Dr. Khalid Koser has been appointed Executive Director of the Global Community Engagement and Resilience Fund (GCERF), the first global effort to support local, community-level initiatives aimed at strengthening resilience against violent extremist agendas.
Dr. Koser, also extraordinary Professor in Conflict, Peace and Security at Maastricht University, said in Davos in early 2015:
There are lots of communities affected by violence and extremism that don't have access to money to find responses to this challenge. Our fund is intended to help fill that funding gap and to help communities build resilience against violent extremism.
As a public-private partnership at the nexus of security and development, GCERF works in partnership and consultation with governments, civil society, and the private sector in beneficiary countries to support national strategies to address the local drivers of violent extremism.
Dr. Koser added:
My fund really is about focusing on where I think the real challenges are, and those are often in poor countries... Far more people are being killed by violent extremism and terrorism in some of the poorer countries around the world.
In 2015 Bangladesh, Mali, Morocco, and Nigeria, have taken the lead to serve as 'pilot' countries for GCERF funding. Via local government and NGOs working at the community level, GCERF will focus its funding on communities at risk of radicalisation to violence.
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