Expert Meeting on Monitoring and Evaluation of CVE Measures

On 28 June, a number of experts on security, radicalisation and terrorism met in Leiden University’s campus in The Hague (Netherlands) to discuss the opportunities, challenges faced and lessons learned in conducting monitoring and evaluations of programmes operating in the field of countering violent extremism (CVE). Participants came from the public, private and academic sectors, each providing unique insights into innovative techniques and emerging high-profile products and practices concerning CVE evaluation.

Ben Baruch from RAND Europe attended the meeting, sharing his experience and the lessons learned through the IMPACT Europe project. In his presentation, Mr. Baruch gave particular attention to methodological, political and other challenges evaluators and practitioners are faced with when conducting evaluations of CVE and PVE programmes. The event saw also the participation of another IMPACT Europe expert, Dr. Helma van den Berg of TNO who discussed, among other aspects of her work, the findings of the IMPACT Europe Synthesis report on the state-of-the-art in evaluating the effectiveness of counter-violent extremism interventions.

The audience was also treated to a demonstration of use of the IMPACT Europe evaluation toolkit prototype. Mr. Baruch used a series of scenarios and hypothetical examples to show attendants how the IMPACT Europe toolkit can provide CVE practitioners, among other functionalities, with a step-by-step, interactive advice on how to plan and run an evaluation of their work. The demonstration effectively showed how the toolkit could aid different organisations working in CVE to generate tailored evaluations designs by giving them access to information and operational instructions on tried-and-tested evaluation methods and approaches.

[Image shared by Tom Roeleveld via Flickr; CC BY 2.0]