Why localization is key to countering violence and extremism

ST. PAUL, Minn. — While the Global Community Engagement and Resilience Fund has only been operating for six years, it has shown the effectiveness of localization in preventing and countering violence extremism, according to former GCERF Board Chair Carol Bellamy. “You can really provide funding in modest, very significantly small amounts at a local level, and you can build resilience at a local level. It is demonstrated that it actually can produce results,” Bellamy said in a recent exit interview with Devex upon retirement. “[The development sector has] been talking about localization for quite a while. ... We have to work in partnership.” Geneva-based GCERF, which now has over 20 government donors, was announced at the Global Counterterrorism Forum in 2013 by former U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and former Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu in recognition of the insufficient international funding streams for P/CVE work. GCERF exclusively provides funds to local organizations that have support from their national government to ensure alignment with national objectives in preventing violent extremism. “For $20 million a year and $25 million a year, we can make a difference. GCERF makes a difference. That’s chump change.” --— Carol Bellamy, former board chair, GCERF The fund makes two types of grants: a core funding mechanism, which finances projects lasting up to three years by community-level organizations building resilience to violent extremist agendas; and an accelerated funding mechanism, providing more agile financing for projects lasting up to one year in response to emerging situations. After 9/11, an “enormous” amount of counterterrorism funding was allocated for security, law enforcement, and military activity, Bellamy said. GCERF’s goal was to steer more money to prevention efforts, acknowledging that most extremism is caused by people who feel disenfranchised or marginalized in some way. It also sought to reduce “stovepiping” — or separation — between development and humanitarian efforts and counterterrorism work, she said. Bellamy, who previously served as head of UNICEF and Peace Corps, among other positions, said that it is often difficult for governments to allocate funds for P/CVE activities because it is not thought of as being as concrete a budget item as education or health care. “[It] turned out that governments didn't set aside money on PVE. So we had to scrounge and try and figure out where there was some loose change in some places or some leftover money,” she said. “There was no blueprint to start.” While GCERF has modest resources — it just crossed the $100 million mark — Bellamy argued its structure as an independent fund has allowed it to be more nimble and effective working with local communities and organizations. This independence on C/PVE issues — which can be a fraught topic politically — is one of its most valuable assets, she said. Fundraising has involved “a lot of trying to explain what GCERF was,” Bellamy said. That became easier after the fund had been operating for several years, with the organization gaining name recognition and having operational projects it could point to. In 2019, it raised $18.7 million. GCERF worked with the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development to ensure money spent on preventing violent extremism qualified under Development Assistance Committee regulations. “Many of our grantees have never received international funding before in their entire life,” Bellamy said. “It’s also been identifying local recipients who … had some track record of being able to manage money who then could provide that funding to actually even more local entities.” Donors include Australia, Canada, Denmark, the European Union, Japan, New Zealand, Norway, Qatar, and the United States. “For $20 million a year and $25 million a year, we can make a difference. GCERF makes a difference. That’s chump change,” Bellamy said. “A more neutral body like a GCERF is preferable at the very local level because it is very localized, [more] than the U.S. or the French or the Brits or the Qataris or whoever with their flag-waving.” The fund has projects in seven countries: Bangladesh, Kenya, Kosovo, Mali, Nigeria, the Philippines, and Tunisia. New partner countries include Albania and North Macedonia, where GCERF will launch an initiative on returning foreign terrorist fighters, as well as Somalia, with a project addressing socioeconomic drivers of violent extremism. Country strategies for the Sahel region and Sri Lanka were approved at a recent board meeting. Despite an overarching rejection of multilateralism from President Donald Trump’s administration, Bellamy said U.S. support for GCERF remained constant throughout the last four years, with a few “issues” on gender that did not derail its work in any country. She declined to say what she thought the incoming administration of President-elect Joe Biden should do to improve U.S. P/CVE policy but said incoming Secretary of State Antony Blinken previously chaired a GCERF side event at the U.N. General Assembly, an experience Bellamy hopes put the fund on his radar. GCERF is scheduled to hold a replenishment next year. “While not perfect, I think there’s much stronger understanding of what we’re looking for, how to really reach out into the communities,” Bellamy said. “That’s what GCERF is about. We have to work together.”