ACLED codes the dates, actors, locations, fatalities, and types of all reported political violence and demonstration events around the world in real time.
ACLED is led by founder, CEO, and president Prof. Clionadh Raleigh, a professor of political violence and geography at the University of Sussex, and operated by executive director, Olivia Russell.
Data-driven analysis of political violence and demonstration trends can be found on the ACLED website, including weekly regional overviews, briefings, reports, and infographics.
[13] ACLED has also launched a range of special initiatives to broaden the scope and depth of coverage by spotlighting key conflicts and providing the public with new tools to better analyze the data.
The project supports real-time data collection on the insurgency in the country's northern Cabo Delgado province and provides cutting-edge analysis of the latest conflict trends.
The Early Warning Research Hub[17] provides a suite of interactive resources aimed at supporting data-driven initiatives to anticipate and respond to emerging crises.
The pilot project covered seven countries in the Middle East and North Africa: Bahrain, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Palestine, and Yemen.
The COVID-19 Disorder Tracker (CDT) provided special coverage of the pandemic's impact on political violence and protest trends around the world, monitoring changes in demonstration activity, state repression, mob attacks, overall rates of armed conflict, and more.
ACLED data and analysis is regularly used to inform journalism, academic research, and public discourse on conflict, and to support the work of practitioners and policymakers.
ACLED data are routinely used and referenced by development practitioners, humanitarian agencies, and policy makers, including several United Nations offices and affiliates.
In June 2019, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres personally commented[23] that he was "shocked" by the prevalence of PVTW, indicating that the new ACLED data had expanded his understanding of the situation and reinforced his policy position to "protect and promote women's participation in political life."
ACLED data are also regularly used in OCHA monitoring of humanitarian and security developments in places like in the Sahel,[25] Mozambique,[26] Burkina Faso,[27] the Lake Chad Basin,[28] and Nigeria.
ACLED provides the fields of peacebuilding, development, and humanitarian aid with high-quality data that reflects local conflict and insecurity trends.
The European Union (EU) uses ACLED data to track trends in global disorder and to better understand the impact of emerging crises around the world.
For example, the US Mission to Ethiopia recently reported that ACLED data are important for making decisions about intra-country travel, while the US Congress frequently uses the dataset to support policy initiatives related to the war in Yemen.
[36] The Department of Homeland Security's Fusion Center[37] and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)[38] have utilized ACLED data on far-right violence in the United States.
Additional government entities and policymakers that make use of ACLED data include the African Union, the Ministry of Finance of Japan, the Australian Department of Defense, the Ghanaian Armed Forces, and country embassies in Mozambique, Somalia, Indonesia, Senegal, and Kenya, among others.
The data are used by a wide range of major international, national, and local outlets all around the world, including NPR,[45] Reuters,[46] CBC Radio Canada,[47] Bloomberg News,[48] Agence France Presse,[49] The New York Times,[50] The Guardian,[51] The Washington Post,[52] CNN,[53] The Telegraph,[54] The Independent,[55] Buzzfeed News,[56] Al Jazeera,[57] Middle East Eye,[58] the Associated Press,[59] Le Monde,[60] the BBC,[61] National Geographic,[62] The Economist,[63] The Atlantic,[64] Africa Check, OZY, VICE News,[65] the Daily Beast,[66] Sky News,[67] the Financial Times,[68] Middle East Eye,[69] Channel 4, Voice of America,[70] USA Today, Rolling Stone, ProPublica,[71] PBS Frontline, La Croix, Televisa Mexico, El Universal,[72] Iran International,[73] and El Pais, among others.