Mitigating Election Violence through Dialogue and Mediation in West Africa

This brief discusses the role that dialogue and mediation training can play in addressing electoral violence, a serious problem to human life and democracy in many countries. Over fifty percent of the African states have experienced electoral violence since the 1990s.

Violence around elections is a phenomenon that occurs in many parts of the world, even in relatively stable democracies. In West Africa, the regional organization ECOWAS is addressing this through technical assistance, election observation and peace mediation amongst others. To strengthen resilience against electoral violence, ECOWAS and the FBA have trained local peace actors on peaceful dispute resolution in several member states.

This brief summarizes the findings from a field assessment study of five workshops organized by ECOWAS, of which four in collaboration with the FBA.