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Aims of the Rift Valley Forum

The Rift Valley Forum for Research, Policy and Local Knowledge, previously the Nairobi Forum, was established in 2012 to provide a new space for critical discussion of political, economic and social issues in Eastern and Central Africa. The Forum is a venue for dispassionate examination of contested terrain, where researchers, practitioners, officials and activists–from the region and beyond–can meet on equal terms. The Forum programme includes the Horn, East Africa, Central Africa and the Sudans. Besides the Nairobi programme, Forum meetings have been held in Mogadishu and Hargeysa.


Historical Background

The Forum sponsors research, convenes meetings with public figures, and organizes lectures, workshops, and seminars. These events are the occasion for debate between different constituencies, where insights derived from social research and local forms of understanding are applied to policy and practice. Some Forum events are public; others take place with invited participants only. Major public events are recorded and released as podcasts.

The Forum publishes research papers and briefings under the RVI imprint. These can be downloaded free from the Institute website. The papers address current social, political, economic, and environmental issues in the crisis zones of the Horn and Eastern Africa.

The inaugural event of the Forum was ‘A Somali Spring?’, a panel discussion with Somali activists and international researchers on the prospects for a post-transition Somalia. Since this first meeting the Forum has organised over forty events in Nairobi and elsewhere, including a workshop on social resilience and development in Somalia, a public report by international observers on Somaliland’s district council elections, and a seminar examining approaches to state-building in Somalia, held in collaboration with the Life and Peace Institute. The Institute has published over twenty briefings and meeting reports based on Forum events.

Events in 2014 have included seminars, conferences, and book launches on themes of policy and practice, rights and representation, culture and heritage, and new regional economies. Forum events take place at various venues.

During 2015, the Nairobi Forum transitioned into the Rift Valley Forum. The thematic focus of the Forum was revised to reflect its broader geographical coverage in eastern and central Africa, while continuing to work on the Horn of Africa and the Sudans. Since January 2015, the Forum has held over a hundred public events, conducted a number of original studies were undertaken and organized multiple training events have been organized. 

 

See www.riftvalley.net for details of upcoming public events, or write to forum@riftvalley.net.

Based on research in the area in December 2018, the event will help understanding of how local authorities manage militarised labour and food markets, and how local people navigate and conceptualise their precarious livelihoods within this political economy. It will reflect on the implications of borderland conflict economies for South Sudan’s…

On 14 February 2019, the Rift Valley Forum will host a panel discussion to disseminate a new report —Participation, Voice and Governance in Investment Corridors in Africa: the case of the Lamu Port and South Sudan Ethiopia Transport Corridor Project, LAPSSET—produced by the Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies of the…

On 23 January 2019, the Rift Valley Institute launched Digital Democracy, Analogue Politics: How the Internet Era is Transforming Kenya, a book that presents a unique contribution to the debate on digital democracy. The book explores how traditionally marginalised groups, particularly women and people with disabilities have used…

This event—part of the Rift Valley Institute’s work on ‘Remittances and Vulnerability in Somalia’, in partnership with the World Bank—explored the key features and the marked variations of the remittance landscape in Somalia. It also analysed how remittances are used by families to improve food security, particularly through access to credit,…

Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed's first six months have dramatically changed Ethiopia’s political landscape. The Ethiopian government looks younger, more representative and radical than it has in a generation. Political red-lines have been crossed, and taboos addressed, including one of the most intractable and untouchable issues: the…

On 1 November 2018, the Rift Valley Forum, in partnership with Human Rights Watch, will host a screening of the film This is Congo by Daniel McCabe. The film follows four compelling characters—a whistleblower, a patriotic military commander, a mineral dealer and a displaced tailor—documenting their lives amid the country's continuing…

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On 9 July, the Rift Valley Institute will host a panel discussion on rural to urban migration in Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda. The panellists will present findings from their research on rural to urban migration as well as key findings from the project's synthesis report, The Lure of the City.

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Famine used to kill ten million people every decade but by the early 2000s it had all but disappeared. Today, famine is resurgent, driven by wars, food blockades, hostility to humanitarian principles and a volatile global economy. On 3 July, the Rift Valley Forum hosted the launch of ​Mass Starvation followed by a panel discussion on…

The Great Lakes Course covers the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Rwanda, Burundi and Uganda, providing a deep historical and social context to the current political and humanitarian dynamics in the region. The Co-Directors of Studies for the course will be Yolande Bouka and Judith Verweijen. They will be joined by a team of leading…

Le Stage d’études sur la région des Grands Lacs 2018 offre une approche régionale et thématique de la gouvernance et de la sécurité en République démocratique du Congo (RDC), au Rwanda, au Burundi et en Ouganda. Il examinera l'évolution politique de ces politiques post-conflit et analysera leur retour en arrière vers l'autoritarisme.