iReport – Preventing and Mitigating Electoral Violence During Elections

Building on existing monitoring initiatives and early warning structures, the IReport aims to enhance country-wide capacities for monitoring, analysis and response to incidents of electoral and political violence through the design and implementation of an Early Warning and Early Response System.

The main objectives of the IReport will be to build national capacity to:

• Identify and analyse grievances and disputes that could turn violent;
• Facilitate and strengthen dispute resolution through dialogue and mediation, including electoral dispute resolution;
• Coordinate effective response to situations of imminent or ongoing electoral and political violence;
• Track and analyse responses to ensure they are implemented in a conflict-sensitive and gender-sensitive manner.

The specialised IT platform developed by the Brussels-based Task Force on Electoral Assistance can facilitate the task of collecting, collating, and mapping incidents of violence. It allows for subsequent analysis to facilitate informed and timely response. The system will draw from field reporting (via SMS, phone, website input) as well as complementary data sources and will involve a process of data processing including categorization, translation, geo-localisation, prioritisation of urgency and verification of incidents. The analysis of this data on incidents of violence and abuse will inform response by stakeholders with a focus on preventive actions. Moreover, the introduction of these active monitoring systems not only informs response and prevention actions but also can deter perpetrators from committing violence by escalating the risk of detection