On November 4th, 2021, the University of Florida Board of Trustees signed a memorandum of understanding with the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED) to encourage research on conflict and political violence. Signed on behalf of the University of Florida African Networks Lab, the new agreement will facilitate access to conflict data and support ACLED’s global coverage of political violence and demonstrations.
The new agreement extends ACLED’s rich collaborative relationship with the African Networks Lab led by UF Assistant Professor Olivier Walther. “Our research on the geography of violence in North and West Africa relies on georeferenced information about the location of attacks”, notes Dr. Walther. “ACLED is the most detailed and comprehensive conflict dataset in the region where we work. We hope that this new partnership will allow us to better understand how political violence emerges and diffuses across the borders of the region.”
ACLED is a registered non-profit organization with 501(c)(3) status in the United States that provides detailed information on acts of political violence and protests around the world. According to ACLED’s Executive Director, Prof. Clionadh Raleigh, “The frontier research and new insights by the University of Florida’s African Networks Lab is a testament to their skill applying novel technologies to understand conflict.”
Contacts: Olivier Walther, Ph.D., Department of Geography, University of Florida, email: owalther@ufl.edu and Prof. Clionadh Raleigh, Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project, email: admin@acleddata.com