Morocco and the EU reaffirm their joint commitment to fight terrorism through education
The Kingdom of Morocco and the European Union recently co-chaired a virtual conference of the Global Counterterrorism Forum (GCTF) initiative on "Education for Preventing and Countering Violent Extremism that Leads to Terrorism".
This event, organised in partnership with the Implementation Centre for Countering Violent Extremism "Hedayah" and in collaboration with the GCTF Working Group on Countering Violent Extremism, aims primarily to identify emerging challenges in this area.
It also serves to address successes and to propose new and better approaches to preventing and countering violent extremism in the field of education.
This initiative also seeks to develop concrete solutions and practical recommendations that can be used by policymakers, law enforcement, educators and civil society actors.
"Good practices in Africa, including the Sahel region, which is the new global epicentre of terrorism, will be examined with a view to drawing relevant lessons in terms of combating and preventing extremism leading to terrorism," says a statement from the Moroccan Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
This initiative is part of the efforts to implement the framework documents and good practices developed by the GCTF, in particular the "Abu Dhabi Memorandum on Good Practices in Education to Counter Violent Extremism".
In addition, the two-year initiative, which will run from 2023 to 2025, will design and deliver a tailor-made training of trainers (ToT) programme for educators to strengthen the resilience of learners to violent extremism.
A set of tools and indicators will also be developed and implemented to assist and support governments' efforts to monitor and evaluate programmes and policies to prevent and counter violent extremism in education.
At its official launch in May 2023 by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, African Cooperation and Moroccans Residing Abroad, Nasser Bourita, and the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Josep Borrell, underlined the role of education as a powerful tool to prevent and combat radicalism and violent extremism and to eradicate extremist ideologies that thrive in precarious environments.
"This initiative demonstrates the privileged partnership and common commitment between the Kingdom of Morocco and the European Union for the promotion of peace, security and development," concludes the official Moroccan communiqué.
