Preventing/countering violent extremism and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals : an impact nexus

In light of the SDG agenda, approaches to P/CVE can be reframed by addressing predominant underlying factors of poverty, inequality, and violent extremism that regularly meet with fragility. It is however a two-way street. The relationship is best framed as one of mutual benefit between programming that supports complementary goals. P/CVE can prove a valuable vehicle for bringing together state officials, law enforcement agencies, civil society, and communities to formulate collaborative strategies. P/CVE actors have already laid some valuable groundwork through efforts to enhance community resilience, strengthen community policing, and foster greater understanding of the drivers (Fink & Bhulai, 2016). It is important to emphasise the integration of SDGs in P/CVE so as to keep in mind that state responses to countering violent extremism can mask larger democratisation demands in society. Without that integration, widespread economic violence sustained by the State in the name of countering extremism might be justified (Huff et al., 2016). It is thus essential that policy responses do not externalise the debate on conflict management, which is key to state and national cohesion. Some other recommendations for policy makers to improve P/CVE approaches by integrating the SDG agenda include the consideration of the roots of extremism when addressing peacebuilding efforts. It is also important to balance short-term, medium-term, and long-term objectives and its investment to properly address extremism comprehensively. Moreover, public spending should be aligned with the SDGs. Member states should therefore allow for an inclusive, transparent, and accountable open budget and legislative mechanisms that ensure social participation and ownership at the local level (Schiano et al., 2017). Vice versa, in order to optimise the efficiency and impact of development programmes with integrated P/CVE objectives, it is recommended to establish a baseline of knowledge on the interaction between security and development in ...