This report reviews the quality of collaboration between security services and electoral management bodies and its relevance to election violence prevention in the Economic Community of West African States region. Drawing on ethics board-approved field research and remote interviews in five West African countries, the report presents a typology of coordination mechanisms and assesses the factors that influence their effectiveness. The findings aim to inform election administrators, security providers, development partners and scholars concerned with improving electoral security coordination and mitigating violence in West Africa and beyond.

The report was initiated with support from the United States Institute of Peace’s Center for Applied Conflict Transformation and was completed through collaboration with International IDEA’s regional project ‘Supporting Electoral Risks Management and Conflict Prevention in West Africa’, supported by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit and the European Union.