CVE Practitioner Workshop: Opportunities and Challenges for Civil Society in Pushing Back against Violent Extremism

The Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) and the Prevention Project convened some 25 representatives from civil society, including from international and local non-governmental organizations (NOs) working to prevent or counter violent extremism in a range of contexts. Participants examined the challenges civil society actors are facing in implementing local CVE1 initiatives and explored opportunities for improving existing approaches. During the two-day workshop, which was conducted under the Chatham House Rule, participants, inter alia, 1) highlighted a diversity of civil society-led CVE initiatives in different regions; 2) explored the importance of and challenges to building the trust between governments and communities that is critical for effective civil society-led CVE work; 3) discussed how national governments can be enablers and obstacles to locally-led efforts to prevent the spread of violent extremism; 4) considered the challenges the “CVE” label can present donor and civil society partners; 5) underscored the need to build the capacity of local civil society organizations (CSOs) as part of a long-term CVE effort; 6) stressed the importance of scaling up networking – at the national and regional levels – among civil society actors engaged on CVE; 7) highlighted the need to ensure connectivity between the global CVE discourse and the priorities of those community confronting violent extremist threats; and 8) considered whether the current international infrastructure support local civil society practitioners sufficient and what revisions can be made to more effectively operationalize a “whole of society” approach to CVE.