Peter Annor Mensah, Monitoring and Evaluation Specialist for CDD-Ghana
The Center for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana) has launched the Global Community Engagement and Resilience Fund’s (GCERF) Prevention of Violent Extremism (PVE) project in 15 districts across the North East, Upper East, and Upper West regions.
The project, which will be implemented in border districts, aims to strengthen the resilience of communities against violent extremism.
Dubbed ‘Bridging the Gap: Promoting Socio-Economic Inclusion, Social Cohesion, and Peacebuilding for Vulnerable Communities,’ the initiative seeks to empower vulnerable communities by fostering socio-economic inclusion, enhancing social cohesion, and building resistance to extremist influences.
Speaking to journalists in Tamale at the launch of the project on Monday, Peter Annor Mensah, Monitoring and Evaluation Specialist at CDD-Ghana, explained that violent extremist groups operating in Ghana’s neighboring countries can exploit inter-group conflicts and unresolved grievances in border communities to spread their ideologies.
“We are looking at the vulnerabilities of communities to violent extremism. Violent extremist groups can take advantage of inter-group conflicts and subtle grievances within communities. We believe these are some of the entry points that extremist actors in neighboring countries can exploit to infiltrate and spread their ideologies. That is why it is important to build the capacities of these communities,” he stated.
He added that the project would be implemented by locally based non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in the three regions, ensuring that community members can effectively engage with the implementing partners.
In the Upper West Region, the GCERF PVE project will be implemented by the Center for Advancing Rural Opportunity (CARO); in the North East Region, by the African Students for Interfaith Tolerance (ASFIT); and in the Upper East Region, by the Rural Initiatives for Self-Empowerment (RISE).
