USAID Ma3an Annual Performance Report

The project's goal is to enhance Tunisian capabilities to address the root causes of violent extremism and promote community resilience. The project's objectives include equipping youth with skills and engaging them in civic actions to address their communities' needs, and enhancing Tunisian capabilities to prevent and counter violent extremism. In Year 3 of the project, which spanned from October 1, 2020, to September 30, 2021, Ma3an collaborated with the Commission Nationale de la Lutte Contre le Terrorisme (CNLCT) to develop and implement a national five-year CVE strategy (2021-2026). The project also supported the CNLCT in designing, implementing, and communicating its work, as well as strengthening collaboration with civil society. Ma3an finalized the recruitment of a national PVE expert who developed a clear method to review and update the national counter-terrorism strategy. Ma3an's efforts to build the capacity of youth and support their engagement in PVE work continued in Year 3. The project supported 22 rapid response activities in 33 communities to respond to the January/February 2021 youth protests and subsequent clashes with police. These activities equipped youth and community actors to lead locally driven solutions that address youth grievances specific to each community. Ma3an refurbished and equipped over 50 'safe spaces' by 2021, providing an additional 10,000 marginalized and under-served youth at risk of radicalization and VEO recruitment with safe spaces and services. The project also built the capacity of over 50 Tunisian civil society partner organizations to sustain Ma3an's Positive Youth Development-PVE community model, activities, and services. Ma3an equipped over 1000 young female and male Tunisian leaders with skills in leadership, communications, peer-to-peer outreach, and mobilization of at-risk youth to engage in civic action and counter online misinformation. The project continued its ongoing effort to provide youth with safe and supportive spaces and opportunities for collaboration with stakeholders through its Community Support Activities. In Year 3, Ma3an initiated its partner capacity-building process to identify local partners' needs and develop and launch tailored capacity development interventions to address them. The project provided partners with a Training of Trainers (ToT) on community youth mapping (CYM) to equip them with necessary tools to meaningfully mobilize vulnerable youth in mapping VE factors, and the needs, resources, and opportunities available for youth in their communities. Local partners and youth completed the CYM process in 14 Phase three communities, completing a total of 3737 Youth to Youth questionnaires, 415 Youth –to- service providers questionnaires, 407 questionnaires with other stakeholders from CSOs, the public sector, and local authorities, and 24 focus group discussions. Ma3an also made important progress in preparations for its civic engagement component to raise awareness among Tunisian youth on the value of civic participation and engage them in community service. The project received USAID approval to provide technical assistance to the Ministry of Education (MoE) to develop a roadmap and action plan to revise, update, and disseminate the National Civic Education curriculum to all primary and secondary schools. Based on a series of discussions with the MoE, Ma3an proposed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) detailing the support Ma3an will provide to support the MoE in achieving its goal. Youth Mentors continued their activities to engage youth and build their capacity to address community needs and serve as role models for their peers. Youth Mentors have been particularly successful in reaching vulnerable youth, including through strengthened partnerships and collaboration with local stakeholders in their communities to host their activities at local youth centers, coworking spaces, and other community-based locations.