Since 2015, the importance of education has been increasingly recognized in the context of international efforts to prevent violent extremism.
However, there is a lack of evidence on the effectiveness of educational activities in helping to prevent violent extremism. This lack of evidence is linked to many factors, including the difficulty of assessing preventive actions, the complexity of radicalization processes, and the lack of data and longitudinal studies.
Though these challenges cannot be readily overcome, UNESCO considers it vital to seek evidence on the effectiveness of educational activities to prevent violent extremism (PVE-E) for three reasons:
- Because all stakeholders seek to undertake programmes with positive impact;
- Because governments, national and international funding institutions seek to take evidenced-informed decisions on spending priorities, and;
- Because all stakeholders must be aware of possible risks of measures that may do more harm than good to learners, the education system and communities affected by violent extremism.
In this light, this Policy Brief explores two questions:
- What types of PVE-E activities tend to be more effective?
- What is the proven impact of PVE-E activities?
To this end, UNESCO commissioned a comparative study of 32 case studies of PVE-E, representing a selection of activities across the world, involving a range of ages, covering formal, informal and non-formal education.
The analysis shows that PVE-E does work, with impacts at different levels resulting from specific types of activity.
You can find the original publication here