CounterterrorismWorld’s first counterterrorism “bank” to finance anti-extremism projects

The world’s first counterterrorism “bank” will next year begin funding projects aiming to stop violent extremism in five of the most “at risk” countries.

In his first major interview since the Global Community Engagement and Resilience Fund (GCERF) was established in Switzerland last month, Khalid Koser told the Guardian that the bank will soon be awarding grants of around $10-$30,000 to small-scale counter-radicalization programs in Mali, Pakistan, Nigeria, Morocco, and Bangladesh. The organization expects to be financing thousands of such programs over the next decade.

The Guardian notes that the initiative was proposed by the Obama administration a few years ago, and is now backed by the United Kingdom, the EC, Australia, Canada, and Qatar, a country accused of financially supporting jihadi groups in Syria. Koser says the bank was created in response to the tens of billions of dollars that have been spent on arms and security in the fight against militants.

“There is a frustration that governments are spending an enormous amount of money on the security and military end,” he said. “I think the international community is at last beginning to realize there is a range of policies.”

He said that fundraising for the foundation is going well. An initial $25 million has already been pledged to get work under way, and the fund is in talks with Google, as well as with Norway and Denmark, to ensure it can disburse hundreds of millions on a long-term basis.

London-born Koser said he will be assisted by his 14-member board, which will include the Tony Blair Faith Foundation and will be chaired by the former director of UNICEF, Carol Bellamy, to help him identify projects to back.

The board will be appointed in mid-November, and Koser will then fly to Pakistan to start talking to potential project leaders. “This is an urgent issue,” he says. “There are communities out there that need the money.”

There are few approaches that have proven to work, but Koser admits that identifying the  reasons that drive young Western men to join Jihadist groups in Syria, or which encourage Buddhist monks in Burma to slaughter Muslims, is not easy.

“There is an approximate notion of what the drivers of radicalization are, but I don’t think it’s accurate,” he says. “This is about empowering the community with small but impactful grants to give us the answers.”

He told the Guardian that the kinds of projects he has in mind are, for example, women working for gender empowerment in Mali, or IT students in Pakistan challenging jihadi messages on social media.

Koser concedes that some of these projects appear to be replicating development work, but he insists that the difference is that these prospective projects will have security outcomes in mind, and that funding will specifically target areas of the world at risk of creating violent combatants, but where there are few resources to tackle the issues.

“There are places in Pakistan now where you give a kid $20 and he’ll go plant an IED for you,” he says. “That kid shouldn’t be doing that. Build a football field, give him a job, give him an education. There must be ways to provide constructive alternatives.”

There are a few thorny issues GCERF must tackle, such as whether the antiterror bank will only finance secular values, or adopt a strategy of divide and rule, supporting non-violent but seemingly radical groups in order to take on those radicals willing to use violence to advance their aims.

“I recognize there will have to be value judgments made as we go forward,” he told the Guardian. “We can spend three years debating this or we can just get some money out there and try.”

Despite the risks, Koser says donor countries are aware of what they are getting themselves into and expect that some projects will ultimately fail.

“There’s an excitement to try this out, and lots of donors who are normally fairly risk averse are willing to take a risk on this.”