Empatika was engaged by UN Women to conduct a scoping study of the Peace Village Initiative in Indonesia. The Peace Village Initiative, implemented by the Wahid Foundation since 2017 is an initiative that aims to address the drivers of extremism by mobilizing community members, especially women, to promote social cohesion.This scoping study looked at the relevance and effectiveness of the Peace Village Initiative’s strategies through participatory focus group discussions, informal conversations and observations, and key informant interviews conducted in 12 communities across West Java, Central Java, and East Java. The study also explored future expansion for the Initiative to communities outside of Java.Some of the study’s recommendations included: 

• Link Peace Village activities to existing village development and planning structures; build on existing local structures to help address conflict or extremism

• Build buy-in among village officials and other key decision makers as a first step in the engagement process

• Create opportunities for community members, local leaders and policy makers to share information and emerging concerns regarding extremism whilst recognizing any pre-existing tensions between groups   

• Establish clear metrics of success related to extremism and monitor these regularly; these may also be used to feed into national, regional or provincial-level tracking.