An Integrated Approach to Elections and Conflict ensure transparency and inclusive participation in the election. While many EMBs do attempt to put such measures in place, the link between these measures and conflict prevention is not always made. In volatile electoral environments, showcasing efforts at accountability and transparency can be played up in public outreach and in dialogues with parties and other stakeholders explicitly for conflict prevention purposes. Further, work on strengthening regulations, detection and enforcement in political finance can support the prevention of violence by reducing the resources that serve as incentives for winning elections and funding violence. Political and campaign finance regimes create avenues through which the electoral, legal and media sectors can better monitor, detect and sanction violations. Civil society organizations can monitor corruption, campaign spending, election dispute cases and other elements of the electoral process to contribute to increased information for stakeholder action and public accountability for wrongdoing. In Jamaica, where the link between corruption and electoral violence is well known, this has become one avenue for addressing violence. In 2011, the Election Commission sought to pass sweeping reforms to limit corruption, and the local coalition Citizens Action for Free and Fair Elections (CAFFE) ran a campaign called “Corruption Hurts.” Non-governmental actors, including the media, local organizations and political parties, may be more recognized for promoting and implementing monitoring and advocacy efforts. Early warning mechanisms for preventing electoral violence as well as educational initiatives and campaigns that promote non-violent campaigning and legitimate means to resolve grievances, help establish people’s rights and responsibilities in a democracy, and what is and is not legitimate debate and disagreement. This context can help diffuse or channel tension to the appropriate dispute resolution forum before it triggers violence. These activities, using a range of messages, would also span each electoral phase. Election conflict monitoring was recommended specifically as a successful strategy in the 2010 UN report on election-related killings.15 The most effective monitoring and reporting initiatives tie into intervention mechanisms, or include advocacy components, as IFES’ EVER program does. They also incorporate web-based and/or new media technologies to improve the speed and reach of information gathering and dissemination, enabling quicker response times. For example, in Burundi, as part of the Amatora Mu Mahoro early warning network, IFES used the EVER methodology with text-based reporting and online mapping via the Ushahidi platform to facilitate information exchange between partners, stakeholders and the public. International and local stakeholders followed the reports on an online portal where incidents of violence were mapped geographically and by type of incident (e.g., intimidation, physical harm, murder, etc.). One challenge to this type of program approach is that early warning and early response are often the focus of separate funding streams. In the long-term both should be priorities and neither can be mobilized as effectively if attention is only paid in the immediate pre-election period. Overall, the international community could increase successful election conflict prevention efforts by investing in the basic building blocks of EMB capacity and credibility; security and election sector training; and civic education. Support to monitoring and reporting mechanisms would complement these efforts by offering independent sources of information. In general, tips for better conflict prevention across the stages of the electoral cycle include: 15  Inclusive pre-election security planning, including a conflict analysis component.  In the pre-election period, political parties, EMBs and non-governmental actors can develop codes of conduct that establish parameters for appropriate standards of behavior during an election for specific Alston, P., Report of the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions: Addendum, Election-related killings, A/HRC/14/24/Add.7, 21, UN, May 2010. 12