The surge in violent extremism in sub-Saharan Africa undermines hard-won development gains and threatens to hold back progress for generations to come. The need to improve understanding of what drives violent extremism in Africa, and what can be done to prevent it, has never been more urgent.
Against this backdrop of the surge in violent extremism in sub- Saharan Africa, and the continued prioritization of security-driven responses, UNDP initiated a follow-up study, Journey to Extremism in Africa: Pathways to Recruitment and Disengagement in 2020.
The research was developed to strengthen and refine the evidence base established in 2017, as well as to update and expand the scope of the research, tracking variations in relation to the findings of the first report: Journey to Extremism in Africa: Drivers, Incentives and the Tipping Point for Recruitment. The Journey to Extremism 2.0 report reaffirms many of the findings and insights revealed by UNDP’s 2017 study on the wide range of factors that may influence an individual’s journey to extremism. It deepens our understanding of a process through which structural factors intersect with individual experiences to inculcate a unique
worldview on matters of politics, religion and ideology and that directs the individual towards or away from the path of violent extremism. While for the most part, the new study reinforces the earlier findings, it also reveals some significant variations. These are reflective of the changing nature and context in which VE groups evolve and expand their footprint on the continent. They also reflect shifts over time in perceptions towards the state and the
social contract between citizen and the state, as local capacities, despite enormous resilience, are being tested in situations where incomplete progress towards development and missed opportunities reverberate.