This briefing paper aims at providing practical guidance to practitioners working to monitor National Action Plans on Preventing Violent Extremism (PVE) to help ensure that the monitoring process and tools developed are aligned with emerging good practice and incorporate lessons learned from different contexts.
The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the United Nations Office of CounterTerrorism (UNOCT) have been working with states to support the development, implementation and monitoring of effective PVE National Action Plans (NAPs), which take a whole-of-government and society approach, are grounded in human rights, promote respect for the principle of equality before the law and are aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and 2030 Agenda.
Since 2015, there has been a growth in the development of NAPs on PVE. Stages in development or implementation vary across contexts, as well as the framing and approaches contained within each plan. As National Strategies on PVE are operationalised into NAPs, questions remain on the most effective and appropriate way to monitor implementation, progress and crucially impact of these plans. National governments, implementing partners and national and local stakeholders in the NAP process face common challenges including: Theory of Change (ToC) development, design of consistent metrics for measurement and fit-for-purpose indicators, varying capacities for monitoring and evaluation (M&E), challenges in efficient, safe and secure data management, challenges in open information and knowledge exchange and learning. Policy, political and security environments in which NAPs are developed and rolled out vary significantly and influence the NAPs’ design, implementation, M&E and dissemination. This briefing paper has been designed to help address these questions.
