ISTANBUL, Turkey

On 12 – 15 October 2021, UNRCCA Preventive Diplomacy Academy (PDA) and UNOCT co-organized the Central Asian Youth Dialogue in Istanbul, Turkey, in a hybrid format with 34 PDA students and graduates from all Central Asian countries.

The event was organized within the framework of the UN-EU initiative Strengthening Resilience Against Violent Extremism (STRIVE Asia) and the regional joint UNOCT-UNCCT and UNRCCA project “Towards the Implementation of the Joint Plan of Action for the United Nations Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy in Central Asia.”

The sessions were facilitated by six civil society experts on counter-terrorism and counter-extremism from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan to exchange the experience of identifying and resisting violent extremism and terrorism.

The regional Dialogue aimed to empower Central Asian youth activists by offering them a platform to discuss challenges and opportunities to resist the existing civil societies challenges and upgrade the PDA networking. In addition, this Dialogue was targeted at promoting the balanced implementation of their respective National Action Plans to prevent violent extremism.

The expected outcome of the Dialogue is to enhance the national capacities of young leaders, including women; youth structures, and networks, to promote the balanced and coordinated implementation of the National Action Plans in the Central Asian region.