Associate Professor Olivier Walther received an OECD grant for a project that will explore the diffusion of Jihadist groups from the Sahel to the Gulf of Guinea in West Africa.
This project is part of a long-term collaboration between the UF Sahel Research Group and the OECD Sahel and West Africa Club, which started when Dr. Walther moved to Gainesville in 2017.
Building on previous work highlighting that violence clusters near cities, borders, and roads, Dr. Walther’s African Networks Lab will model the spread of armed conflict to identify regions most likely to be affected by political violence in the future.
The 2-year project will leverage the Spatial Conflict Dynamics indicator (SCDi) developed by the OECD and the analysis of conflict networks to assess the vulnerability of West African regions to political violence.
Contact: Dr. Olivier Walther