Gendered approach to Preventing Violent Extremism through Education in Iraq

Project name :

Gendered approach to Preventing Violent Extremism through Education in Iraq

Project duration :

01-03-2020

Location :

Iraq
© UNESCO

Background

The Gendered Approach to Preventing Violent Extremism through Education (GA_PVE-E) project is a response to Government of Iraq's request for technical support in addressing aims as outlined in the Recovery and Resilience Program, Supporting Prevention of Violent Extremism Framework. Supported by the Government of Canada, and building on the successful pilots supported by the Government of Japan and Netherlands, the project aims at fostering a new sense of community where community members are more resilient to radicalizing narratives and actively participating in processes to build peaceful co-existence in the liberated areas of Anbar and Ninewa governorates underpinned by education that nurtures critical thinking, prosocial values and  behaviors associated with mutual respect and co-existence. The project aims to achieve this objective by improving the role of the education system (primary, secondary and higher education) in nurturing resilience to the push and pull factors associated with violent extremism, through Global Citizenship Education (SDG Target 4.7).

 

Objectives

  • Improving resilience and wellbeing of pupils and students in Al Anbar and Ninewa to help prevent violent extremism.
  • Providing Higher Education students with skills and competencies to challenge the radicalizing discourse and promote a culture of tolerance.
  • Developing contextualized PVE-E training material and delivering training to master trainers, Higher Education students, primary and secondary school teachers, parents, principals and educational authorities (MoE and DoE personnel)
  • Developing the immediate capacity of educators to foster among learners a range of supporting cognitive socio-emotional and behavioral skills – such as critical thinking, multi-perspectivity, understandings of complexity, moral courage and responsible online behavior.
  • Supporting and establishing PVE-E systems in the primary and secondary schools and the wider community to ensure safe and supportive learning environments – particular from bullying and violence.