The North East Youth Initiative for Development (NEYIF), in partnership with Alyateem and with support from the Global Community Engagement and Resilience Fund (GCERF), is set to host a two-day Community of Practice (CoP) workshop on Preventing Violent Extremism (PVE) Sustainability and Exit Plan in Sokoto.
According to the Executive Director of NEYIF, Dauda Muhammed Gombe in an interview with TheStories, the event, scheduled for September 29–30, 2025 at Dankani Guest Palace, Sokoto, will bring together stakeholders from Northwest States. It aims to consolidate the achievements of the P/CVE project implemented in states.
He said that the CoP will serve as a platform for stakeholders—including youth, traditional and religious leaders, community-based organizations (CBOs), media practitioners, security agencies, and government officials—to share experiences, strengthen collaboration, and develop a roadmap for sustaining peacebuilding efforts beyond the project’s lifecycle.
The focus of the workshop is to facilitate knowledge sharing by exchanging lessons and success stories from PVE activities across the Northwest; build capacity of stakeholders in PVE strategies, conflict resolution, and community mobilization; strengthen collaboration between CBOs, youth, traditional leaders, media, and security agencies, and develop an exit strategy that embeds PVE activities into community structures and ensures local ownership.
At the workshop, the participants, through panel discussions, breakout sessions, storytelling, and action planning, will examine local drivers of extremism, highlight innovative peace initiatives, and draft a sustainability roadmap.
The expected outcomes at the end of the workshop, will be strengthened networks of practitioners committed to ongoing PVE collaboration; documentation of best practices such as radio programs, cultural events, and social media campaigns; integration of PVE activities into CBOs, schools, and governance structures, and greater community ownership of peacebuilding efforts.
Gombe observed that CoP, which is part of a broader GCERF-supported initiative across the seven Northwest states to institutionalize PVE activities and foster regional cooperation, will leave behind resilient communities capable of resisting violent extremism and promoting lasting peace in the North-West.
