Plans of action to prevent violent extremism

Programme’s background 

The General Assembly, in resolution 70/291 of the Fifth Review of the UN Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy, invited “Member States and regional and sub-regional organizations to consider developing national and regional plans of action to prevent violent extremism as and when conducive to terrorism, in accordance with their priorities and taking into account, as appropriate the UN Secretary General’s Plan of Action, as well as other relevant documents.”  

The Office of Counter-Terrorism has been designated by the Secretary-General as the main focal point for coordinating the United Nations system for preventing violent extremism in the framework of the Counter-Terrorism Strategy.  

In addition, the Office also has the following functions:   

• Secretariat of the Secretary-General’s High-level Prevention of Violent Extremism Action Group 
• UN Global Counter-Terrorism Coordination Compact Inter-Agency Prevention of Violent Extremism Working Group  

It is already the central point for Prevention of Violent Extremism (PVE) policymaking in the UN and is expected to support Member States’ own policymaking, upon their request, as encouraged by General Assembly resolution 70/291.   

In this background, the UN Office of Counter-Terrorism supports Member States in the design, development, adoption, and the identification of capacity building needs for the implementation of the National and Regional Plans of Action to Prevent Violent Extremism in line with General Assembly resolution 70/291 and the recommendations outlined in the United Nations Plan of Action to Prevent Violent Extremism.  

Programme's activities 

The UN Office of Counter-Terrorism carries out the Prevention of Violent Extremism Plans of Action Programme’s mandate by facilitating coordinated one-UN support to Member States on policy-making to prevent violent extremism. The Office also assist Member States in improving their technical capacity to design, develop, adapt, harmonize and implement executive or legislative frameworks through their National and Regional PVE Plans of Action to comprehensively address the drivers of violent extremism. 

The PVE Plans of Action programme is titled One-UN Support to Member States on PVE Policy-making and Developing National and Regional PVE Plans. Funding for the Programme is provided by Norway and the Republic of Korea. 

Programme's coordination role 

To support coordination of Prevention of Violent Extremism efforts in Bangladesh, the Programme has deployed a PVE advisor in Dhaka in July 2019. UNOCT now coordinates a working group of the International Donor community and another consisting of the UN Country Team in Bangladesh. 

Programme's impact 

The Bali workplan to operationalize the ASEAN Regional Prevention of Violent Extremism Plan of Action, which has been supported by UNOCT’s PVE Plans of Action Programme, has emerged as the initiative with the greatest number of ASEAN sectoral groups involved. The PVE Action Plan process has thus enabled greater cross-sectoral cooperation within the regional organization with potential benefits across ASEAN’s agenda. 

As recommended by the Reference Guide to developing national and regional plans of action to prevent violent extremism, Member States are increasingly adopting a whole-of-government and whole-of-society approach to preparation of PVE National Action Plans. The plans are thus becoming a vehicle for greater government-civil society engagement in multiple geographies. 

As recommended by UNOCT’s PVE Plans of Action programme, the revision of the Integrated Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration (DDR) Standards, currently underway, is taking on board the need to integrate DDR with Preventing Violent Extremism efforts in in-conflict and post-conflict settings.