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RVI Courses

RVI Courses

Watch the trailer above to learn more about RVI's field courses.

RVI’s field-based education and training courses aim to inform key constituencies working in eastern and central Africa about the people and communities in the countries where they work. The education programme includes the Annual Field Courses on Sudan and South Sudan, the Horn of Africa, and the Great Lakes, and bespoke courses tailored for a variety of international organizations. 

More information on the 2023 Horn of Africa Course is available here

Panelists on RVI's Horn of Africa Course
Panelists on RVI's Horn of Africa Course

RVI’s first field course took place in 2004 in Kenya. Since then, the three annual courses have taken place in Burundi, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, southern Sudan and Uganda, while bespoke courses have taken place in more than 15 countries in Africa and in the UK. ‘I dare say I have done nothing comparable in so comprehensive a package.’

Bob Snyder, Canadian International Development Agency, Horn of Africa Course.

 

RVI courses are tailored to the needs of the organizations who participate and are taught be leading experts and practitioners in the fields of political science, economics, anthropology, history, security, development, humanitarianism, policymaking, media and activism. RVIcourses utilize multiple teaching formats including lectures, panel discussion, working groups, interviews and video presentations.

ANNUAL COURSES BESPOKE COURSES

Yolande Bouka and Assumpta Migiraneza discuss reconciliation in Rwanda on the Great Lakes Course
Yolande Bouka and Assumpta Migiraneza discuss reconciliation in Rwanda on the Great Lakes Course

 

The sixth Horn of Africa course took place in Jinja, Uganda, from 8 to 14 June 2013. The course covered Ethiopia, Eritrea, Djibouti, Somalia, Somaliland, Puntland and Northern Kenya. It offered a multi-disciplinary examination of the crises afflicting the Horn and explored the impact of changes in political leaders at the national and sub-national level across the region. The Director of…

The course was held under the direction of Justin Willis of Durham University. Dan Large of the Central European University was the Deputy Director of Studies. The teaching staff included Magdi el-Gizouli of Freiburg University, Joanna Oyediran, Sudan Program Officer of the Open Society Initiative for Eastern Africa, and Douglas Johnson, author of The Root Causes of Sudan's Civil Wars. Also…

The third Great Lakes Course was held in Bujumbura, Burundi from 7 to 13 July. The Director of Studies was Jason Stearns, also director of RVI's Usalama Project and author of the acclaimed Dancing in the Glory of Monsters. The Deputy Director of Studies was Emily Paddon, Trudeau Scholar and Lecturer in International Relations at the University of Oxford. The Director of the course was Aly…

The fifth Horn of Africa course took place in Kilifi on the Kenyan coast from 16 to 22 June 2012. The directors, Mark Bradbury and Ken Menkhaus, were again joined by Sally Healy as Deputy Director of Studies. Lectures were held, for the first time, at Pwani University College, where Deputy Course Director Hussein Mahmoud is a lecturer. Lecturers new to the course included Markus Hoehne, Mehari…

The ninth course covering Sudan – and the first to cover the new nation of - was held in Athi River, Kenya from 26 May to 1 June. The course was under the direction of two of the co-editors of recently-published The Sudan Handbook (2012): Justin Willis, of the University of Durham, and Jok Madut Jok, of Loyola Marymount College, Los Angeles, currently seconded to the Ministry of Culture, Youth…

The second Great Lakes Course was held in Bujumbura, Burundi from 9 to 15 July. The course was directed by Jason Stearns of Yale University, author of the recent Dancing in the Glory of Monsters, and Ben Shepherd, former Great Lakes specialist at the UK Foreign Office. New teaching staff this year included Filip Reyntjens, Mvemba Dizolele, Koen Vlassenroot, Mathilde Muhindo, Pascale Kambale…

The fourth Horn of Africa course took place in Lamu, Kenya from 4 to 10 June 2011. The directors, Mark Bradbury and Ken Menkhaus, were joined by Sally Healy as Deputy Director of Studies. Lecturers new to the course included Christopher Clapham, Semhar Araia, Jatin Dua, Aklilu Amsalu and Laura Hammond. Lectures were held, as in previous years, at the Factory Arts Centre, with evening sessions…

The eighth Sudan Course was held in Rumbek from 25 to 31 May. The course was directed by Peter Woodward and John Ryle. New teaching staff included: Abduljabar Abdalla Fadul, Ahmed Abusin, Harry Verhoeven and Guma Kunda Komey. Lectures took place in Rumbek Senior Secondary School and the Palm Tree Hotel. Participants took part in the weekly school assembly, had a guided tour of the town and its…

The first RVI Great Lakes Course was held in July 2010 in the Imperial Golf View Hotel in Entebbe, Uganda. The Director of the Course was Philip Winter OBE, formerly Chief of Staff for the Inter-Congolese Dialogue and one of the founders of the Rift Valley Institute. The Director of Studies was Jason Stearns of Yale University, formerly Co-ordinator of the UN Group of Experts on the DRC. Among…

The seventh Sudan Course was held in Rumbek from the 12 to 18 June. The course was directed by Eddie Thomas and Cherry Leonardi. New teaching staff this year included: Alfred Lokuji, Munzoul Assal, Wendy James, Adam Azzain, Zeinab Badawi, Magdi el-Gizouli and Jérôme Tubiana. Lectures took place in Rumbek Senior Secondary School. Teaching continued outside the classroom with guided tours of the…