Introducing AfroGrid, a unified framework for environmental conflict research in Africa

Abstract

In this study, we present Afro-Grid: an integrated, disaggregated 0.5-degree grid-month dataset on conflict, environmental stress, and socioeconomic features in Africa covering 1989–2020, intended to propel research on these issues forward. Afro-Grid offers several important extensions for researchers and policymakers, including: (i) standardizing (using established methods) data sources on conflict, environmental stress, and socio economic factors across spatial and temporal scales; (ii) combining these data into a single, openly-available file, maximizing the accessibility of these data for researchers and policymakers regardless of their software background; and (iii) including NDVI and dual-series harmonized night lights series that have traditionally not been accessible to researchers without advanced computational expertise. Using a series of comparative regressions at the grid-month and grid-year levels, combined with reporting descriptive statistics and visualizations, we illustrate that this temporally and geographically disaggregated dataset provides valuable extensions for research related to the climate-conflict nexus and the role of socioeconomic features in shaping conflict trends, as well as for research and data-driven policy on development and conflict.

Measuring Spatiotemporal Civil War Dimensions Using Community-Based Dynamic Network Representation (CoDNet)

“…Improving our understanding of these geographical aspects begins with the availability of detailed and geolocated data. Unsurprisingly, then, this aim stimulated major data collections, including the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data (ACLED) and the Georeferenced Event Dataset (GED) [5,6], as well as data frameworks constructions such as the PRIO-Grid [20] and AfroGrid [21], which provide researchers with a variety of geolocated political and socioeconomic indicators to explore the determinants and impacts of civil war.…”

(Re)Emerging Disease and Conflict Risk in Africa, 2000 – 2018

“…My unit of analysis is grid-cell (0.5 degree) month from January 2000 -December 2018, 1 measured across the entire African continent [14]. This framework includes climate and socioeconomic indicators at the same resolution across the continent, reducing the risk that any identi ed relationships are the result of local-level confounders.…”

“…The sample is constructed using the 0.5-degree grid cell -approximately 55km x 55km at the equator, which decreases in size toward the poles -measured for each month between Jan. 2000 and Dec. 2018. This empirical construction uses AfroGrid, a recently released data framework speci cally designed to study environmental con ict in Africa [14]. Its subnational/localized geospatial resolution combined with subannual (monthly) temporal disaggregation make AfroGrid an especially useful tool for assessing local level zoonotic outbreak events' impact on con ict as unanticipated shocks [9].…”