More than 20 Civil Society Organizations drawn from Mombasa, Tana River, Lamu, Kwale, Kilifi and Taita Taveta Counties came together to deliberate and level understanding on effective strategies to mitigate violence and counter violent extremism.
The organizations are implementing several community initiatives such as youth awareness creation, enhancing women roles in peace building, community policing, policy development, engagement with the security sector and inter-religious dialogues with the view addressing radicalization and violent extremism in Kenya.
Participants were encouraged to use their knowledge and expertise to educate the communities and help counter some of the compelling narratives enhancing recruitment and radicalization of the young to join extremist groups. They were also called upon to work closely with security agencies both at national and county level in addressing key drivers of violent extremism alongside other traditional drivers of conflict.
Strengthening Community Resilience against Violent Extremism (SCORE) is a 5-year program that seeks to offer a flexible and inclusive civil society with the view of addressing the root causes of violent extremism whilst reducing the allure of potentially radicalizing messages.
Act! is implementing the program on behalf of USAID.
