Office of Transition Initiatives BOSNIA & HERZEGOVINA RESILIENCE INITIATIVE (BHRI) QUARTERLY REPORT (FY 2018 QIII, APRIL I – JUNE 30 2018)

Quarterly I. Context Quick Facts (BiH) and other countries in the Western Balkan region continue to face major challenges, Cleared Grants 14 including socioeconomic gridlock, perceived corruption within a wide range of sectors, unresolved legacies from the 1990’s 2 Completed Grants conflicts, and youth disenfranchisement. At the same time, a hardening of positions across communities along ethnic lines 0 Closed Grants limits the ability of key decision makers to respond to challenges with solutions that benefit all members of society. These and $ 3,766,873 other factors have created a conducive environment for the Total Amount Obligated proliferation of fundamentalist extremist ideologies across the Balkan region, where small, yet vocal and active groups have 10,716 developed around these ideologies. This has led to an increase in different forms of violent extremism (VE), both ethnic and Total Planned Beneficiaries religious in nature, placing already precarious intra-community relations in BiH, post-war arrangements and, ultimately, peaceful Areas of Operation coexistence in the country and the surrounding region at-risk. Brcko Distrikt Region Of note in this reporting period, there were changes to the Canton availability of user data online and how research firms can Region interact with Facebook. This will inevitably change the landscape Canton of how online research can be performed in order to comply with Una-Sana Canton these new regulations to protect user data. In addition, this - Canton reporting period has seen an increase in cross-border migration through BiH and the region. This is being discussed regularly in the media due to concerns of potentially destabilizing effects.

In this context, the Bosnia and Herzegovina Resilience Initiative (BHRI) facilitates small grants to deliver high-impact programming designed to increase community resilience to radicalization and recruitment by violent extremist actors, to dilute and disrupt the influence of radical narratives and to establish a functional system of institutional and community actors able to mitigate escalatory violence. This flexible, adaptive and focused approach promotes positive interactions between local authorities and communities that foster discussion and

peacebuilding and, in so doing, mitigate the drivers of VE and undermine recruitment efforts overall.

II. Project Updates

Of the total 18 activities under implementation during the reporting period, the following three highlight a variety of BHRI activities across BiH:

Youth Bike Race for Unity: This activity aims to reduce marginalization and divisive factors affecting community cohesion among youth through participation in social and sports activities. The area suffers from a fractured political and social environment resulting in periodic intra-community tensions. BHRI is creating marked cycling tracks highlighting local history and culture that will promote common historical and cultural heritage. In addition, there are a variety of cycling workshops and events encouraging group engagement. Outreach and visibility activities are underway, including the establishment of the first of the three planned cycling schools in the region. BHRI supplied the grantee with the bicycles and they are in the process of obtaining the urban planning permit for construction of the bike path. The provision of BHRI support to this initiative aims to help foster a sense of agency and hope among young people, which in turn will contribute to strengthening the community’s resilience to avenues towards VE.

Tradition and Technology: Using Education and Culture to Engage Youth: This activity provides youth in and around the community with opportunities for rewarding engagement and participation in education and culture. BHRI is partially refurbishing and equipping a space in the local community council building, turning it into a learning space that provides foreign language courses and IT classes, skills highly desirable among local youth. This activity works with marginalized youth who are considered less resilient to potential local enablers of violent extremism and lack opportunities for productive youth engagement. BHRI partners with local stakeholders working in the field of culture. By providing positive cultural and educational alternatives to youth, this assistance aspires to contribute to building community resilience to radicalization and recruitment by radical extremist groups.

Youth Leadership Turning a Vision into Reality: This activity is providing youth with opportunities for constructive community involvement under dynamic youth leadership. BHRI has partially refurbished and equipped a public space run by the recently elected youth leaders of the neighborhood council, turning it into a Community Center that provides positive youth engagement activities such as language and IT workshops and employment counselling. The renewed space, IT equipment, and furniture have been very well received by the community. Outreach is ongoing, including social media engagement and promotional activities. By providing the adequate gathering space to youth and offering them productive activities that will raise their knowledge in different subjects, this assistance endeavors to increase the community’s resilience to forms of malignant influences. III. Programmatic Highlights

Action Research: As the program continues to deepen its understanding of the VE landscape in BiH, BHRI initiated five research activities during the quarter. These activities focus on online radicalization and VE; ethno-nationalist extremist groups; grassroots resilience to extremism primarily through civil society, youth, and arts; the polarization of ethno-nationalist extremism; and the capacity of local media analytics. An ongoing research grant initiated in the previous quarter is evaluating the role and impact of the internet and online space on religiously motivated radicalization and VE in BiH. All research activities are intended to provide guidance for current and future programming, as well as to enrich and increase capacities and knowledge about best practices in combating VE in BiH and the Western Balkan region.

Focus on Messaging: Throughout this quarter, particular focus has been dedicated to learning and programming that seeks to disrupt and reduce the influence of radical messaging and recruitment efforts. In doing so, this quarter has included several activities focused on messaging process related to online radicalization and VE, online extremists’ platforms, ethno-nationalist extremist groups, online alternative messaging for youth, positive examples of inter-ethnic cooperation through cultural events, evaluating the capacity of local media analytics, and supporting critical thinking through political satire.

Field Assessments: Field assessments were conducted in areas where there are assumptions that extreme ethno-nationalism are on the increase. This was bolstered by assessments carried out as part of various projects. These field assessments have allowed BHRI to gain a more thorough understanding of the nature of extreme ethno-nationalism and how it functions at the community level, as well as to start developing tentative approaches to counter it. Initial grants, resulting from the field assessments, will seek to mitigate inter-ethnic tensions that feed into exclusivist ethno-national narratives and to provide various social and cultural alternatives.

Meetings with Key Stakeholders: During this quarter BHRI refined its list of key stakeholders at the community level. Cultural activists, artists, and musicians featured more prominently in this quarter, as well as digital media specialists. The focused group of stakeholders is a result of programming intended to increase efforts to reduce the influence of radical messaging and recruitment efforts, as well as to produce counter-narratives through a wide variety of initiatives that will be well received by the stakeholders and target audience in local communities.

Field-based Orientation and Strategy Workshop: All BHRI staff participated in a two-day facilitated workshop that served as an initial field-based orientation and strategy session for the team. The workshop sought to meet four main objectives: (1) delve into key programming principles; (2) establish theory of change and rolling assessment as daily practices; (3) provide a forum to build a shared strategic and programmatic vision; and (4) refine BHRI’s initial strategic parameters and identify lines of effort. The key outcomes and discussions of the event included: the refinement of the program’s objectives; the introduction of clusters that align with these objectives; targeting of actors (i.e. youth, emergent leaders, and local groups); and targeting of geographic areas. The workshop further enabled the team to start developing theories of change and assumptions for each of the revised objectives.

Monitoring and Evaluation: Program staff participated in an eight-day series of meetings and workshops that provided training on M&E practices and program learning, and reviewed the existing M&E structure and systems. Following these sessions, the program’s M&E Plan was developed that serves to capture BHRI’s strategic framework for the purposes of performance management and to outline BHRI’s M&E procedures, tools, and systems at the activity, program, and strategic levels. The M&E Plan succinctly outlines the problem statement and theory of change for each of the program objectives. In addition, the plan provides the theory of change for each cluster outcome.