Countering Violent Extremism in West Africa

Description

The Bureau of African Affairs Office of Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs (AF/PDPA) of the U.S. Department of State announces an open competition for organizations to submit applications to carry out virtual and in-person thematic programs in Africa. Please carefully follow all instructions below. Priority Region: Francophone West Africa, which must include Mali, Niger, Cote d’Ivoire, and Burkina Faso. Executive Summary This program consists of two parts. The first part is to conduct localized research to identify key influencers and credible messengers in each of the priority countries in the first three months of the grant. These individuals should be inclusive of society and represent those who can have a positive impact on influencing their community. Influencers and credible messengers may include educators, religious leaders, journalists, activists, government institutions, civil society organizations, youth, and the private sector, among others. The group should also have gender diversity. A minimum of one hundred individuals should be selected from the priority countries that can be grouped into two geographic areas (ideally one location in the capital and one in a border region) in each country for training. The second component is to gather these influencers to create a network amongst them, where they will attend weekly virtual trainings for six months with periodic in-person training over a six-month period and learn to work together to counter violent extremism through specific training and by creating a regional network. At the end of the program, participants will develop their own action plan for their community and create a larger regional strategy to connect with partners in other countries. In this announcement, AF/PDPA seeks to support projects that help to recognize, understand, expose, and counter malign state and non-state propaganda and disinformation related to countering violent extremism and terrorist recruitment in Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger, and Cote d’Ivoire. Applicants should demonstrate current capabilities to execute the program in one or more of these specific countries within sub-Saharan Africa. AF/PDPA intends to issue an award for a period of 12 months. Depending on availability of funding, there may be a second phase of the project that includes implementation of small grants for community projects. Background Violent Extremism has remained a challenge for more than a decade in sub-Saharan Africa, particularly West Africa. The resulting insecurity negatively impacts democratic progress, the ability to improve economic prosperity, and the advancement of human rights goals. There are more than 40 identified extremist groups that have a profound effect on the daily lives of sub-Saharan Africans. Continued insurrection undermines the credibility of governments and creates tensions among local populations while reinforcing existing conflicts and increasing unemployment, corruption, poverty, social inequality, and religious intolerance. Increased political instability makes it easier for extremist groups to recruit and radicalize youth and feeds into malign actor narratives about the United States and other partner countries. This grant will focus on public diplomacy efforts for countering violent extremism. It is not a development grant, nor is it a security project, but rather a public diplomacy initiative to develop and train a network of credible influencers in the priority countries of Mali, Niger, Cote d’Ivoire, and Burkina Faso. Training will be conducted in French.

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