Across communities affected by violent extremism, two interlinked questions persist. First, how can governance, economic, and social systems address the drivers of violent extremism? Donors, civil society, government, and community actors often seek to address these underlying factors that enable and perpetuate violent extremism by working at a systems level. Working toward comprehensive systems change requires deep partnership, serious investment, and above all, time. The second question focuses on what to do in the meantime: how can practitioners–local and international organisations–serve individuals at risk of joining or being influenced by violent extremism here and now? These at-risk individuals, often youth, cannot put their lives on hold while they wait for more opportunities, social stability, and supportive networks. Instead, they face tough decisions right now.
Mercy Corps’ Collective Resilience Against Extremism (CREATE) programme sought to answer these critical questions through learning-centred interventions. The programme worked with government and civil society to strengthen and mainstream sensitive preventing and countering violent extremism (P/CVE) approaches, policies, and practices. The programme also worked directly with highly vulnerable youth in at-risk communities to understand how to build their resilience to radicalisation and recruitment to violent extremism. Importantly, the lessons learned from working with individuals helped to inform the systems strengthening work, creating a feedback loop between both components of the programme.
Building off of the first CREATE study, this report seeks to summarise additional learning about what works to sustainably reduce risks of radicalisation and recruitment among high-risk individuals. This report is based on analysis of quantitative pre-participation and post-participation surveys among at-risk participants, as well as surveys conducted nine months after the end of the intervention across CREATE’s programming sites in coastal Kenya (Kwale, Mombasa, Kilifi, and Lamu counties). Our analysis also draws on open-ended qualitative responses from participants and the programme team’s broader learning from the process of implementing CREATE.