STRIVE Cities: Strengthening Resilience to Violent Extremism in Cities

Context

The need for a whole-of-society approach to preventing and countering violent extremism (P/CVE) and related threats is widely recognised. However, local actors, particularly cities and other local governments, continue to be overlooked, despite often being the first to respond and, in the long term, suffer from the fallout of extremism and related threats, which can last for years and spread beyond the target city. STRIVE Cities strengthens the role of cities in P/CVE, including by elevating their voices in relevant national and international discussions. EU funding primarily supports the launch of two Strong Cities Regional Hubs: in East and Southern Africa (ESA) and in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), which will, inter alia, facilitate the exchange of expertise and experience between city leaders and practitioners, build the capacity of cities to lead and sustain prevention initiatives, enhance national-local cooperation on prevention, and connect cities with the multilateral P/CVE landscape. 

As a global programme, EU funding will also support Strong Cities activities outside of the two above focus regions.

Overall objective

The STRIVE CITIES project aims to respond effectively to the challenge of hate, polarisation and violent extremism with coordinated, evidence-based prevention policies, programmes and platforms that align with international standards and frameworks.

Specific objectives

• To strengthen the capacity of cities in ESA and MENA to develop, implement and share good practices on P/CVE.
• To increase leadership and engagement of ESA and MENA cities in coalitions advocating for city-led and focused approaches to P/CVE, including Strong Cities Network.

To enhance the inclusion of city-level actors, perspectives and priorities globally in relevant national, regional, and international frameworks, entities and programmes.

Concrete activities

• Regional workshops: Regular awareness-raising and capacity-building workshops held across MENA (Morocco, Jordan), ESA (Kenya, South Africa, Tanzania) and Malta.
• National-local cooperation (NLC): Country-specific workshops and technical assistance to improve NLC in P/CVE, focusing on MENA (Iraq, Morocco, Tunisia), and ESA (Malawi, Uganda).
• City-level support: Tailored assistance and virtual guidance to address local needs, including youth engagement, reintegration, crisis management, and cross-border collaboration in cities across Morocco, Jordan, Tunisia, Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda.
• Global programming: Support to Strong Cities' global initiatives such as the Resource Hub and Global Summits, engaging over 250 local officials from 100+ countries and amplifying STRIVE Cities’ visibility and impact.

Results

• Increased capacity of cities in ESA and the MENA region to develop, implement and sustain local prevention policies and programmes, including ones that support localisation of national P/CVE frameworks (i.e., through enhanced NLC).
• Greater local-local, national-local and multi-actor collaboration on prevention in ESA and MENA region.
• Greater recognition of the role of cities in preventing hate, extremism and polarisation, with cities given more opportunities to inform relevant decision-making.

Achievements

• Launch of the ESA and MENA Regional Hubs, which have doubled engaged Strong Cities members per region by 89 and 57 cities since the start of STRIVE Cities, respectively. Operationalisation of the Hubs means cities in both regions now have a go-to ‘help desk’ for all things P/CVE.
• Establishment of a city-led taskforce inUganda that is working directly with the Ministry of Internal Affairs to incorporate a stronger role for local government in the National Counter Terrorism and P/CVE Strategy; support by the Ministry of Local Government, Unity and Culture in Malawi to implement city-led, multi-actor Peace and Unity Committes in Blantyre, Lilongwe, Mzuzu and Zomba; partnerships with the Tunisian National Counter Terrorism Centre to raise awareness amongst Tunisian cities on their role in P/CVE and to support delivery of a Strong Cities Prevention Academy.
• Related to local-local collaboration and sustainability, achieved the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between Nansana and Stellenbosch (South Africa) to sustain peer-learning on P/CVE and other safety/security-related efforts; and partnerships with various Local Government Associations and national mayoral networks, such as AMICALL in Uganda and the Moroccan Association of Presidents of Communal Councils, which are disseminating Strong Cities learnings and resources to their networks.¹

^{1More examples of achievements can be found in Strong Cities’ impact briefs for the} ESA ^and MENA ^{Regional Hubs.}