2025 SUDAN AND SOUTH SUDAN COURSE
9-12 JUNE 2025 THEME: ‘WAR MAKES STATES AND STATES MAKE WAR’ Led by Nicki Kindersley and Raga Makawi Failed transitions, war and economic collapse have shaped Sudan and South Sudan in the last year. Our course will tackle immediate questions of the dynamics of regime collapse and violent contestation for control and the political economies […]
2025 GREAT LAKES COURSE
2-5 JUNE 2025 THEME: CRISES NEW AND OLD? CONFLICT, CLIMATE AND GOVERNANCE IN THE GREAT LAKES Led by Jason Kayani Stearns The Great Lakes region of Africa faces its most severe political crisis in more than twenty years. The M23 crisis in the eastern DRC has displaced close to 3 million people. While the UN […]
2025 HORN OF AFRICA COURSE
26-29 MAY 2025 THEME: TURBULENT WATERS IN THE HORN Led by Ken Menkhaus The Horn of Africa is entering a fifth year of extreme turbulence, a period that is testing the resilience of its states and citizens. The onset of the era of crisis began with the 2020 COVID pandemic and Ethiopia’s bloody Tigray war […]
2025 Annual Courses
The Rift Valley Institute (RVI) is pleased to announce that applications are open for our 2025 annual field courses on the Horn of Africa, Sudan and South Sudan, and the Great Lakes. The RVI annual residential field courses, running since 2004, are taught by leading academics, researchers and development practitioners and are designed for policymakers, diplomats, aid workers, researchers, activists, journalists, or investors, to deepen their understanding of the ever-changing landscapes of […]
2024 GREAT LAKES COURSE
19-21 June 2024 Theme: Crises new and old? Conflict, climate and governance in the Great Lakes The Great Lakes region faces its most severe political crisis in over twenty years. While the UN peacekeeping mission withdraws from the DRC, protracted and newer violent conflicts in its East have drawn in armies from Burundi, Uganda and […]
2024 GREAT LAKES COURSE – Q&A
This Q&A provides an overview of the topics to be covered during our Annual 2024 Great Lakes Course. This includes the political crisis in the Great Lakes region which focuses on conflict dynamics, governance issues, security sector reform, gender politics, and climate change. It also preempts participant questions pertaining to the course. The Great Lakes […]
2024 Annual Courses
Applications are open for our annual field courses. This year our three courses on the Great Lakes, the Horn of Africa, and Sudan and South Sudan will be held at a tranquil location in Kilifi in Kenya. Our three-day residential courses offer critical analysis on the current political, social and economic dynamics of these regions, taught by leading academics, […]
Research communities of practice – 2nd cohort
Introducing the talented early career researchers from RVI’s Research communities of practice (RCoP) 2nd cohort.
RVI 2023 Horn of Africa Course | Dr Ken Menkhaus Interview
RVI’s 2023 Horn of Africa Course takes place from 23-28 July in Nairobi. This year, the course is focused on the theme of ‘New Stresses, Enduring Resilience? Ecology, Identity, and Governance in the Horn of Africa’. In recent years, the Horn of Africa region has faced severe challenges, including civil war, drought, the COVID-19 pandemic, […]
2023 THIS YEAR IN THE HORN OF AFRICA
This Year in the Horn of Africa: Latest Developments In Ethiopia, Eritrea, Somalia, Somaliland and Djibouti By Michael Woldermarian & Ken Menkhaus This briefing was written by Micheal Woldemariam and Ken Menkhaus, the Co-Directors of Studies for the Rift Valley Institute’s Horn of Africa Field Course, which will be taking place in Kenya from 23 […]