The use of the Internet in South-East Asia increased rapidly in the last year, with Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines ranking in the top 10 countries worldwide for spending the most time online per day (Digital 2022: Global Overview Report). Adapting to the growing digitalization in the region, terrorist and violent extremist groups have responded by predominantly shifting their radicalization and recruitment efforts online. To address this challenge and counteract the spread of violent extremist narratives, Member States should seek to integrate strategic communication in their efforts to prevent violent extremism (PVE).
The Secretary-General’s Plan of Action to Prevent Violent Extremism highlighted the critical role of strategic communication by calling on Member States to develop and implement gender-sensitive and context-specific national communications strategies based on international human rights standards.
In line with this call, UNODC in partnership with the Southeast Asia Regional Centre for Counter-Terrorism (SEARCCT) of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Malaysia, conducted a series of regional training sessions on strategic communication to prevent violent extremism in the region.
In particular, the training series strengthened the skills and capacities of criminal justice PVE practitioners from Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines to design and implement effective communication campaigns. This entailed the development of alternative and counter-narratives for PVE, while addressing national needs and priorities.
The first training session was launched in June and was followed by the second and third sessions, held in Kuala Lumpur on 27-29 September and online on 18-19 October 2022, respectively. The training series provided PVE practitioners with up-do-date knowledge and practical guidance on developing, implementing, and evaluating communication campaigns by utilizing the European Union Radicalisation Awareness Network’s GAMMMA+ model and tailoring it to local contexts. It also offered practical recommendations on campaign implementation and monitoring, engaging with the private sector and adopting a multi-stakeholder and multi-sector approach to PVE.
As a result of the training series, participants developed communication campaign strategies incorporating youth’s voices, promoting digital literacy, and addressing local issues. Overall, the series facilitated peer learning and networking among the regional PVE practitioners and contributed to strengthening multi-agency cooperation while highlighting the meaningful engagement of civil society organizations in PVE efforts.
The activity was funded by the Government of Japan.