Check against delivery

• Let me start by thanking the National Counter-Terrorism Commission of Tunisia for co-hosting this event together with UNDP.  It is such pleasure to be here in Tunis and thank you for hosting.  

• As UNDP, we are proud and delighted to be co-organizing this event. While there have been many conferences on Preventing Violent Extremism, we see this event as a unique forum, to my knowledge it is the first time where Governments in the Arab States Region through coordinating bodies such as PVE units or Commissions, as well as relevant line ministries, are coming together to share lessons, good practices, experiences. We have also civil society representatives, UNDP colleagues from many of our Country Offices, as well as other partners.  

• The discussion on preventing violent extremism has significantly shifted from where we set out some years ago. The initial securitized response, which particularly under the pressure of violent attacks and increasing numbers of people being recruited, has also led to the recognition that containment alone simply will not succeed. We have to talk about the context in which these trends are unfolding and address underlying causes. This is a very significant part of explaining what is changing in the way we approach it as a development organization.  

• This conference is also an opportunity to take stock of how far we have gotten since the Secretary General’s Plan of Action on the Prevention of Violent Extremism was launched three years ago [December 2015] with its call for the development and implementation of inclusive National PVE Action Plans.  

• I hope that the sessions, the agenda as well as coffee breaks and lunches will be an opportunity to ask for advice, to learn how others have set up consultation mechanisms, how line ministries are included, how you apply research when designing responses, and how voices from young people, civil society, private sector is heard.  

• As the Secretary General’s Plan of Action on PVE didn’t have a definition, we will not deliberate or adopt a common definition or statement here. Indeed, this is not a conference to come up with a common statement or agreement, but it’s an opportunity to exchange and take stock on what works and how to respond as an international community, as a UN family, as individual nations, as leaders in our communities who have taken this challenge of violent extremism on as a central task.

• If you have ideas and needs, things you can do together, or where partners can support – please raise them, let’s make this gathering a platform for the region, a network of people you can draw upon, and a starting point for exchanges.  

• UNDP colleagues will stay on for a training on M&E for PVE afterwards, we are committed to be better to measure impact, although difficult and ensure the programmes we support are as well designed as possible.  

• As UNDP, we see the issues around radicalization and violent extremism rooted in development. It is about precisely the issues that the Agenda 2030 and the Sustainable Development Goals have put before us: very often the context within which extremism grows is to some extent linked to failures in development. Whether it is the integrity, credibility and legitimacy of the institutions that represent the nation state. Very often it is the desperation of disengagement and frustration that leads people to abandon the notion of their nation state or the institutions that represent it, because they have not delivered. It is also a phenomenon of marginalization and exclusion.  

• I’m delighted to see so many partners here. Governments from across the region, civil society representatives, academics, regional organizations, fellow UNDP colleagues… I’m glad to  see you all here and I trust exchanges across the region will strengthen our responses.  

Thank you.