Office of Transition Initiatives BOSNIA & RESILIENCE INITIATIVE (BHRI) QUARTERLY REPORT (FY 2019 Q2, January 1 – March 31 2019)

Quarterly I. Context

Quick Facts (BiH) and other countries in the Western Balkan region continue to face major challenges, 17 Cleared Grants including socioeconomic gridlock, perceived corruption within a wide range of sectors, unresolved legacies from the 1990s 15 Completed Grant conflicts, and youth disenfranchisement. At the same time, a hardening of positions across communities along ethnic lines 6 Closed Grants limits the ability of key decision makers to respond to challenges with solutions that benefit all members of society. These factors have led to an increase in different forms of $ 8,266,873 violent extremism (VE), both ethnic and religious in nature, Total Amount Obligated placing already precarious intra-community relations in BiH, post-war arrangements and, ultimately, peaceful coexistence in 27,751 the country and the surrounding region at risk. Total Planned Beneficiaries This reporting period was marked with continued stalemate regarding formation of the government. As of March 31, the Areas of Operation Council of Ministers of BiH has not been formed, nor were a few Region lower level governments, following the general elections in Region October 2018. Instead, the major political parties announced Brčko District agenda items that only created division, including several pronouncements of an independent (RS) by Herzeg-Bosnia Canton chairman of the Presidency and a challenge from SDA leaders Herzegovina-Neretva Canton to the name of RS in the Constitutional Court. Cross-border Region migration through BiH remains an issue with almost twice as Canton many arrivals being detected in 2019 than over the same period Region in 2018. BiH’s institutions continue to struggle to come to an Canton agreement on how to respond to the influx. Una-Sana Canton West Herzegovina Canton In this context, the Bosnia and Herzegovina Resilience Initiative - Canton (BHRI) implements small grants to deliver high-impact programming designed to reduce the threat of violent extremism in BiH and counter extremist efforts to deepen or exploit communal tensions. BHRI aims to: increase community resilience to radicalization and recruitment by violent extremist actors; dilute and disrupt the influence of radical narratives; and strengthen the ability of institutional and community actors to mitigate and respond to escalatory violence. This flexible,

adaptive and focused approach promotes positive interactions between local authorities and communities and, in so doing, mitigates the drivers of VE and undermines recruitment efforts overall.

II. Project Updates

A total of 36 activities were under implementation across BiH during the reporting period, with three highlighted below:

Building Positive Links for At-Risk Youth through Extreme Sports in Prijedor: Prijedor remains one of BiH’s most divided communities, with regular instances of ethnically-motivated hate crimes. It was the site of some of the worst atrocities of the War in Bosnia and Herzegovina of the 1990s and this legacy continues to act as an open wound between Serb and Bosniak communities. In recent times, Prijedor has seen the establishment of extreme ethno-nationalist and neo-Nazi groups who actively try to recruit younger members. Additionally, young people from Prijedor were also reported to have joined the Islamic State, further highlighting its vulnerability to violent extremist influence. With that backdrop, BHRI established an extreme sports hall which had its grand opening on March 4. Around 70 young people attended the ceremony and, together with local professional athletes, tested the equipment and learned how to the use the newly installed climbing wall. The extreme sports hall is now officially open to anyone interested in extreme sports. Intensive outreach among marginalized youth in Prijedor will mean that the extreme sports hall will offer opportunities for building constructive relationships between youth of different ethnic backgrounds who are exposed to extremist influences. The local extreme-sports club from Prijedor was lacking proper equipment and, now with BHRI’s support, they expect to attract many more youth from Prijedor, and even from the neighboring municipalities. It is expected that around 130 young people from urban and rural parts of Prijedor will engage regularly per week in the activities offered by the club.

Turn Up the Volume! Youth Stories through Radio in Krajina: To lessen divides surrounding war legacies that strengthen extremist ideological positions, BHRI is working to increase youth engagement on constructive narratives relating to everyday life. In Velika Kladuša and the wider Krajina region, post-war inter-community conflicts and negative rhetoric related to the influx of migrants have increased societal pressures. To reduce community tensions, BHRI in partnership with a local media outlet supported the creation of a set of twelve radio shows promoting positive stories from communities that receive little or no exposure through mainstream local media. Engaging and presenting success stories of youth from this region is expected to boost the radio’s outreach, particularly amongst youth and their peers, and to introduce human interest stories that offer an alternative to hardline, exclusionary and radicalizing narratives. The shows also encourage community discussion, featuring open hotline sessions, caller Q&A, discussions and feedback. BHRI in partnership with the local partner ensured that the shows carried a high level of both traditional and online media visibility, generating widespread interest.

Assessing the Potential of Security Forums to Respond to Violent Extremism in Republika Srpska: This research activity aims to increase understanding of the role and capacities of Security Forums (SF) in Republika Srpska to respond to acts of VE. The results of the assessment will enable BHRI to strengthen the ability of institutional and community actors to mitigate and respond to escalatory violence. The need for adequate preparation and response is pressing in BiH given the country's fragile environment and the fact that a strategically targeted act could do substantial damage in terms of escalating violence, reinforcing stereotypes and divisions, and empowering extremist narratives on all sides. To this end, BHRI is supporting a research firm that is conducting an assessment on the potential role that SFs in RS can play in preventing and responding to VE, based on analysis of SFs in four RS towns.

III. Programmatic Highlights

Banja Luka Branch Office: In line with the plan for the Banja Luka area devised at BHRI’s Strategic Review Session in late October 2018, the Banja Luka Area Development Officer worked on mapping potential partners, identifying issues of relevance to BHRI’s objectives, and finally, on developing concrete activities. Accordingly, the program launched its first three activities in Banja Luka with three local civil society organizations during the reporting period. Simultaneously, this period was used to present the program and its objectives to various actors in Banja Luka and its neighboring municipalities, thus building rapport and demonstrating BHRI’s commitment to issues relevant for local communities. Finally, the Banja Luka office became operational in the second half of March and recruited a new Project Advisor further bolstering BHRI’s capacity to identify new activities and partners.

Monitoring and Evaluation Tools Upgraded: The monitoring and evaluation (M&E) system of BHRI has been refined through the addition of several new instruments. Trackers for lessons learned and assumptions have been introduced as a means to improve monitoring, evaluation and learning from project experiences. Monthly meetings are held to present the main findings. Furthermore, M&E plans are incorporating new approaches to media posts and comments repositories, beneficiary questionnaires, and attendance registers in order to ensure timely information about awardees’ achievements in involving media and beneficiaries in activities. Recently, BHRI’s M&E repertoire has been upgraded with analysis of higher level outcome change, such as domains of change at cluster level including personal transformation, transforming relationships, transforming collective patterns of actions, and transforming structures and processes. Capturing changes at these domains required modification of M&E systems to strive to ascertain the cumulative effect of several activities within the same cluster. The most prominent development is in the integration of the Most Significant Change (Msc) Methodology in the M&E plans. Msc enables the program to continuously track feedback from beneficiaries and partners about perceived change over time.

Digital Media Platforms: During the reporting period, USAID/OTI’s Technology Advisor for Field Programs conducted a visit to BHRI to support the team in developing digital media plans in line with regional action plans and media amplification. As a result of this training, BHRI staff have increased their knowledge and understanding on media amplification tools; how to optimize a content series for online campaigns; what and how to measure for media interventions; guidance for Facebook insights and ad managers; and how to link the Google keyword research and keyword planner. Lastly, the advisor suggested improvements to BHRI’s use of technical partners dealing with media and provided support to the BHRI team and the partners in improving their digital media communications and activity amplification. Beyond these on-site developments, a BHRI staff member traveled to Ukraine to participate in USAID/OTI’s Ukraine Confidence Building Initiative supported Plan B Festival of Social Innovations in February. The event’s key topics focused on urban development, culture as a driver of change, and human rights.