21/08/2026
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Centre of Excellence on Countering Violent Extremism (KPCVE), in collaboration with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and the National Counter Terrorism Authority (NACTA), with the support of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, organized the first workshop of a four-part technical workshop series on the development of a Community-Based Early Warning and Response System (EWRS) for the Prevention of Violent Extremism (PVE) in Peshawar on 19–20 August 2026. The workshop brought together eminent scholars and stakeholders, including Prof. Dr. Qibla Ayaz, Chairman, Council of Islamic Ideology (CII), along with experts and representatives from academia, civil society organizations, youth leaders, the Counter Terrorism Department (CTD), other line departments and relevant sectors to examine youth-level vulnerabilities and resilience factors, including identity, beliefs and worldviews, psychological wellbeing, personal resilience, social relationships and behaviour. The workshop aimed to identify locally relevant and observable patterns of vulnerability and resilience among young people and generate evidence-informed inputs for practical early warning indicators. The four-workshop series will ultimately lead to a validated, locally grounded EWRS indicator framework, assessing indicators for relevance, measurability, feasibility, data availability, ethical considerations and operational usefulness, which will subsequently inform the development of a digital, community-based Early Warning and Response System designed to support early identification, timely referral, preventive interventions and community resilience-building against violent extremism amongst youth in HEIs.
