3 November 2021
The objective of the Initiative on Funding and Enabling Community-Level P/CVE: Challenges, Recommendations and Emerging Good Practices is to bring together relevant stakeholders in a series of workshops to explore diverse experiences in funding and enabling community-level P/CVE. These discussions will identify emerging good practices and recommendations to enable local-level capacity and lead to the development of a GCTF Framework Document on this topic.
First Workshop: Barriers and challenges to funding P/CVE initiatives at the community level from multiple perspectives
The GCTF Countering Violent Extremism (CVE) Working Group, co-chaired by Australia and Indonesia, and supported by the Global Community Engagement and Resilience Fund (GCERF), will hold six workshops over two years. The first workshop kickstarted an exchange of ideas by discussing the barriers and challenges to funding community-level activities, from the perspectives of donors, national governments, and recipients. To include participants from a wide range of time zones, two identical sessions were held on the same day.
Key Takeaways
During the virtual discussions, participants identified and elaborated on the most relevant barriers and challenges to funding community-level P/CVE. The most challenging issues identified are the lack of funding or access to funding, excessive bureaucracy regarding donor requirements, as well as sensitivities related to the use of “violent extremism” terminology—especially when interacting with certain local communities. Participants also highlighted the difficulty of measuring impact in this field and emphasized the importance of having a strong monitoring and evaluation structure in place to be able to demonstrate and communicate the impact of P/CVE activities and programs. The importance of listening to local communities to understand their needs was underscored. Local communities are central to P/CVE activities, which is why an ongoing multi-stakeholder dialogue is critical as are building strong partnerships. Participants also put gender mainstreaming and youth involvement on the table, saying those are important aspects for achieving long-lasting results in P/CVE.
Related GCTF resources: