ActionAid Nigeria has launched the third phase of System and Structure Strengthening Approach Against Radicalisation to Violent Extremism (SARVE III) to reduce the proneness of 165,360 residents of Kaduna state to violent extremism.
The programme, whose first and second phases were successfully introduced in Kogi and Nasarawa states, is expected to run for three years aimed at enhancing the resilience of 12 communities in six local government areas of Kaduna state to violence extremism.
It will provide livelihood opportunities and training for young people and women prone to extreme violence within the identified communities.
The programme targets Damishi and Kujama in Chikun local government, Nariya Kudenda and Turunku in Igabi local government, Takau and Ungwan Masara in Jema’a local government, Gumel and Kachia in Kachia local government, Kudan and Likoro in Kudan local government and Gwargwaje and Wusasa in Zaria local government. It will also cover 12 communities in six local governments of Kano state.
Speaking at the launch in Kaduna friday, after paying a courtesy visit on the deputy governor, Dr. Hadiza Balarabe, the Country Director ActionAid Nigeria, Ene Obi, said AA had worked for “22 years in Nigeria as an anti-poverty NGO in poor and excluded communities to fight poverty and promote social justice across the 36 states.”
“We have within the last one month started engagements with stakeholders and with the launch of SARVE III today, all these successes and gains will further be consolidated. The breakdown of unemployment rates in Nigerian states reported by BudgIT in October 2021 ranks Kaduna state 10th with 67.0% just after Borno state which has 67.1%. This implies that more than half of the state’s population is not gainfully employed,” she said.
Ene, who was represented by the Director of Programmes, Suwaiba Muhammad Dankabo, said ActionAid with the support of state government, stakeholders media and Global Peace Development (GPD) through SARVE III project “will radically address unemployment as a key driver of extremism, among other challenges.”
