The overall objective of the project is to support key players in preventing electoral violence and conflict, by reinforcing CSOs across the SADC, which are also members of the regional SADC-ESN network. The project is built on a two-tiered approach, which foresees a comprehensive capacity development scheme for civil society, EMBs and other electoral stakeholders on the one hand, and a research component meant to harvest first-hand data on election related violence and conflict that in turn will be fed into an Observatory.