Listen! A Youth Perspective on Preventing Violent Extremism

We invite you to join us for an interactive panel discussion, held on the margins of the 73rd session of the United Nations General Assembly, to listen to and learn from young people directly affected by and pushing back against violent extremism.

Listen! A Youth Perspective on Preventing Violent Extremism is co-hosted by the European Union, the Global Community Engagement and Resilience Fund (GCERF), and the Kofi Annan Foundation (KAF). The panel brings together young people to share their own stories about violent extremism, through presentations, a video, and a booklet, and invites all of us to reflect on what we can learn from them. In 2018, GCERF in cooperation with civil society organisations in its partner countries of Bangladesh, Mali, and Nigeria, launched an essay competition asking youth participants in GCERFfunded programmes to answer the question “What can you do, as a young man or woman, to prevent violent extremism in your community?” Their responses are captured in the publication Read! A Youth Perspective on Fighting Violent Extremism and the short video Watch! A Youth Perspective on Fighting Violent Extremism, and we will also Listen! to the winners of the competition at the event.

Following the panel discussion, GCERF, KAF, and the youth participants will draft an open letter encouraging further funding for youth-led PVE efforts, and publish the highlights and recommendations of the discussion in a popular media outlet.

For more information, please refer to the event programme, or contact outreach@gcerf.org.