In honor of marking the international day for the fight against violent extremism, for the first time set by UN.

On 13.02.2023 Open Gate conducted a presentation of the final results of “Research on the socioeconomic context for radicalization and violent extremism in the target municipalities”.

The event was opened by the program director of Open Gate, Marija Todorovska, together with the National Coordinator for the Prevention of Violent Extremism and Combating Terrorism, Zlatko Apostoloski, who together gave an overview of the importance of international and national efforts to prevent the problem of violent extremism.

The National Coordinator welcomed the initiative to conduct such research and cooperation with scientific institutions, emphasized the importance of the socioeconomic context in relation to radicalization and violent extremism, the importance of the media in creating public opinion, as well as cooperation with civil society organizations, religious and local communities.

The research team presented the insights and final results of the research to the attendees. As one of the most important conclusions was that local communities have not yet built resilience to identify and prevent violent extremism and need to strengthen their efforts in terms of four aspects: addressing local community vulnerability, local community capacities and resilience, supporting the vulnerable groups and rehabilitation and reintegration.

The presentation of the research was followed by a discussion with the attendees, where non-governmental organizations, institutions, professors, including representatives from the Rufai khanqah in Skopje, took part.

You can read the research report at the following link.