The rationale
Political, natural resource, civil and identity-based conflicts and rebel violence are increasing in Nigeria. These events are driving an explosion in the gathering, storage, and processing of data on conflicts in the country. Moreover, with the growth of modern web-based technologies, including social media communication and Artificial Intelligence infrastructures, conflict data producers and users (plus other stakeholders) now have more information about conflict available to them than ever before. This has tremendously improved the volume of conflict data available across platforms such as conflict databases held by government and non-governmental institutions.
Although conflict databases serve as a valuable public good in the conflict data marketplace, the glut of conflict information has continued to raise questions about quality, reliability, ethical compliance, inter-operability and responsible use of conflict data. In recent years, the growth in conflict data platforms has raised concerns about the wider Nigeria Conflict Data Ecosystem. Models for capturing, verifying, integrating, storing, analysing, publishing, trading and using conflict data appear largely unidirectional. Data producers and providers seldom engage in data sharing and collaboration with data users and data stewards. Without collaboration – e.g., across the entire lifecycle of conflict data from its creation or acquisition to its processing and transformation into meaningful insights for positive social change – it can be difficult to communicate errors, share corrections, integrate data, and enhance quality, security and responsible use of data.
The notion of a conflict data ecosystem conveys a sense of a social and technical network in which conflict data stakeholders interact and collaborate with each other to manage and sustain the entire life cycle of conflict data. Stakeholders (as actors) in a conflict data ecosystem can include conflict data producers and users, conflict data stewards, conflict data journalists, conflict data intermediaries and scientists, conflict data monitoring and evaluation experts, conflict data educators, the conflict data statistical community, and conflict data regulators and auditors. They perform different functions, use a wide range of infrastructures and technologies, access financial resources from various sources, and conform to certain rules and ethical procedures to foster innovation, create value and support data sustainability.
The ecosystem – held together by a set of core elements such as systems, databases, workflows, people, the market, government institutions and infrastructures – offers a communal domain for interpreting, integrating and discussing conflict data and providing feedback to data producers, providers and other stakeholders. All elements are interlinked in a way that when one element is tipped, cascading effects can be felt throughout the entire ecosystem.
To date, there has been no robust academic, policy, and public debates or conversations about the idea of a ‘Nigeria Conflict Data Ecosystem’ (NCDE). Additionally, there is no policy report or academic work on NCDE currently in existence. Given the diversity of terminology and definitions, it remains unclear what NCDE really means. A wide range of other important issues remain underexamined, such as: whether NCDE exists or how it can be established, structured, organised, and regulated; how it can/should function and under what principles; what the essential elements or components are (or should be) to make it work; what benefits can be expected; and what the boundaries and limitations are or could be. Without addressing these gaps in knowledge, it is difficult to develop/support an effective Nigeria conflict data ecosystem in which communities of actors interact with each other to find, produce, exchange, consume and reuse conflict data.
To better explore these underexamined issues, the Natural Resources Institute at the University of Greenwich, through the Secondary Data Scoping Research Project led by Dr Uche Okpara and Dr Mofa Islam, will convene an International Stakeholder Forum on the Nigeria Conflict Data Ecosystem in July 2023 in Abuja, Nigeria. The forum will be convened in collaboration with the Institute for Peace and Conflict Resolution (Ministry of Foreign Affairs Nigeria), the Prosperity and Peace Pathways Project, and the Sustainability Pathways for Africa.
Aim and objectives
The aim of the Stakeholder Forum is to kickstart, for the first time, a national conversation on Nigeria Conflict Data Ecosystem in the context of increasing conflict tipping risks and the open data movement. Participants will:
- Share the current state of the art on Nigeria Conflict Data Environment in relation to Goal 16 of the United Nations 2030 Agenda on “Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutions”.
- Drill deeper into how a Nigeria Conflict Data Ecosystem can create and deliver value to various conflict data stakeholders/actors.
- Distil understanding about the synergies, contradictions and areas of uniqueness amongst in-country conflict databases housed by government and non-governmental agencies in Nigeria and those available in global open-source databases outside of Nigeria.
- Advance new ideas and strategies for bridging the divide across conflict databases, identifying deficiencies and entry points for developing/supporting an effective Nigeria Conflict Data Ecosystem.
The Stakeholder Forum will bring together (i) conflict data users, beneficiaries, consumers and re-users; (ii) conflict data developers, producers and providers; (iii) conflict data stewards; (iv) conflict data journalists; (v) conflict data scientists/analysts; (vi) conflict data monitoring and evaluation experts; (vii) conflict data regulators (governments, standardisation institutions, policy makers); (viii) conflict data educators/interpreters; (ix) the conflict data statistical community; and (x) others – conflict data intermediaries, curators, sponsors/funders, consultants and data infrastructure and technology providers.
The gathering will challenge assumptions, synthesise knowledge gaps, reframe questions, and improve evidence and reasoning. It will also explore opportunities to build high-level global partnerships for Nigeria conflict data stewardship and identify pathways to empower conflict data stakeholders to contribute to conflict prevention and transformation actions more proactively in Nigeria.
Structure
This will be a one-day hybrid Stakeholder Forum involving a variety of conflict data stakeholders. We envisage that this event will generate huge public interests and as such, an online registration platform will be created (via Eventbrite) to enable interested parties around the world to join virtually.
The Stakeholder Forum will be structured into:
- Five keynote speeches covering various areas of the Nigeria Conflict Data Ecosystem.
- Two world café sessions in-between the keynote speeches to enable brainstorming, in-depth discussions and cross-pollination of ideas.
During the event, three keynote addresses will be delivered before lunch time to set out the current state of the art regarding Nigeria Conflict Data Ecosystem and how a conflict data ecosystem can create and deliver value to various conflict data stakeholders/actors. Afterwards, participants will take part in a world café session during which they will be divided into two working/discussion groups (Groups 1 and 2). Each working/discussion group will explore and develop a set of detailed Nigeria Conflict Data Ecosystem Frameworks by drawing insights from the keynote speeches and a model data ecosystem chart the event organisers will distribute to the participants.
During the afternoon (and early evening) hours after lunch, two additional keynote presentations will offer insights into (i) the synergies, contradictions and areas of uniqueness between conflict databases housed by government and non-governmental agencies in Nigeria and those available in global open-source databases outside of Nigeria, and (ii) the ways in which conflict data journalism and stewardship can influence change, e.g., through supporting an effective Nigeria conflict data ecosystem in which communities of actors can interact with each other to find, produce, exchange, consume and reuse conflict data. A second world café session will take place after the final keynote. Again, participants will be divided into two working/discussion groups (Groups 1 and 2). Each working/discussion group will explore emerging issues around quality, reliability, ethical compliance, and inter-operability of conflict data, as well as how to spot and communicate errors, share corrections, integrate data, and enhance quality, security and responsible use of conflict data.
Each discussion group will have a dedicated chair and a rapporteur.
The Stakeholder Forum will be designed to encourage interactive dialogue, brainstorming and debates among participants. Participants will be required to engage with all the discussions in the various world café sessions. To enable this, the chairs will pose a series of questions relating to all keynote speeches and themes of the Forum, and the participants (except for the chair and rapporteur) will take turns in answering them. The participants will be invited to deliberate on their answers and pose related questions to the group. The groups will employ visual mapping (causal flow diagrams) in their discussions using whiteboards, markers and post-it notes.
Expected outputs and outcomes
Outputs from the Stakeholder Forum will include:
- A comprehensive report covering the Forum proceedings.
- Photos and video recording (i.e., all activities during the Forum will be documented using photos and video recording).
- Co-designed (integrated) approaches and model frameworks for understanding the Nigeria Conflict Data Ecosystem (the Forum will generate expertly informed and intensively deliberated conflict data ecosystem frameworks).
- New ideas/insights and knowledge generated will be written up for publication.
It is anticipated that these outputs, and in particular, the co-designed Nigeria Conflict Data Ecosystem Framework, will assist numerous actors/practitioners working in the conflict data landscape to better understand the multiple and complex social and technical networks that characterise a typical conflict data ecosystem in a fragile country context.
In terms of outcomes, the Forum will:
- Generate new insights on the range and depth of conflict data that exist about Nigeria, as well as insights on conflict data ecosystems.
- Create stakeholder awareness on existing sources of reliable in-country secondary conflict data for quantitative conflict and fragility research.
- Enhance understanding of how well existing secondary data represent or misrepresent conflict situations, attitudes and behaviours, and how they are and could be used by conflict actors/stakeholder to foster peace.
- Forge new stakeholder partnership and relationships and generate new ideas around peace-centred development.
For more information, please contact:
Dr Uche Okpara | Senior Lecturer in Climate Change, State Fragility and Conflict | Livelihoods and Institutions Department, Natural Resources Institute | University of Greenwich, United Kingdom
