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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 Institute’s third Horn of Africa course took place in Lamu, Kenya, from 29 May to 4 June. The Course was directed by Mark Bradbury and Ken Menkhaus. A number of new lecturers taught on the course this year, including Shiferaw Bekele, Richard Reid, Meron Zeleke, Justin Willis, Dereje Feyissa, Daniel Varisco and Andrew Catley. Lectures were held in The Factory arts centre; evening sessions…

The second RVI Horn of Africa Course took place from 20 to 26 June 2009 in Lamu, Kenya. The Course was directed by Mark Bradbury and Ken Menkhaus. New teaching staff this year included Tobias Hagmann, Haroon Yusuf, Jason Mosely, Hussein Mahmoud, Sada Mire, Kjetil Tronvoll, Amina Soud and Nisar Majid. Lectures were held in Lamu Old Town; course participants stayed mainly in private residences…

The sixth RVI Sudan Course was held in Rumbek Senior Secondary School from 24 to 30 May 2009. The directors of the course were Eddie Thomas and Cherry Leonardi. New teaching staff this year included Akolda Tier, Omer Egemi, Mom Arou, Jago Salmon and Samia el-Nagar. Staff and students participated in classes with students from the school. There were guided tours of the town and a visit to the…

The first RVI Course Horn of Africa took place 11-17 October in Djibouti. The course is a high-level, intensive programme covering Ethiopia, Eritrea, Djibouti, Somalia, Somaliland and Puntland, directed by Mark Bradbury and Ken Menkhaus. The syllabus spans the history, culture, economics and politics of the region, from cave paintings and khat to national elections and international…

The fifth Sudan Course took place at Rumbek Senior Secondary School in June 2008 under the direction of Justin Willis and John Ryle. The course is taught by a team of noted Sudanese academics and activists and international specialists. This year the teaching staff included Roland Marchal, Douglas Johnson, Magdi al Na'im, Joanna Oyediran, Jok Madut Jok, Samia Ahmed, Osman Mohamed Osman, Philip…

The fourth Sudan Field Course took place in May 2007 in Rumbek, South Sudan. The teaching staff included Douglas Johnson, author of The Root Causes of Sudan's Civil Wars, Suliman Baldo of the International Center for Transitional Justice, Jok Madut Jok, author of Race, Religion and Violence in Sudan, Hala Elkarib of the Khartoum-based SIHA (Strategic Initiative for Women in the Horn of Africa…

The third annual RVI Sudan course took place in Rumbek, South Sudan from 7th to 12th May 2006. As in previous years, the course provided an intensive introduction to north and south Sudan, covering modern history, politics and administration, civil war, ethnography, economics, human rights, and natural resources. The course was organized in collaboration with Rumbek Senior Secondary School,…

The second Rift Valley Institute Sudan Course was held in July 2005 in Rumbek (then the administrative centre of the new government of South Sudan). The course took place at Rumbek Senior Secondary School, the first international event to be held there since before the civil war. The teaching staff on the 2005 course consisted of international Sudan specialists including Justin Willis (the…

The first RVI Sudan Course was held in April 2004 in Kenya at a game ranch on the Athi Plains, outside Nairobi. Participants were housed in a field centre on the ranch and a tented safari camp nearby. Twenty-five students from sixteen organizations and a dozen nationalities attended. There were ten academic staff and half-a-dozen guest speakers. Speakers examined the historical formation of…

Applications are now open for the 2023 Horn of Africa Annual Course, directed by Ken Menkhaus and Michael Woldemariam.