Ms. Kathleen Addy launching the baseline Study on Preventing and Containing Violent Extremism in Tamale
The National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE) with funding support from the EU, has launched the findings of a baseline study on Preventing and Containing Violent Extremism (PCVE) in Tamale in the Northern region.
The PCVE baseline study findings are intended to inform and guide content development for NCCE’s public education on PCVE and will also serve as a benchmark for assessing the progress of project implementation.
The study was conducted in 59 districts in eight regions namely Northern, North East, Upper West, Upper East, Savannah, Bono East, Bono, and Oti.
NCCE Chairperson, Kathleen Addy, at the launch of the PCVE report, indicated that the interventions that will be deployed in the project will be based on the findings of the report.
She encouraged Ghanaians to take a look at the report, especially institutions, organizations, and individuals who are working in the field of violent extremism adding that the report reflects the views of citizens from the geographical areas of the study.
The NCCE Chairperson expressed worry about the rate of unemployment which she believes pushes the youth into the hands of extremist groups.
“ Unemployment is a push factor when it comes to young people being lured into joining these kinds of extremist groups. We all know that unemployed is a big issue as well as the state of the economy and so people are struggling and young people are frustrated because they can’t see their future clearly and we are seeing that things like these will be what will drive young people into the arms of extremist which is worrying and disturbing.”
Ms. Addy was of the view that the youth must be the focus and let them understand that violence is not the solution.
“ Violence can never be a solution to the problems we are facing now and so as communities, families, people we must find a way to sit down and resolve our issues and find ways to create a better future for ourselves because the violence will never be a better way to create the better future we want for ourselves. We do not have civil wars in Ghana and so we must work hard to protect that because we are not living in normal times now.”
She called on the media to be mindful of how they report on issues to ensure that those issues do not degenerate into resulting in violence.
Security agencies, clergy, chiefs, opinion leaders, and PCVE project partners among other stakeholders attended the launch in Tamale.
FROM Eric Kombat, Tamale