LocationsFrom the left: Ms. Christina Øvestad Eikeland, Deputy Head of Mission - Embassy of Norway in Sudan, H.E. General Mohamed Jamal Eldin Ahmed, Director General of SNCCT and UNDP Country Director Dr. Selva Ramachandran.
Khartoum, Sudan, November 21st, 2018 - The Kingdom of Norway has announced their contribution today to Partnering Against Violent Extremism (PAVE) programme with a total fund of NOK 12,000,000 (approximately USD 1,500,000) till December 2020.
This support enables UNDP in collaboration with the Sudan National Commission for Counter Terrorism (SNCCT), government partners and civil societies to implement the PAVE programme interventions which aim to counter and mitigate risks of joining violent extremist groups and address vulnerabilities and reduce risks that foster stability and prevent (re)occurrence.
The evidence-based research on the trend of violent extremism in Sudan that UNDP and SNCCT jointly conducted in 2017 revealed that Sudan has become a hotbed of massive recruitment by extremist groups in both urban and rural areas and one of the major supplier countries of violent extremists. There is a serious fear shared among Sudanese government officials and civil society that Sudan might become a safe haven for violent extremist groups and recruiters and fall under the control of extremism activities unless effective and timely actions like the PAVE programme are taken.
Affirming the importance of PAVE programme, Ms. Christina Øvestad Eikeland, Deputy Head of Mission, the Embassy of Norway, stated that Norway is committed to prevention of violent extremism and looking at security and development in a combined perspective. She also stressed on the importance of youth and referred to the programme called Youth CAN, which is spearheaded by Norway at the global level. She also mentioned that Norway is taking a lead on the issue of CVE/PVE at the global level and appreciated the efforts of SNCCT and UNDP in Sudan.
From the left: Ms. Christina Øvestad Eikeland, Deputy Head of Mission - Embassy of Norway in Sudan, H.E. General Mohamed Jamal Eldin Ahmed, Director General of SNCCT and UNDP Country Director Dr. Selva Ramachandran.
H.E. General Mohamed Jamal Eldin Ahmed, Director General of SNCCT stated “on behalf of the Government of Sudan, we very much appreciate Norway’s support to Sudan in prevention and countering of violent extremism (P/CVE). We and UNDP have been tackling the issue of violent extremism hand in hand. Within the framework of Government, we went ahead with a variety of activities such as development of national P/CVE strategy, sectoral research papers by experts, and formation of national committee for national strategy. The PAVE activities have been recognized and fully appreciated by Vice President and senior government officials. Now, with this support from Norway, we will be able to boost our planned activities and implementation.“
UNDP Country Director Dr. Selva Ramachandran further addressed the signing ceremony where he stated “I would like to thank the Norway’s contribution to the PAVE programme and their continuous support to UNDP in other projects. It has been a long journey since 2016 when PAVE has started with an intensive study jointly conducted with SNCCT on the trend of violent extremism in Sudan, which is an extremely sensitive subject matter. We approached NGOs, women, youth, to adopt a bottom up approach in the development of national P/CVE strategy.”
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For more information on Norway’s support and United Nations Development Programmes in Sudan, Ms. Yusra Salim, Communication Analyst, UNDP, yusra.salim@undp.org.
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