For over a decade, efforts to counter violent extremism (CVE) on a global level have broadened in scope and actors. From a highly securitized approach, the sole domain of the state, CVE increasingly involves addressing conditions conducive to the spread of the phenomenon and impact on respect for human rights and the rule of law. As such, civil society has established itself as an essential factor in an effective strategy to counter violent extremism worldwide.1 Albania follows a similar trend, with a boom in civil society led initiatives especially following the appearance of the foreign fighters phenomenon in the country and more broadly in the Western Balkan region. These efforts encompass a wide array of intervention topics and geographic focus. Albanian Civil Society Organizations (CSO) engage both at the national and local level through research, advocacy, awareness raising activities and services, creating a significant knowledge base and good practices in countering violent extremism. Civil society has been part of consultation processes at the national level and is becoming part of local structures, such as Local Councils on Public Safety, a multi-stakeholder advisory group established at the municipal level in several municipalities across the country. Furthermore, in recent years over 40 CSOs have made countering violent extremism an integral part of their work.

Despite playing an increasingly visible and important role in CVE initiatives, there are no systematic efforts to analyze and assess the impact and capacities of civil society to effectively counter violent extremism. A significant challenge of these initiatives, either undertaken by the government or civil society, is effectively measuring their success and impact, partly due to resource constraints and ambitious outcome goals and partly due to data collection strategies that make it difficult to analyze and evaluate interventions.

As such, there are few attempts to systematically conduct an impact evaluation of CSO-led interventions in the realm of violent extremism. This policy paper aims to fill this gap by identifying CSOs engaged in countering violent extremism, analyzing their capacities and expertise in the field, and offer policy recommendations for a more effective intervention strategy and role for civil society in Albania. The first part analyzes the theoretical and practical role of civil society in CVE and tools to measure their capacities in dealing with violent extremism. The second part delves into the characteristics of violent extremism in Albania in recent years to better understand the context in which civil society organizations operate. The third part combines the theoretical and practical perspectives to understand the role and capacities of Albanian CSOs in countering violent extremism at home and the last part offers the main conclusions and a set of recommendations for relevant stakeholders.