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DFID has convening power – not least because it has significant resources -, takes a results-based approach, and it covers all dimensions of poverty reduction

Responsible leadership for a complex world. We live in a world facing challenges that no single individual or institution, however well intentioned, powerful or well-resourced, can tackle alone. Challenges such as climate change, the rise of popularism, inequality, biodiversity loss and more.

At Wasafiri, we have recently been discussing different measurement techniques when trying to understand how change happens in complex conflict-affected environments. This is no easy task.

As practitioners of preventing violent extremism (PVE), our aim is to reduce the drivers and enablers of extremism, whatever they may be, and in doing so, reduce the willingness to engage in or support violent acts against ‘the other’. As empathy is traditionally associated with lower propensities towards violence, this has led to the fostering of empathy as a program goal in some PVE activities. Messaging and alternative narratives are often included in PVE programming in pursuit of this aim.

What’s the difference between 12 boys trapped in a cave and 20 trapped in an orphanage in Lybia? All children, all victims of circumstances not of their own making (except perhaps those in the cave).

It’s 16 years to the day after the attacks on the twin towers and I’m sat in a chilly Nairobi café eating a limp croissant with Gaëlle Le Pottier and trying to work out what it really takes to provide leadership in the face of one of today’s pre-eminent complex problems – violent extremism.

In this blog we look at complexity – not in theory, not in books, but in messy, live, reality. Hamish Wilson interviewed Jarso Guyo Mokku, a pastoralist leader from Northern Kenya, about his perspectives on the changing dynamics of peace and conflict in the region and the increasing complexity he finds himself living in