Wissem Missaoui 
is the Program Director at Search For Common Ground – Tunisia, overseeing all SFCG Tunisia activity programming and strategy development. His portfolio includes national wide Youth Empowerment program, countering and preventing violent extremism activities, a de-radicalization program, Community engagement and resilience, as well as a security sector reform project. Wissem has managed similar programs focused on political transition activities under the OTI/USAID funded” Tunisia Transition Initiative -TTI” program. Wissem has worked for 13 years as in the ministry of regional development in Tunisia as Regional Development Director in the center-west of the country. He has a Master degree in regional development and territorial planning.
Wissem is a civil society activist. He is the founding-President of BEDER Association, a NGO focused on advocating economic, social and political inclusion of marginalized regions in Tunisia, empowering vulnerable groups, strengthening youth and community resilience as well as, Countering and Preventing Violent Extremism in Tunisia.
Search For Common Ground (Search)
Since 1982, Search has worked to transform the way that the world deals with conflict – away from adversarial approaches and toward collaborative solutions. Search is an international non-profit organization and operates in 35 countries across Africa, Asia, and the Middle East. Established in 2011, Search-Tunisia currently has a team of 13 staff in its office in Tunis. Search-Tunisia programs establish and facilitate dialogues, promote marginalized voices, and build the capacity of the state, security sector, civil society, and media sector to support democratic governance through dialogue. Search-Tunisia’s Youth Leadership Program, implemented from 2011 to 2016 with USG and European Union support, empowered marginalized youth, who are at risk of extremist recruitment, with leadership skills and networks to connect with local officials to have their voices heard. Most recently, Search-Tunisia implemented new initiatives that apply collaborative approaches to Transforming Violent Extremism (TVE), engaging the security sector and building youth resilience and community engagement. Through a bottom-up approach, Search supported local communities to diagnose the root causes and key push and pull factors of violent extremism and design programs to address those factors. Search programs and project aim to constructively engage civil society, state actors, Media and private in fostering social cohesion through local dialogue and joint initiatives. These projects are backed by 35 years of global peacebuilding and social cohesion programing experience.
BEDER for Citizenship and Equitable Development (BEDER)
A Tunisian Non-Profit Organization. BEDER is born from the will of young activists willing to make positive changes by integrating citizens at the heart of the community development.
Founded on April 2011 in Kasserine, BEDER succeeded through a series of projects and to be well established in its territory and expand to other regions such as, Sidi Bouzid, Gafsa, Jendouba, Bizerte, Medenine, and Greater Tunis with a focus on the most vulnerable areas. BEDER projects are focused on the economic and social inclusion of young men and women, local development, governance and youth resilience and community engagement.
