Thanks to funding from the US Embassy in N’Djamena, the Early Warning and Rapid Response Pilot Project for Vulnerable Communities in Chad promotes conflict mitigation and reconciliation among communities at risk of recruitment and radicalization to violence through the design, implementation, and support of local early warning and rapid response mechanisms in communities selected for the existence of communal conflicts that create an enabling environment for violent extremism. The project seeks to establish two pilot mechanisms to constructively address the conflicts that drive violent extremism through building local capacity to gather, analyze, and validate information related to emergent conflicts and supporting local capacity to prevent and resolve conflict through community dialogue, mediation. The project also aims to create local rapid response structures that facilitate the coordinated early warning of and rapid response to conflict and develop a model pilot program that can be replicated in other communities through other funding streams.
The project envisions training and consultation activities for community-based and international organizations, churches, mosques, schools, youth and women’s groups, media, and the local authorities in two pilot communities. Activities include demonstration early warning and rapid response exercises; facilitation of community forums; coaching for organizational development and strategic planning; field visits and observations; and monitoring and evaluation. As a result of these two missions, at least 40 beneficiaries will have gained capacity through intensive experiential learning in their own home context, as well as developed the structures and procedures for their own early warning and rapid response system
