Focus Area

Creative works with governments and non-governmental security entities, including police forces, ministerial offices (e.g., prosecutorial offices, forensic departments, civil registry and documentation centers, 9-1-1 call centers), and citizen security groups. We have trained security and law enforcement personnel and procured requisite equipment (vehicles, uniforms, IT, laboratory, ballistics) across the globe. Our integrated security justice and crime prevention models, including “one-stop shop” victim services and community policing approaches, increase reporting of crime and minimize the space for malign actors, including transnational criminal organizations (TCO). 

Creative has long delivered programming to counter terrorism and violent extremism (VE), working with governments and non-governmental entities to address factors of instability and help them withstand increasing pressures from violent extremist organizations (VEOs) like Boko Haram, ISIS and affiliates, and Al Shabab, as well as gangs in Central America. We have supported development of regional, national, and local early warning frameworks, counterterrorism (CT) and countering violent extremism (CVE) strategies and action plans, and CT/CVE training curriculum. We convened a three-day symposium on disrupting VE narratives that brought together 400 government, military, private sector, media, and NGOs to identify integrated approaches to countering extremism.

Creative brings operational, security, and technical expertise to deploy rapidly and deliver services in the most austere and fragile environments. By focusing on essential services like rubble removal, road clearance, waste management, and electric services, we promote stability and counter the efforts of violent extremists and other malign actors. Our broad range of technical expertise, from law enforcement to education to small-scale infrastructure development, allows us to rapidly identify and address crucial needs under the most challenging contexts. In places like Syria, we have helped provincial stabilization committees remove rubble, clear roads, maintain water networks, manage waste and sewage, and fix electrical systems. In Ethiopia, Mali, and Somalia, we have pivoted programming through crisis modifiers in response to volatility, pandemic, and disasters to include education and early economic recovery activities.

With experience in some of the most fragile states (15 of the top 17 of the Fragile States Index), Creative is adept at addressing complex challenges in countries affected by conflict, violence, and repressive regimes, delivering stabilization and governance programming. Our tailored approach and adaptive tools take account of the environment’s full complexity; atmospherics, political economy analysis and violent conflict assessment frameworks ground our rapid, flexible programming that supports national security priorities.

Creative has been at the forefront of innovative crime and violence prevention methodologies that address the root causes of violence in the Western Hemisphere, which we have adapted to VE challenges facing countries in MENA and West Africa. Creative’s long history of disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration (DDR), which includes gang members, includes assessment, rapid response advisory and technical services, and public dialogues. Our convenings of experts and publications advance thought leadership in this area, including events with the Stimson Center, the Rand Corporation, and the Kofi Annan International Training and Peacekeeping Centre.

Creative supports local leadership in understanding, tracking and countering mis-, dis-, and mal-information (MDM) and building networks of like-minded actors who prevent and respond to MDM threats. Recognizing that MDM originates from various sources across digital, social, and traditional media, and new MDM topics emerge continuously, Creative combats MDM differently across contexts. Based on that, we tailor interventions to increase media literacy effectiveness, change beliefs or behaviors surrounding MDM, and provide local actors with information and skills to counter it.