Trans-Sahara counterterrorism partnership (TSCTP) evaluative study

counterterrorism policy in West Africa and the Maghreb regions of Africa. Initiated in 2005, the TSCTP grew to a multi-year, multi-agency effort to support diplomacy, development, and military activities to combat the spread of violent extremism in eleven countries: Algeria, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco, Niger, Nigeria, Tunisia and Senegal. The Department of State, USAID, and the Department of Defense are primarily responsible for diplomacy, development assistance, and military activities, respectively, with State as the program lead. The strategic objective of this program is to counter violent extremism by: (1) reducing sympathy and support for al-Qaida, AQIM, and other violent extremist organizations (VEOs) by strengthening resilience in communities at risk of recruitment and radicalization through improving livelihoods and social services for vulnerable, impoverished, and marginalized communities, in coordination with USG humanitarian and development efforts; (2) encouraging and assisting governments and communities to develop positive alternatives to violent extremism; and (3) improving relationships between those communities and government entities, especially security and justice sector institutions. This report contains recommendations on possible follow-on projects and how they can better align with countering violent extremism (CVE) messaging objectives; options for better integration with complementary longer term projects; global indicators or metrics across programs; and the use of a tracking system for monitoring future projects that is compatible with current web based portals. The evaluation analyses are organized by six operational and three programmatic findings, conclusions, and recommendations. (Excerpt, modified)