20th April 2016, UN OFFICE GIGIRI-Nairobi - The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) has announced that it will be supporting the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) in developing and implementing a regional PVE/CVE Strategy. The announcement was made by Dr. Ozonnia Ojielo-Director, Peace building and Governance, UNDP Africa and Mr. Mohamed Yahya, Regional Programme Coordinator, UNDP Africa, during UNDP Africa Region Meeting on “Preventing and Responding to Violent Extremism in Africa: A Development Approach”. IGAD was represented by Dr. Simon Nyambura-Coordinator for IGAD PVE/CVE Programmes.
The strategy will be formulated as one among many other PVE/CVE activities that UNDP and IGAD will be implementing in support of operationalizing the development of the Horn and East Africa CVE Center of Excellence and Counter-messaging Hub.
The PVE/CVE Strategy will be a critical tool for a regional approach to preventing and countering violent extremisms by ensuring there is sound coherence, cooperation, coordination and collaboration in approaching the threat posed by extremist groups in the region. This regional strategy will also inform development of national strategies.
The UNDP team, on 15th March 2016, in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia held a meeting with Amb. (Eng.) Mahboub Maalim, the IGAD Executive Secretary, who encouraged UNDP to support IGAD’s initiative to development and implement a regional PVE/CVE Strategy. The process of formulating the strategy will commence in May 2016. (END)