Almaty – Within the framework of the USAID dignity and rights project, IOM Central Asia held a regional workshop in Almaty on April 18-19, 2018 for NGOs and religious leaders on reducing the risks of radicalization among youth in communities affected by migration.

The workshop took place at Holiday Inn Almaty and gathered a wide range of non-governmental partners and religious leaders to explore new paths for promoting youth engagement as a vehicle of change for preventing violent extremism.

Over the course of the two-day workshop, invited experts, NGO representatives, civil society partners, and religious organizations from across Central Asia exchanged their experience, shared regional and international lessons learned and best practices, and discussed ways to address the vulnerabilities of young men and women to violent extremism. Workshop participants learned about conceptual and practical aspects of preventing violent extremism, and discussed the vulnerabilities and challenges that the youth faces as they decide to migrate for various purposes in the context of Central Asian realities.

Invited experts and speakers:

• Mr. Hanif Qadir (CEO, Active Change Foundation, United Kingdom) shared his experience in engaging youth to reduce their vulnerabilities to violent extremism

• Mr. Emil Nasritdinov (Associate Professor, Department of Anthropology, American University of Central Asia, Kyrgyzstan) presented his recent research “Vulnerability and resilience of young people in Kyrgyzstan to radicalization, violence and extremism: analysis across six domains”

• Ms. Chinara Esengul (Central Asian Advisor and Kyrgyzstan Country Manager, Peace Nexus Foundation, Kyrgyzstan) shared her findings on engaging youth in preventing violent extremism

During first day of workshop experts and speakers conducted sessions in which they shared their experience in engaging youth to prevent violent extremism and moderated panel discussion within participants on important issues of preventing violent extremism among youth.

The second day of workshop was full of active work of participants in group which resulted in jointly formulated problems and challenged based different types of vulnerabilities followed by formulated recommendations aimed at reducing vulnerabilities of youth in communities affected by migration to violent extremism in Central Asia.