Everybody speaks about evaluation and good practice in preventing violent extremism (PVE). But nobody wants to talk about good and bad governance in PVE policy making and program design. For example: Inter-agency-cooperation between state and civil society! It’s crucial for good governance! Everybody claims inter-agency cooperation – promising to set us “on eye level with our policy makers”. But inter-agency is messed up all the time. And nobody dares to address this in any degree of openness.
Why is inter-agency cooperation between government and civil society so crucial for good governance in PVE? It’s like with parents and kids. Parents have the power, they are the policy makers. What they say and how they behave defines what is policy. On the other side, the kids are the practitioners who are supposed to implement the policies and thus create future – and peaceful and prosperous community. Hence, parents and kids are in an inter-agency-cooperation, and much depends on how well they do this.
The task is not easy! Parents sometimes really mess things up a lot! They tell nonsense, insist on it, act egotistically, delude themselves, don’t respond to their kids – and dismiss them, in case the kids tell them off. That is if the kids of such parents have miraculously kept the ability to tell their parents off. Because normally, these kids are at risk of being driven towards mental illness, drug use – or towards violent extremism, as studies on parenting styles have shown.
