dashboard and Indices Dashboard for practitioners to use relevant data to sharpen their analyses for evidence-based programming. Also tracking UNDP's global, regional, and country-level progress in the 7 priority areas of the PVE Action Plan, these tools allow for constant monitoring and reporting on project progress while keeping track of key national-level trends in violence and fragility across the PVE project countries, ultimately estimating UNDP’s contribution to outcome-level change.

Regional highlights

• UNDP participated in the high-level International Conference "International and Regional Border Security and Management Cooperation to Counter Terrorism and Prevent the Movement of Terrorists” held from 18-19 October 2022 in Dushanbe, Tajikistan. UNDP was the only participating agency that raised the issue of the nexus between peace and development. Among the delegates, were Mr. Lenni Montiel, UNDP Resident Representative in Tajikistan, and Mr. Christophoros Politis, Deputy Resident Representative.

• Learn about UNDP’s upcoming Report Series, composed of three reports to be released from November to mid-December 2022, underlying drivers of violent extremism in Africa and the Arab States regions, from the tipping points that lead to recruitment to the spill-over impacts of extremism in border areas, to the evolution, modus operandi, and business models of violent extremist groups: UNDP PVE Report Series. Do not miss the launch event of the first report: “Perceptions, Vulnerabilities, and Prevention. Violent Extremism Threat Assessment in Selected Regions of the Southern Libyan Borderlands and North-Western Nigeria” - November 2nd, 4 to 5:40 PM EEST. Register here.

Country Highlights

• Victims, perpetrators, or preventers? A comprehensive understanding of the varied - and often complex - roles women play in violent extremism is imperative for sustainable peace and development. UNDP Iraq’s new sister knowledge products: “Between perpetration and prevention of violent extremism: Accounting for gender” and “Affiliated with ISIS: Challenges for the return and reintegration of women and children” contribute to defining the main pillars for women’s participation and leadership in prevention. As part of its work to acknowledge and empower women when it comes to PVE, UNDP Iraq, together with International Civil Society Action Network (ICAN), held a two-day workshop on gender-responsive approaches to transforming extremisms in Erbil, Iraq, on 11-12 October.
  • Read more: “A mother is a school” – LinkedIn: UNDP IRAQ

• UNDP Iraq also concluded a two-day discussion forum on reintegration in Iraq, bringing together over fifty key government representatives, NGOs, partners, and stakeholders from across Iraq to discuss the importance of reintegration in strengthening the social fabric of Iraq’s communities, especially those witnessing the return of families perceived as affiliated with ISIL.

• UNDP Kyrgyzstan, as part of the EU co-funded STRIVE project, partnered with Beyond Conflict to carry out capacity building training for national partners in PVE. Staff from the Psychosocial Support Unit, theologians, and specialists from the Probation Department learnt about 1) links between mental health, psychosocial wellbeing and rehabilitation of people charged with VE; 2) how adversity and trauma affect individuals’ health, emotions, thoughts, and behaviours; 3) how to exercise trauma sensitivity to improve interactions with clients. The training reiterated that the goal of probation is to rehabilitate and re-socialise probationers and prevent them from committing new offenses.

• UNDP Libya, together with the Libyan Counter Terrorism Centre launched the country-specific report on “The prevention of violent extremism in Libya”, which aims to improve understanding of the causes and effects of violent extremism in the country. The CO also held the conference “Emerging Trends of Violent Extremism and the Future of the Prevention of Violent Extremism in Libya” where more than 130 participants, including representatives from eight ministries, seven municipalities, and seven CSOs discussed what PVE means within the Libyan context.

• UNDP Tunisia released four new research products on UNDP OGC’s Preventing Violent Extremism Research Portal, on, respectively: 1) Social cohesion, 2) Development and security challenges, 3) Economic analysis, and 4) Drivers of violent extremism
  • Check them out together with other research and the Podcast Series #ExploringExtremism

• On 20th October, UNDP Togo benefitted from an online training on KOBO toolbox. The training was conducted by the Crisis Bureau as part of the process to support the digitalisation of data collection on early warning mechanism at the local level, and included country staff, as well as the Togolese Government (representatives from the Ministry of Security). This intervention is supposed to lay the foundations to better address the increasing risk of spillover of violent extremism in the countries under the Atlantic Corridor Project Initiative on PVE.

Disclaimer: the updates do not constitute an exhaustive list of monthly activities, rather only a selection of brief highlights that we are able to collect thanks to Country Office support.