The Why Project
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ACLED

Real-time conflict-event dataset (nonprofit) · USA (501(c)(3)) · est. 2005 (Clionadh Raleigh)

Government-funded research

Event-level political-violence and fatality data across 240+ countries, updated in near real-time. Powers the US State Department's Instability Monitoring platform.

Funding & financing

Primarily the UN-managed Complex Risk Analytics Fund (CRAF'd), with contributions from the US State Department (CSO), USAID, and the Dutch, German, UK, and EU governments; also Open Society Foundations, Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust, and Tableau Foundation.

Affiliations

Independent nonprofit, but substantially financed by Western governments and used widely by the US and Canadian governments.

Credibility & caveats

Gold-standard granularity and source transparency. Media-based coding can over- or under-report depending on press access, and its heavy Western-government funding is a transparency consideration readers should weigh.

Membership & leadership

A registered nonprofit with no public membership. Leadership (CEO/president and department heads) are executive staff. A global network of researchers and partners contribute data under contract or collaboration — they do not elect leadership or vote on publications.

Leadership & members

Named individuals reflect leadership at the time of writing; linked names have individual profiles in this record. See membership & leadership above for how they are selected.

People profiled in this record

Cases in this record

This source informs the record’s methodology, data, or risk assessment rather than a specific case determination. See the methodology for how sources like this are used.

Sources & disclosures