Accelerated Response Initiative Against Violent Extremism: ARIVE
In Nakuru County, there exists factors that increase vulnerability that
terrorist can exploit to radicalize and recruit persons. Some of these factors includes; Unaddressed historical grievances, unresolved land disputes, high number of youths who are unemployed exacerbated by increased rural-urban migration to Nakuru urban areas, low police-citizen trust and, ethnic and political polarization and perceived marginalization.
The ARIVE project funded by Global Community Engagement and Resilient Fund (GCERF) through Act, Change, and Transform (Act!) seeks to address these vulnerabilities under the following specific objectives:
- Coordination of County Engagement Forums toimplement the Nakuru County Action Plans (CAP).
- Socio-Economic Empowerment of youth at-risk of radicalization and recruitment to reduce their vulnerabilities.·
- Increase Private Sector Engagement in Prevention and Countering Violence Extremism (PCVE) by providing Economic Empowerment to the youth in Nakuru.
- Relationship building between community and Security actors to increase collaboration and reporting of suspected Violent Extremism activities.·
- Strengthen the role of women in Community Peace structures, County Engagement Forum (CEF) and overall PCVE activities.·
- Create awareness on PCVE narratives in Nakuru County to counter radicalization and recruitment into terrorism activities.
Project Theory of Change
IF CEF coordination and its capacity to fundraise and engage stakeholders including the private sector in PCVE is strengthened, AND, IF youths
are economically empowered, more women are part of security structures, rights based approaches and trust between community and security actors improved, and awareness is created on positive alternative CVE narratives, THEN there will be an improvement in CEF coordination and collaboration in PCVE, CSOs and CEF will be able to fundraise locally to support PCVE interventions, and unemployed and underemployed youth will be gainfully employed hence reducing their vulnerability to recruitment into violent extremism, there will be increased trust and collaboration between communities and police hence more willingness to report VE incidences, there will be visible and meaningful inclusion of women in PCVE, and more citizens will be aware of signs of radicalization and take action to reduce it leading to an overall increase in community resilience to radicalization and recruitment into violent extremism in Nakuru County.
