The project Enabling Central Asians to Protect Religious Freedom as a Preventative Approach to Addressing Violent Extremism was implemented in four Central Asia countries: Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Kazakhstan. The project was funded by DRL.
This report presents the evaluation findings of the project Protect to Prevent: Enabling Central Asians to Protect Religious Freedom as a Preventative Approach to Addressing Violent Extremism implemented by the Search for Common Ground (Search) Central Asia, in partnership with IDEA Central Asia (Kyrgyzstan), Center for Human Rights Protection Kylym Shamy (Kyrgyzstan), Marifatnoki (Tajikistan) and Kazakhstan International Bureau for Human Rights and Rule of Law (Kazakhstan). The project has applied a dual level approach to effectively respond to violent extremism in a whole-of-society manner; targeting both state and inter-state level, and community level in 6 target locations, two in each country: Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan and Tajikistan. The action’s overall aim was to prevent radicalization that leads to violence by strengthening society’s capacity (state and non-state actors) to reduce discrimination on religious grounds in Central Asia.
The evaluation was performed by an independent evaluator between February-April 2022 using a mix of quantitative and qualitative methods and on principles of action research. The analysis consisted of a review of project related documents and external policy and research papers related to religious radicalization in four target countries.
