Indonesia
 | Final Evaluation – Building Resilience through Multi-Stakeholder Collaboration to Prevent Violent Extremism in Indonesia – December 2022Building Resilience through Multi-stakeholder Collaboration to Prevent Violent Extremism, Indonesia, United States Department of Counter Terrorism (CT) Bureau, 30 September 2020 – 30 September 2022 A suicide bombing attack that killed the perpetrators and injured 20 people by a newly married pair at the cathedral church in Makassar, South Sulawesi, in March 2021 was the last major terrorist attack in Indonesia. Since then, the number of terrorist attacks has declined significantly in number and scale. Thanks to Indonesia’s successful countermeasures against operations and networks of violent extremism (VE) actors in the country and the loss of ISIS’s physical territories abroad. Despite the declining number of terrorist attacks, less frequent and small-scale terrorist attacks continue. In addition to being on the grounds, the VE actors seek support in the digital space. The tactics used by VEOs include online propaganda by spreading a wide variety of narratives that have successfully targeted individuals at different stages of support towards VE actors or organizations. In response to this situation, Search engaged multi-stakeholder actors of Prevention and Counter Violent Extremism (P/CVE) from government and non-government institutions, including the Directorate General of Corrections (DGC), Ministry of Religious Affairs (MORA), National and Political Unity Agency (Kesbangpol), Social Services Bureau, and many local civil society organizations. The program emphasized addressing both prevention and countering sides of VE problems through non-adversarial, non-security, and multi-stakeholder approaches. |
| Factsheet – Situation Analysis Study on Religious Freedom and Tolerance in Indonesia – January 2022The documents present summary of findings of situation analysis study on religious freedom and tolerance in Indonesia, under the PROTECT Program (Promoting Collective Efforts Towards Resilience and Tolerance in Indonesia), supported by the United States Department of State, Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor. Despite its reputation as a diverse country, in recent years Indonesia has experienced a depressing increase in instances of intolerance towards minority groups, which especially exacerbated during the COVID-19 pandemic that ensued a digital surge due to the physical distancing norms and lockdowns. The flooding online misinformation has also sparked a rise in intolerant discourse targeting minority groups, as much the pandemic has been limiting room for dialogues and positive interactions between people. The objective of this situation analysis study is to support the baseline of the project by studying the existing situation of freedom of religion and belief (FORB) and civil society organizations’ participation in advocating FORB and protection of minorities, and promoting tolerance. Overall, the study highlighted that the situation of freedom of religions, belief, and tolerance in general can be regarded as ‘remaining fragile’, putting an emphasis that as though the intensity is increasing, the tension is not extremely violent. Albeit multiple efforts to support the social cohesion have been convened by the government and the civil society organizations (CSOs), there still has been very little examples where the minority and hard-to-reach communities meet with the divisive promoting groups to mutually share their views and concerns. In the end, diversities were not represented in the forums, or only engaged in an exclusive room for dialogue – still trapped, in the segregation of the majority and minority. In most cases, there may be harmony, but diversity remains neglected. |
 | PROTECT: Promoting Collective Effort Towards Resilience and Tolerance in IndonesiaThe PROTECT project launched in July 2021 by Search for Common Ground in collaboration with Yayasan Satu Keadilan (YSK), Jaringan Kerjasama Antar Umat Beragama (Jakatarub), and the KAKAK Foundation. This 30-month project seeks to empower minority groups and allies to address barriers to rights and freedoms of minority […] |
| Conflict Management and Life Management Training for Parole and Probation OfficersThis training module was published by Search in collaboration with the Directorate General of Correction, The Ministry of Law and Human Rights in 2020 under the Harmoni project with support from by United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The training aims to increase the capacity of parole and probation officer to communicate effectively with their clients and other social reintegration stakeholders, build their resilience to violent extremism, and understand roots of conflict and conduct simple analysis of clients’ problems. |
 | Building Resilience through Multi-Stakeholder Collaboration to Prevent Violent Extremism in IndonesiaSearch for Common Ground implemented Building Resilience through Multi-Stakeholder Collaboration to Prevent Violent Extremism in Indonesia from September 2020 to September 2022. The project aimed to strengthen comprehensive community-based responses to violent extremist radicalization, recruitment, and recidivism. Context Search focused on building both government and local capacity to […] |
 | Harmoni: Towards Inclusion and ResilienceHarmoni is a four-year program funded by USAID and implemented by Management Systems International (MSI) in collaboration with Love Frankie and Search for Common Ground, and in partnership with Indonesian civil society organizations (CSOs) and government agencies… |
| Social Media Use Needs Assessment for At-Risk Groups & In-Depth Analysis of Use of Social Media in IndonesiaIndonesia has undergone dramatic changes since its economic crisis in 1998, including a transition from authoritarianism to democracy and subsequent successful democratic elections. In more recent years, extremist groups in Indonesia have been gaining more support within national, regional and local elections. Cities such as Surabaya have suffered an upsurge in violent terrorist attacks. Online platforms have become a significant arena for hate speech, attacks on minority groups and for galvanizing support for extreme ideas by both violent extremist and politically-motivated groups. In this context, government agencies and non-government organizations are seeking to design interventions that counter the impact of extreme narratives online as well as build resilience to such damaging messaging. This report summarizes the findings from a research to inform Search for Common Ground (Search) and other stakeholders in developing an implementation strategy to reduce the influence of violent extremist narratives online, particularly targeted at youth and ex-juvenile offenders in Indonesia via social media. |