Preventing violent extremism

The document examines how communications strategies can build resilience against violent extremism in West and Central Africa, specifically focusing on the Lake Chad Basin and Côte d’Ivoire. It identifies poverty, unemployment, and illiteracy as primary drivers of extremism and highlights the struggle of local civil society organisations (CSOs) to reach rural, low-tech populations. The brief advocates for the use of positive narratives over counter-narratives due to the lack of religious expertise among CSOs and the risk of retaliation from extremist groups. It emphasizes the effectiveness of radio and face-to-face meetings, while noting significant barriers such as language gaps, cultural norms restricting women's participation, and a lack of government-led strategic guidelines.

• Local actors identify poverty and unemployment as the primary drivers of violent extremism in Côte d’Ivoire and the Lake Chad Basin.
• Communications campaigns primarily target women and young people, who are viewed as the most vulnerable to exploitation by extremist groups, though cultural norms often hinder women's ability to participate in community discussions.
• Radio and face-to-face meetings are the most prevalent communication methods in local settings, partly because over 90% of adults in Africa own a short-wave radio.
• Positive narratives are recommended as a more sustainable and safer alternative to counter-narratives, as the latter require specialized religious expertise that most CSOs lack and can provoke violent retaliation from extremist groups.
• Local CSOs face significant operational hurdles, including a lack of capacity to create content, language barriers, and the difficulty of reaching rural communities in 'red zones' where roads are inaccessible or government restrictions apply.
• There is a perceived need for governments to integrate formal communications strategies into their national P/CVE action plans to provide guidance and uniformity for local practitioners.
• Measuring the success of communications campaigns is difficult due to a lack of established outcome indicators, with many practitioners relying on simple counts of attendees or callers.

APA

van Zyl, I. (2020). Preventing violent extremism. Institute for Security Studies. https://issafrica.s3.amazonaws.com/site/uploads/pb-138.pdf

Chicago

van Zyl, Isel. Preventing violent extremism. Institute for Security Studies, 2020. https://issafrica.s3.amazonaws.com/site/uploads/pb-138.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=van Zyl |first1=Isel |title=Preventing violent extremism |publisher=Institute for Security Studies |date=2020 |url=https://issafrica.s3.amazonaws.com/site/uploads/pb-138.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{vanzyl2020preventing, author = {van Zyl, Isel}, title = {{Preventing violent extremism}}, institution = {Institute for Security Studies}, year = {2020}, url = {https://issafrica.s3.amazonaws.com/site/uploads/pb-138.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }