Project profile — Building Local Capacities and Narratives to Counter Violent Extremism in Jordan

This project aims to increase creative, peaceful citizen engagement to reduce community vulnerability in Jordan. The project supports local activists and cultural content producers, specifically on gender, human rights, and community engagement. Project activities include: (1) launching annual peace awards and competitions; (2) supporting local content development and dissemination; and (3) hosting community engagement events to build community resilience capacity.

The expected outcomes for this project include: (1) strengthened local content creators, especially youth and women in Jordan, by creating strategic content and disseminating skills and knowledge; (2) increased citizens’ online and offline engagement with content and inclusive dialogue on gender, human rights, and religious scripture; and (3) Strengthened community-based organizations and activists’ civic engagement practices. They do so by engaging in online and offline action with collaborative communities, especially youth, to reduce their vulnerability to extremism in Jordan.

Results achieved as of the end of the project (June 2020) include: (1) developed 335 pieces with local content for social media, including 249 on human rights and 24 on gender equality; (2) held 21 events with 2,174 participants (1,060 women and 1,114 men); (3) 97% of participants (18 women and 23 men) from civil society and non-governmental organizations indicated they improved their community engagement strategies; and (4) reached 50,000 people from four online citizen engagement campaigns .