A three-day workshop to enrich the National Framework for Preventing and Countering Violent Extremism and Terrorism (NAFPCVET) has ended at Dambai in the Oti Region.
A three-day workshop to enrich the National Framework for Preventing and Countering Violent Extremism and Terrorism (NAFPCVET) has ended at Dambai in the Oti Region.
The NAFPCVET serves as a security guide and is based on four pillars, namely prevent, pre-empt, protect, and respond, and the workshop in Dambai, which ended last Friday, is the 11th stop in as many regions on its journey to elicit the views of the public, their contributions, and suggestions to strengthen the NAFPCVET.
It was organised by the National Counter-Terrorism Fusion Centre, the National Security Council Secretariat, with support from the Coastal States Stability Mechanism (CSSM) programme implemented by the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) and funded by the German Federal Foreign Office, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office.
Participants selected included civil society organisations, security personnel, traditional authorities, media, women, and youth groups.
At the ceremony, the Oti Regional Minister, John Kwadwo Gyapong, emphasised that security was a shared responsibility, highlighting the need to disseminate information to increase public vigilance and awareness.

The participants
Mr Gyapong noted that with several lands and chieftaincy issues springing up daily, they could be sources of the threats.
He thus expressed his appreciation to the organisers of the programme, noting the importance of such efforts given the presence of terrorist activities in neighbouring countries.
He urged the participants to take the issues seriously and offer their suggestions to strengthen the NAFPCVET to confront emerging terrorist threats that have become a global threat.
Prevention
A facilitator of the workshop and Associate Professor of the Religion and Human Development Department at Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Dr Yunus Dumbe, underscored the significance of the NAFPCVET framework in steering collaborative efforts to prevent violent extremism and terrorism.
He also highlighted various government socio-economic initiatives aimed at reducing youth unemployment, including the recruitment of 10,000 young people into security services and the enhancement and provision of support to technical institutions.
Dr Dumbe, like the Oti Regional Minister, further encouraged citizens to take an active role in addressing these critical challenges.