Enhancing the civic and social engagement of women and youth in preventing violence and extremism

The project aims to support on one hand the active involvement of young women and men in their local communities, in particular by building their capacity to engage in preventing violence and extremism and on the other hand, the establishment of local, national and regional dialogues, exchange of best practices, actions and networking between women and youth organizations.

Women and young people can be important drivers and agents of change in the development of their societies. This may be because they demonstrate openness to change, feedback and learning; tend to be more future-oriented and more idealistic and innovative. Although women’s representation and participation in political processes such as elections, legislative processes, policy-making, decision-making, conflict prevention and resolution at local and national levels has improved in some contexts, it still remains low in the region.

With a budget of around 2.6M € over 4-year period, the project will support the active engagement of young women and men (age 18-30) in their local communities by building their capacity to engage in preventing of violence and extremism. The project aims also to contribute to the establishment of an enabling environment for women and youth engagement through regional, national and local dialogues between civil society and national and local authorities, exchange of best practices, actions and networking between women and youth groups and organizations.

Around 5,000 direct beneficiaries and 20,000 community members will benefit from project’s activities.

The project will be implemented in Morocco and Tunisia as a first step, with the possibility of replicating it in a second phase in other UfM countries.

About the promoter and partner institutions

The British Council is the UK’s cultural relations organisation. It has significant experience of delivering programmes which tackle gender inequality and focus on empowering youth, women and girls. The British Council manages large scale, multi-sector programmes for a range of donors, including the EU and DFID, and smaller in-country programmes targeting specific sectors. British Council developed a series of best practices from its worldwide and regional experiences of women and youth empowerment programmes. From its previous experience, the British Council has learned that in order to achieve more influential participation by adolescent girls and boys and young men and women, the establishment of networks at the local, regional and national level is key.

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