The second day of the international conference on the “Role of Youth in Preventing and Countering Violent Extremism” being held on 20-21 October 2016 in Istanbul started with the panel on the theme “Framing Development Solutions and Urging South-South Cooperation for the Empowerment of Youth in Countering Violent Extremism”.
The panel held with the support of the UNDP and UNOSSC experts concentrates on the broad collaboration among the countries of the South along with the developing countries of the region bringing expertise and resources together with the aim not only to empower the youth, but also form conditions that rule out their vulnerability from extremism and radicalism. Besides this, the panel places emphasis on the South-South initiatives such as those referred as “triangular cooperation” which includes framework modeling of different forms of knowledge and experience sharing (e.g. provision of funding, training, and management and technological transfer) on bilateral and multilateral/sub-regional and interregional basis.
The meeting moderated by UNDP Africa Regional Programme Coordinator Mohamed Yahya comprised expert speakers from civil society, government and international organizations such as Chief of Division for Arab States, Europe and the CIS at UNOSSC Edem Bakhshish, Assistant Director of Stroz Friedberg Jonathan Friedman, Senior Conflict Prevention Advisor of UNDP Kyrgyzstan Chinara Esengul, Prime Minister’s Assistant and National Coordinator for Countering Violent Extremism in Albania Agron Sojati, Expert from Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency – TİKA Yasemin Cansuz Kurt and Leader of Governance and Peace Building Team from UNDP Shelley Inglis.
In the course of the panel, Edem Bakhshish gave short information about UNOSSC and explained the notion of South-South cooperation. Maintaining that developing countries have much to learn from each other, he asserted though that the South-South cooperation is a complement rather than a contender for the official development assistance such as that of OECD. He added that the South-South cooperation pertains to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) especially on combatting poverty and extremism. He said that may countries are interested in the notion, for instance China invested 3.1 billion American Dollars investing in the South-South climate cooperation and also allocated 2 billion American Dollars for the development of Silk Road.
Assistant Director Friedman distinguished the role of the private sector in combatting extremism noting that the investment companies often face the phenomenon when operating in the region and especially in the Middle East.
Chinara Esengul who came from UNDP Kyrgyzstan explained the audience how the UNDP and other international partners help the Kyrgyz authorities to prevent extremism taking into account the sensitive issues of the region. She also shared UNDP strategies on preventing violent extremism such as promotion of inclusive development, tolerance and respect of diversity. She made a remark that 74% of men between the ages of 30-35 and 17% of women between the ages of 25-29 fell into the category of groups at risk. Ethnic minorities, students, adolescents and migrant children are also exposed to this risk. Finally, she offered solutions to violent extremism in Kyrgyzstan such as building life skills for independent decision making of the youth, to establish dialogue fora, to involve the youngsters in the partnership with the municipalities and other state institutions concerned, as well as to arrange training, vocational education, religious education, provide small grants and match make between private and public sectors.
Prime Minister’s Assistant Sojati agreed with the primary causes of violent extremism such as unemployment, marginalization and other socio-economic causes. He stressed on the importance of networking in this field listing the national organization such as Youth in Action, Kerana Youth Center and the prospective Organization Center on Youth Cooperation, along with the international organizations such as UNAOC and UNDP with which Albania is already cooperating.
TİKA Expert Cansuz Kurt briefed on the activities of the Agency especially Palestine and Somali. In her speech she made emphasis on the education projects giving details on the Education Training Centers operating in the Middle East and Africa. She also noted the extent TIKA pays attention to the agricultural sector giving the example of the Agricultural School opened recently in Somali.
The last speaker of the panel Shelley Inglis touched upon STGs in more detail emphasizing its aspects such as employment, health, justice and equality. She said that Security Council Resolutions and UNDP adopted Youth Strategy serves as guidance in countering violent extremism. She gave a special attention to the gender equality, which should be proportionally approached when tackling with the violent extremism.
The panel was closed with the closing remarks of the panel moderator Mohamed Yahya.
