The impact of COVID-19 on gendered approaches to Preventing and Countering Violent Extremism (P/CVE) in Indonesia

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has proven to be a global crisis that defies comparison in modern memory. As governments rush to respond to the ongoing public health crisis, funds and focus on non- traditional security efforts, such as gendered preventing and countering violent extremism (P/CVE) projects have risked falling by the wayside. This is made all the more troubling because periods of strife such as the pandemic provide fertile environments for violent extremist groups to grow. The novel nature of this phenomenon has meant a lack of substantial research on the gendered impacts of the pandemic on violent extremism and P/CVE. As such, this project seeks to address two research questions through the case study of Indonesia. This project firstly seeks to answer how the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted gendered radicalisation drivers and motivations in Indonesia? Moreover, what has been the impacts of the pandemic on gender- sensitive P/CVE programming in Indonesia? The data for this project was collected through the conduction of key-informant semi-structured interviews with members of civil society stakeholders in Indonesia's gendered P/CVE space and a thematic document analysis of publications from various reputable entities. The information gather was then analysed through the lens of Wickham, Capezza...