A growing number of countries in Europe’s vicinity, particularly in the Sahel-region, Horn of Africa and the MENA-region are wrestling with problems like poverty, conflict, terrorism, climate change and irregular migration.
These are all closely linked challenges. The Integrated Foreign and Security policy document and the policy note on Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation underscore that Dutch development cooperation policy will increasingly focus on preventing conflict and combating instability and insecurity. Questions that arise are: how do we bring security policy and development cooperation closer together in our approach to prevent violent extremism (PVE) and how can we operationalize this objective?

The Netherlands has taken initiatives to enhance understanding on how and when to utilize development
tools to prevent and counter violent extremism. After a portfolio assessment conducted by UNDP, one of the initiatives has been to develop a PVE-sensitivity toolkit to assess the current (perhaps latent) PVE relevance of Dutch development programmes.

The PVE-Toolkit has been developed by Human Security Collective, the Stability and Humanitarian Aid department and the Security Policy department, to offer policymakers and practitioners a hands-on tool to assess the possibility of implementing ODA-programmes in a context (not yet) affected by violent extremism. Taking this context into account is important to ensure sustainable results, and to avoid that the violent extremism context undermines the objectives of the programmes or forms risks for the stakeholders involved. By doing so, development programs can indirectly have a positive effect on PVE.

The Toolkit presents a comprehensive instrument for analysis and design and helps to provide clarity on the
relevance and feasibility of making development programmes PVE-sensitive. It consists of a flowchart that
provides a set of assessment tools to facilitate better understanding of violent extremism and how development
interventions could address the drivers and root causes of violent extremism in a positive way.

Click here for the PVE Toolkit Factsheet

Please contact fulco@hscollective.org for queries