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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.

The 2017 RVI field Course on the Great Lakes will focus on transitions in the region. It will examine the extent to which the DRC, Rwanda and Burundi have transitioned into democratizing, post-conflict polities, and the prospects for consolidation or backsliding in the months and years ahead.  The Co-Directors of Studies for the course will be…

To make sense of current dynamics, this year’s Sudan and South Sudan Course, held from 4 to 9 June in Uganda, examines key themes of society, economy and politics in both countries at present as well as in their near and distant past. The Co-Directors of Studies for the course will be Magdi el-Gizouli and Nicki Kinderlsey. They will be joined…

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As the South Sudan conflict enters its fourth year, prospects for peace and stability have not improved. The humanitarian situation continues to deteriorate with famine declared in parts of the country. Fighting continues in many areas, despite the government's recent agreement for a unilateral ceasefire and the long-standing August 2015 peace…

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As the South Sudan conflict enters its fourth year, prospects for peace and stability have not improved. The humanitarian situation continues to deteriorate with famine declared in parts of the country. Fighting continues in many areas, despite the government's recent agreement for a unilateral ceasefire and the long-standing August 2015 peace…

The 2017 Kenyan general elections are scheduled for 8 August. Currently, politicians and political parties are in the midst of their campaigns. While the last elections were largely peaceful, allegations of voter-bribery, a challenging election timeline and questions over the IEBC's capacity to manage the elections have increased concerns for…

Conflicts produce large-scale humanitarian crises and are often characterized by high levels of instability and volatility. Nonetheless, humanitarian workers are expected to operate in these high-risk areas, where their security and performance are sometimes compromised. On 6 April 2017, the Rift Valley Forum launched the findings from the …

On 27 March 2017, the Rift Valley Forum hosted a pre-screening of the film Thank You For the Rain by Kenyan farmer Kisilu Musya and Norwegian filmmaker Julia Dahr. Thank You For the Rain, which premiered at the Copenhagen International Documentary Film Festival, documents Kisilu's life as a farmer and the impact of climate change on his family…

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In April 2015, Burundi descended into a political crisis following President Pierre Nkurunziza’s decision to run for a third term, which was seen as a contravention of the 2000 Arusha Peace Agreement. This agreement put in place an ethnic ethnic quota system for state institutions, including the army, and established a two-term presidential…

Every year since 2008, the world had become less peaceful. In the Horn and Central Africa, conflict threatens and destroys the lives, homes and jobs of millions of women, men and children, trapping them in a vicious cycle of violence, poverty and inequality. Efforts to address and prevent conflicts and disasters face serious obstacles. In these…

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On 5 March 2017, the Rift Valley Forum and the Aw Jama Cultural Centre will host a panel discussion to discuss the findings of the inception phase of RVI's Impact of War on Somali Men research project. The study investigated the impact of war and state collapse on Somali men and male youth through interviews and focus group discussions with…