About GReVD

In this Section:

• About GReVD
• Principles
• Challenges

Principles

The consortium* is committed to measurement of Target 16.1 of the Sustainable Development Goals : Significantly reduce all forms of violence and related death rates everywhere. 

• The ultimate objective of the consortium is to create a Registry of every violent death coded by time and location.   
• There are many challenges to the proper coding of violent deaths (see the Gaps Report); the consortium agrees to address these Challenges through a unified research framework.  It is understood that the research framework addressing these Challenges are part of an evolving strategic vision and may need to be adapted as new challenges are encountered, priorities shift and new technological advances are available. 
• While the priority for the consortium is the Registry and monitoring of violent deaths, the consortium agrees to the principle that all violence should be reduced and that we cannot know if it is being reduced unless all violence is better monitored.  The improved coding of violent deaths is an important step toward improving monitoring of all violence.
• The consortium is committed to openness and transparency – the Registry will be available to all, free of charge and all meta-data on origins of data will be available to users.  Funding sources, definitional criteria, and other methodological decisions will be documented and disclosed.
• The Registry will be populated first and foremost with data from consortium partners that is free and publicly available.  All GReVD material will always properly acknowledge contributions from members of the consortium and other contributors.
• The consortium recognizes that different members of the consortium make different contributions to the work of the consortium and to the Registry and agree to acknowledge those diverse contributions appropriately.
• The consortium respects the integrity and independence of data production by members of the consortium and other contributors.  It will never interfere in internal coding processes by members of the consortium or others; however, it may agree not to include data in the Registry if it is disputed within the consortium.  Consortium members will work to improve validation and verification methods within the consortium.
• The consortium will work collaboratively to improve coding comprehensiveness, accuracy, and consistency for consortium members and others who work on coding violence.  The consortium will grow to include others who abide by similar principles and standards and can contribute to the global systematic measurement of violent deaths.
• Consortium members agree to act as partners in a spirit of cooperation, with a willingness to discuss quickly and resolve any issues that arise between them.

Standards*

Brookings and SIPRI convene the consortium – they serve as the secretariat for the consortium, coordinate events and communication and representatives from SIPRI and Brookings are authorized to act as focal points speaking on behalf of the consortium externally. 

Members of the consortium will meet regularly to share knowledge, expertise and experience on the measurement and monitoring of violence. 

All members of the consortium may fundraise for GReVD related priorities (see the challenges page).  Where consortium members collaborate on a project and financing must “pass through” one member to another, overhead for subcontracting will be kept to 10 per cent to ensure that resources are used most efficiently for research. Where the grant donor sets overheads at a lower level than 10 per cent, the involved consortium members will work cooperatively to ensure that each one’s indirect costs are met as fully as possible.

Any important developments or innovations (eg. shared ontology, new algorithms, coding practices, etc.) developed by the consortium may be used by consortium members for their own coding, but need not be. 

The consortium will produce and report on an upper and lower bound of estimates of global violent deaths, with estimates updated annually, retroactively and transparently, as GReVD methodologies and data improve.  When methodologies have been updated or new data is added, any estimates or counts will be updated so that current estimates and counts are always time consistent (over the breadth of the Registry coverage).  The consortium agrees to collectively compile and endorse these numbers. 

This is an evolving research area and agenda, the consortium and secretariat may revise or amend the principles and standards as needed in the future. 

*These principles and standards have been accepted and endorsed by the Armed Conflict Location and Event Database (ACLED), the Center for International Development and Conflict Management (CIDCM), The Center for Peace and Security Studies (cPASS), the Cline Center for Advanced Social Research at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, The Carnegie Mellon CREATE Lab, the Global Terrorism Database (GTD), the Igarapé Institute, The Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO), the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), the Small Arms Survey (SAS) and the Uppsala Conflict Data Program (UCDP).

read about the challenges f