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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 2022 Horn of Africa Course is available here and the 2022 Sudan and South Sudan Course 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 Horn of Africa Course covers Ethiopia, the Somali regions, Eritrea, Djibouti, and northern Kenya. The social and political histories of each country in the Horn of Africa are examined to contextualise the continuities and transformations that are taking place across the region. A variety of disciplinary perspectives and new research is brought to bear on conflict, climate and environmental…

​Civil war seems settled as a permanent feature of politics in both Sudan and South Sudan. State and parastatal armed actors, insurgents and armed groups of various sorts are a regularized part of the Sudans’ political economy and ecology, in which civilian non-combatants are the primary victims

Il est indispensable d’adopter une perspective régionale pour comprendre la dynamique politique, sociale et sécuritaire qui caractérise le Rwanda, la République démocratique du Congo (RDC), l’Ouganda et le Burundi. Si chacun des quatre pays auxquels est consacrée le Stage d'études sur les Grands Lacs du RVI s’est engagé sur une voie sociopolitique et économique qui lui est propre, de nombreux…

A regional perspective is indispensable for understanding political, social and security dynamics in Rwanda, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Uganda and Burundi. While each country has undertaken a unique socio-political and economic trajectory, in many ways, the four countries that are the focus of RVI’s Great Lakes Course continue to be interconnected.

ALL REGIONS

In May and June, the Rift Valley Institute will hold the 2018 annual field courses in Sagana, Kenya. Now in their fifteenth year, each course examines a different sub-region within eastern and central Africa: Sudan and South Sudan, the Great Lakes and the Horn of Africa. They offer a dawn-to-dusk programme of lectures, seminars, panel discussions and debates. Bringing together new research,…

ALL REGIONS

This June, RVI hosted the Institute’s fourteenth Annual Field Courses in Entebbe, Uganda, covering Sudan and South Sudan, the Great Lakes and the Horn of Africa. The innovative, dawn-to-dusk programme of seminars, lectures, group discussions and special events covered a variety of social, political and economic issues in the region, including migration, elections, armed groups, humanitarian…

The Horn of Africa Course covers Ethiopia, the Somali regions, Eritrea, Djibouti, and northern Kenya. The social and political histories of each country in the Horn of Africa are examined to contextualise the continuities and transformations that are taking place across the region. A variety of disciplinary perspectives and new research is brought to bear on conflict, climate and environmental…

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 Jason Stearns and Yolande Bouka. They 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 by a team of leading regional and international…