Inclusive Mechanisms Targeting Youth for Countering Violent Extremism in the IGAD Region

The creation of an inclusive mechanism to mainstream youth and youth issues into interventions in Countering Violent Extremism (CVE) poses substantive conceptual, methodological and policy challenges. For the most part, young men and women make up the majority of actors- and “foot soldiers”- that embrace and actively engage in acts of violent extremism (VE). As the threat posed by VE deepens in Africa, especially, inter-governmental state and non-state institutions are investing time and resources to contemplate and implement innovative and collaborative solutions. However, there is still a plethora of gaps in the conceptual understanding of youth engagements in VE and in the current approaches put in place by state and non-state actors to CVE.

A longitudinal design and mixed method is deployed in this study, with emphasis on scholarly and action-oriented policy outputs. Placing premium on gender-disaggregated data, the study emphasizes in-depth contextual analysis of the structural factors that underpin youth exclusion, injustice vis-à-vis violence, extremism and radicalization. Three organizations: OSSREA (academia), PeaceNet(CSOs) and IGAD (Inter-governmental) are collaborating to bringing critical synergies and comparative advantages to the successful implementation of the project. The network will jointly engage in the co-production of new knowledge and interventions on multi-stakeholders engagement with youth in CVE. The overall aim is to generate new and richer body of knowledge and perspectives to inform evidence based policy interventions on CVE in two member states of the Inter-Governmental Authority for Development (IGAD); (Kenya and Uganda), and across Africa.