Tunisia CVE Prison Project Final Report Award number: DSH-4000000984 Reporting Period: January 1, 2018 - November 30, 2020 Contact Imen Belhedi Bouraoui Ouni Country Director Senior Project Manager Search for Common Ground-Tunisia Search for Common Ground-Tunisia 3, Rue Florence, Mutuelleville, Tunis 3, Rue Florence, Mutuelleville, Tunis Tel +216 98 775 411 Tel +216 98 743 805 [email protected] [email protected] Acronyms Search Search for Common Ground Search-Tunisia Search for Common Ground-Tunisia DGPR Tunisian Directorate-General for Prisons and Re-education CDC Child Detention Center CDIS Social Defense and Integration Centers CSO Civil society organization NGO Non-governmental organization CT Commission National Commission on Counter-Terrorism VEP Violent Extremist Prisoner RFTF Returning foreign terrorist fighter R&R Rehabilitation and reintegration M&E Monitoring and Evaluation MoJ Ministry of Justice MoSA Ministry of Social Affairs ToRs Terms of Reference DEI Droit Enfants International 2 Contents Executive Summary .................................................................................................................... 4 1. Background ............................................................................................................................ 6 2. Activities Implemented ............................................................................................................ 7 2.1 Start-Up Activities ............................................................................................................................ 7 2.1.1 Stakeholder Mapping (2018) ...................................................................................................... 7 2.2 Activities Contributing to Objective 1 ............................................................................................ 7 2.2.1 Training program on management, rehabilitation, and reintegration of VEPs and RFTFs for DGPR officials ............................................................................................................................... 7 2.2.2 Training program for CDCs and Social Defence and Integration Centers (CDIS) personnel on conflict transformation and mediation......................................................................................... 10 2.2.3 Regional Study Visits for DGPR Staff ...................................................................................... 15 2.2.4 International Study Visits for DGPR Staff............................................................................... 15 2.3 Activities Contributing to Objective 2 .......................................................................................... 16 2.3.1 National Workshop on the Management, Rehabilitation, and Socio-Economic Reintegration of VEPs and FTFs Returning from Tension Zones (9-10 October 2018) ....................................... 16 2.3.2 National Dialogue Forum on the Management and Rehabilitation of Juvenile Offenders (Tunis, 11 June 2019) ........................................................................................................................ 17 2.3.3 National Dialogue on the Rehabilitation and Sustainable Socio-Economic Reintegration of All Categories of Inmates, including VEPs and RFTFs (Tunis, 27-28 June 2019) ........................ 17 2.3.4 Retreats on Societal Engagement on in the Rehabilitation and Reintegration of Inmates ... 18 2.3.5 Small Grant Program ................................................................................................................ 19 2.4 COVID-19 Response Activities ...................................................................................................... 24 3. Challenges and Adaptations ....................................................................................................27 4. Impact ...................................................................................................................................27 5. Outcome Indicator Tracking Table .........................................................................................30 3 Executive Summary On December 4, 2017, Search for Common Ground-Tunisia (Search-Tunisia) and the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Stabilisation and Humanitarian Aid Department signed a Grant Decision to fund a second phase of the prison project implemented by Search-Tunisia from December 1, 2015, to October 31, 2017. The overall objective of the second phase was to prevent engagement with violent ideologies amongst adult and young Tunisian detainees during and after their period of detention through improved rehabilitation and reintegration programming. Search aimed to achieve this objective through the following specific outcomes: 1. Enhance the capacity of the staff of the Directorate-General for Prisons and Re-education (DGPR) of prisons, and of Child Detention Centers (CDCs) to manage, rehabilitate, and reintegrate adult and young detainees, including violent extremist prisoners (VEPs) and imprisoned returning foreign terrorist fighters (RFTFs), in line with international human rights standards for the treatment of detainees. 2. Increase cooperation and coordination between state and non-state stakeholders in efforts to rehabilitate and reintegrate detainees, including VEPs and RFTFs. Programmatic activities implemented between January 2018 and November 2020 centered attention on themes of rehabilitation and reintegration (R&R) as they related to the incarcerated experience of adult detainees and juveniles in prisons and CDCs based on international human rights standards. As a result of these activities, the project had the following impacts in line with its objectives: ● It directly developed the capacities of 236 DGPR staff and 44 staff from the Ministry of Social Affairs (MoSA) in the management of conflict and radicalization through workshops and trainings, indirectly reaching many more staff members from both institutions as a result of implemented Trainings of Trainers (ToTs). 95% of DGPR senior- and mid-level staff demonstrated more than 50% increase their knowledge in management and rehabilitation of VEPs and RFTFs, while 82% of CDC staff and 64% of CDIS staff increased their knowledge in conflict transformation and mediation. ● Sparked an irreversible process of strategic reflection and collaboration on the issue of detainee and ex-detainee R&R through a series of national dialogues and international study exchanges between stakeholders from Tunisian prison institutions, relevant CSOs, Moroccan counterparts, and Belgian NGOs, effectively promoting communication channels for sustainable collaboration and best-practices exchange. 85.7% of stakeholders involved in these dialogues reported an increase in collaboration around issues related to rehabilitation and reintegration of adults and juvenile inmates as a result of the project. ● Provided capacity-building and financial support to nine local CSOs to implement proposed small grant programs directly benefitting 54 ex-detainees throughout the R&R process, as reported by beneficiaries and CSOs during the external final evaluation; and ● Adapted the project to the COVID-19 pandemic and collaborated with CSO partners to deliver sanitary materials and promote safe health practices to prevent the spread of the virus in Tunisia. 4 Over the course of this project’s implementation period, several challenges presented themselves, providing Search with learning opportunities to refine its program management for future projects. Key challenges included the following: ● The DGPR and the Ministry of Justice unexpectedly pulled out of the project midway through the implementation period, depriving Search of an institutional partner with which to work. ○ Search mitigated this challenge by reorienting its originally planned programmatic activities through a quickly assembled mitigation plan underpinned by a new institutional partnership with the MoSA, allowing original project objectives to be achieved. ● The COVID-19 pandemic and the corresponding lockdown enforced by the Tunisian government threatened to greatly disrupt programming during 2020, especially given the institutional lack of equipment required to conduct activities online. ○ When possible, Search utilized online platforms to hold meetings, and in one instance substituted a full day of virtual exchange with Belgian institution and NGO representatives in lieu of a full international visit. However, acknowledging the reality of this new working environment, Search amended the project to include the provision of laptops and headsets to MoSA units to ensure internally-led trainings could continue as scheduled. Finally, Search used the pandemic as an opportunity to develop the crisis-management skills of CSOs and government institutions by incorporating pragmatic discussions of COVID-19 during workshops. 5 1. Background Since December 2015, Search has been implementing the Deradicalization in Tunisian Correctional Institutions through Rehabilitation and Reintegration of Detainees project with the support of the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs to promote deradicalization from violent ideologies amongst Tunisian detainees. This project built on the fruitful relationships Search established with the MoJ, the DGPR, and the National Counter-Terrorism Commission (CT Commission) during the first phase of the project, securing buy-in from these institutional stakeholders to support a significant expansion of Search’s capacity-building program for prison