National Action Plans to Prevent and Counter Violent Extremism

Hedayah draws upon international experiences to identify good practices that may be relevant and appropriate for other countries. Hedayah also utilizes its in-house expertise as well as its extensive network of experts and consultants to develop programs that are nationally tailored and contextualized to the needs, possibilities and conditions of the recipient country.

In recent years, there have been a number of guiding documents and proposed structures for the development and drafting of a NAP. While many of these documents provide excellent insights and recommendations for consideration, Hedayah opts to take a more customized approach to the NAP program in each country. Hedayah prioritizes the importance of developing a document that not only aligns with international expectations, but also addresses the current factors contributing towards violent extremism in-country, in a manner that is realistic, implementable, measurable, and aligned with national objectives.

In this regard, Hedayah emphasizes the importance of a holistic and inclusive process, with input from relevant stakeholders across the whole of government and whole of society, to include civil society representatives, in order to achieve an overarching strategic framework that effectively reduces the threat of violent extremism.

The types of activities Hedayah is able to implement in support of a NAP include:

• Technical capacity building training and support targeting any stage of the NAP cycle (see example topics below)
• Nationally, locally or regionally targeted research
• Regional awareness-raising workshops
• National awareness-raising workshops
• Ad hoc or formalized advisory services
• Document review and revision support

Hedayah has significant experience in supporting governments and national stakeholders to develop PCVE NAPs and is now widely recognized as a world leader on this theme.  To date, Hedayah’s activities have supported the NAP publication in several countries and supported the process in approximately 15 other countries. Much of Hedayah’s engagement with countries has been facilitated by its status as a non-political, non-ideological, and neutral organization.

Hedayah has been directly approached to provide support to countries that traditionally refused inputs by external parties. Hedayah continues to provide such support to countries globally, with each activity tailored and contextualized to the local conditions. We also collaborated with several other international organizations to expand the reach of our programs, including training experts from the United Nations Development Program. The coordinated materials and approaches that this produced ensure consistency of quality across all recipient countries and expand the pool of available expertise.

In April 2021, Hedayah supported ASEAN Member States with the development and implementation of their National Action Plans to prevent and counter violent extremism.

Participants of the workshop included national and local government representatives from four ASEAN Member States, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, and Thailand, and representatives from the ASEAN Secretariat and local civil society organizations. Hedayah supported discussions on good practices, knowledge and trained participants on the understanding of key concepts, terminology and approaches related to the development and implementation a National Action Plan.

The discussions primarily focused on how national governments can identify drivers of violent extremism at the local level, develop appropriate activities that address these drivers, and how to incorporate these components into their National Action Plans effectively. Discussions also addressed how Southeast Asian governments can ensure the necessary flexibility of their Plans to account for the needs and priorities at the local level. Hedayah provided guidance on how to effectively engage with local governments and civil society representatives in a manner that leads towards an inclusive, consultative, multi-layered national approach to preventing and countering violent extremism.

Hedayah is committed to maintaining an ongoing strategic dialogue with the governments of the Southeast Asia region. Our support provided the opportunity for countries to exchange and refine their practices on the development, implementation and evaluation of a National Action Plan, while also providing the opportunity to identify key areas of support in these countries.