Outcome APA_D_6.6

Women are empowered to build resilient, cohesive and peaceful communities to prevent radicalisation and violent extremism

Under the regional Prevention of Violent Extremism (PVE) programme since April 2017, more than 2 million individuals have strengthened their understanding of the role of women can play to prevent violent extremism and gender dynamics of this threat, particularly in Bangladesh, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, and regionally and globally including through innovative communication tools as well as capacity development, awareness raising and knowledge sharing efforts. More than 5,700 women from over 200 communities in Bangladesh, Indonesia and the Philippines are also economically empowered to generate income as a result of the project’s economic empowerment initiatives. They are also empowered to be agents of change in their communities and promote peace and social cohesion, thereby preventing radicalization and violent extremism. In 2021, in Bangladesh, the initiatives undertaken by the Women Peace Cafés (WPC) are a testament to the capacity of its members in promoting social cohesion and building the resilience of communities to prevent extremism. By the end of the fourth phase of the programme (March 2021), the WPC reached 395 women through entrepreneurship activities in communities at risk of radicalization. This included an online social entrepreneurship training that enabled 186 female students as agents of peace and engagement of 209 female volunteers in the Women Peace Ambassadors (WPA) initiatives. Under WPA, 40 female students and 16 male volunteers were selected to implement small projects that support vulnerable women affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and promote social cohesion in their communities. Moreover, approximately 1.2 million people were reached through a social media campaign on project activities, including 12,604 combined new followers on social media pages of WPCs and WPA initiatives. At the regional level, the project facilitated the participation of 70 individuals in regional dialogues to strengthen their understanding of the gender dynamics of violent extremism through an online event. In the fourth phase (April – December), the WPC continued to showcase good results. The WPC model from the prior phase was scaled up with the addition of two more universities resulting in its expansion into four WPCs. The WPC members continued to engage with peers through virtual events and social media despite the ongoing closures of all educational institutions. As a result of WPC activities, the project reached 241,180 individuals in Bangladesh to contribute to improving their understanding of women’s role in PVE and the gender dynamics of the threat of terrorism and hate speech. Furthermore, an animation “ The Impact of Gender Identities, Norms and Relations on Violent Extremism ” has been developed to summarize the key findings of the research entitled Building a Stronger Evidence Base: The Impact of Gender Identities, Norms and Relations on Violent Extremism, which was previously produced under the PVE programme in collaboration with Monash University GPS Centre. The animation has been subtitled in four different languages: English , Bahasa , Bangla , and Tagalog , corresponding to the languages spoken in the focus countries of the study. Ground-breaking UN Women research advances the conversation on gender in violent extremism. UN Women continues to advance the research agenda in gender and violent extremism in Asia – an area that remains without much international attention. (See UN Women Asia Pacific PVE webpage to access the researches.) The advocacy led by UN Women, as well as the technical support provided to strategic partners to shape policies related to violent extremism, resulted in four policy documents at the national and regional level ( National Action Plan on Women Peace and Security (Bangladesh); National Action Plan on Preventing Violent Extremism (Indonesia and the Philippines); and Plan of Action to Prevent and Counter the Rise of Radicalization and Violent Extremism (ASEAN)) that now integrate gender issues and the important role that women play in preventing violent extremism.

Women are empowered to build resilient, cohesive and peaceful communities to prevent radicalisation and violent extremism

UN Women has made significant progress on the outcome 6.6 in 2022. In total, over 2.5 million individuals strengthened their understanding of the role women play in preventing terrorism, violent extremism and hate speech through the regional Prevention of Violent Extremism (PVE) programme called "Empowered Women, Peaceful Communities" - Phase V (April 2021-March 2022). UN Women continued to support the implementation and localization of National Action Plan on Women Peace and Security (NAP WPS) in Bangladesh and also has successfully advocated retaining a national policy framework for the government's commitment to advancing the Women Peace and Security (WPS) agenda in Thailand. In Bangladesh , UN Women has consolidated the experience and networks of prior phases to create a strong basis to scale up impact on preventing violent extremism and advancing the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda. UN Women has enhanced partnerships with the government, civil society, academic institutions, and development partners that can be leveraged for further engagement. The Women Peace Café (WPC), co-created by UN Women and the Centre for Peace and Justice (CPJ), is a key product of the overall regional PVE programme, which is the foundation of this project. Within the context of COVID-19 in this project, the WPC model expanded and proved to be a replicable and sustainable model for engaging youth to promote peace and social cohesion. Two new WPCs have been established in the two leading universities of Bangladesh; Brac University and Dhaka University. In this model, a total of 244 women enhanced their skills of entrepreneurship, including 154 female students trained in online Women Entrepreneurship Training for Promoting Peace and Social Cohesion; another 90 female students engaged as volunteers in the six Women Peace Ambassador initiative groups, to benefit directly from the innovative social entrepreneurship activities of the initiative. With a reach across four universities in total, the WPC platform is expanding the constituency for peace and resilience by reaching young future women leaders and better equipping them to prevent terrorism, violent extremism and hate speech. In addition, with the technical support of UN Women, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs formalized the Inter-Ministerial Coordination Group for implementation of the National Action Plan for Women, Peace and Security in 2021 through its first formal meeting, which included representatives from all relevant ministries/divisions/departments. Throughout 2022, UN Women contributed to the NAP implementation by undertaking a mapping exercise to determine the status of activities undertaken by Coordination Group members under the NAP WPS, as well as refining tools and templates for monitoring and reporting against the NAP. In Thailand , UN Women contributed to strengthening the cooperation and multi-stakeholder partnership between the government and civil society organizations (CSOs) at the local level to respond to online threats and localize the WPS agenda. Both relevant local government agencies, CSOs and women’s groups have enhanced their knowledge to sufficiently understand digital space and the WPS agenda. Approximately 141,000 people were reached by online digital literacy trainings to prevent hate speech and promote resilience. Women leaders, women, and youth in communities in the southern border provinces (SBPs) who were trained as digital literacy trainers conducted and facilitated the training to raise awareness and advance cybersecurity in communities and attend to the issue of hate speech. Furthermore, a total of 110 women have increased their skills in the online marketing courses for women entrepreneurs and cooperatives in SBPs. The entrepreneurship activities have been critical connecting measures in SBPs to gather the beneficiary women’s groups and to engage local authorities in building trust with the Buddhist and Muslim communities. At the national level, UN Women has successfully advocated retaining a national policy framework for the government’s commitment to advancing the WPS agenda. The Ministry of Social Development and Human Security (MSDHS) has agreed that UN Women will work closely with the Department of Women’s Affairs and Family Development at the national level and with Coordination Centre for Children and Women in the Southern Border Provinces (CCCW-SBP) at the local level to support the review and extension of the Measures and Guidelines on Women, Peace and Security. According to the review of the Phase V conduced in 2022, overall, the project was highly relevant in addressing key gendered challenges relating to violent extremism, particularly relating to vulnerabilities of women in the COVID context. It also appropriately supported women’s empowerment in ways that enable them to contribute to PVE more broadly. The project made less progress on policy implementation, in part due to government resources being diverted to tackling the pandemic. The project adapted its policy approach, working with civil society actors to localise policy implementation and awareness whilst adapting plans to work with government longer term. Therefore, the original strategy and theory of change for this outcome is applicable. During the five phases of "Empowered Women, Peaceful Communities" (April 2017 - March 2022), approximately 5 million individuals have strengthened their understanding of the role of women can play to prevent violent extremism and gender dynamics of this threat, particularly in Bangladesh, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand and regionally and globally including through innovative communication tools as well as capacity development, awareness raising and knowledge sharing efforts. More than 6,000 women from over 200 communities in the four countries have strengthened their capacity to generate income as a result of the project’s economic empowerment initiatives. They have become to be agents of change in their communities and promote peace and social cohesion, thereby preventing radicalization and violent extremism. Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, digital platforms and online spaces are being increasingly used to spread sexist, inaccurate, and dangerous rhetoric about women, inciting hatred and potentially provoking violence – online and offline. Through digital literacy training, 420 young leaders (408 women and 12 men, including indigenous peoples, transgender individuals, the urban poor and rural communities) in Bangladesh, the Philippines, and Thailand have strengthened capacity to identify, protect against and report online hate speech, misinformation and disinformation, especially in the context of COVID-19. They also learned how to create and disseminate edutainment videos to promote gender equality and social cohesion through social media. The key lessons learned and good practices emerging from the programme include the following: collective space for women's engagement in peacebuilding; national consultations and coalition building; digital literacy and social media skills were highly valued; engagement with new stakeholders (including youth and religious leaders) by incorporating a more comprehensive approach to community-level preventing violent extremism trainings; partnership formation; use of creative communication materials; development of a body of research and evidence that supports the implementation of a gender-sensitive approach to PVE; awareness of the subject matter's sensitivity and the need to ensure the safety of all participants and implementers. (Please refer to the attached programme brief for more details)