Drugs, divorce and despair: Somalia’s forgotten male war victims
Men in war-torn Somalia suffer high rates of drug addiction, divorce and mental illness, researchers said, urging donors to do more to support men and strengthen families…. “Men find themselves dispensable, with no meaningful role and no stake in the future,” said the World Bank-funded study, based on interviews with 400 men and 90 women […]
Challenges of inclusivity and equality in Somalia
On Monday 10 March, the Office of the European Union Commission for Somalia, IIDA Women’s Development Organization and the Nairobi Forum of the Rift Valley Institute convened a panel discussion on the EC Somalia Country Gender Profile and the Somalia Compact. The event brought together 35 women civic leaders and civil society organisations from across […]
Lake Turkana and development projects on the Lower Omo River
Development projects on the Lower Omo River in Ethiopia threaten to cause major ecological and social changes in Kenya’s Lake Turkana region. The Gibe III Dam—scheduled to start filling in May 2015— will transform annual flood patterns; and the expansion of irrigated plantation agriculture will impinge on current livelihood activities on the river and lake. These developments […]
Our Collective Security: Writers in Conversation
The killings in Mpeketoni on 15 and 16 June are the latest in a series of violent events that are challenging the security of Kenya and the East Africa region more broadly. The words ‘terrorism’, ‘assassinations’, ‘tribal clashes’, ‘violent crime’, ‘domestic violence’ regularly appear in mainstream and social media headlines. Traumatic pictures of the aftermath fill […]
The South Sudan peace forum
The Rift Valley Institute organised a forum bringing together leading chiefs from five states of South Sudan in Nairobi last Saturday. The forum brought together the chiefs to discuss the current crisis in the country and the role they and other traditional leaders played where peace was concerned. The chiefs included Nyuong Danhier Gatluak the […]
Hasty repatriation
On 15 February 2013, the Nairobi Forum hosted the launch of a report by the Mogadishu-based think tank, the Heritage Institute for Policy Studies (HIPS), entitled ‘Hasty Repatriation: Kenya’s attempt to send Somali refugees home’. The research was undertaken in late 2012, after the Kenyan government called for Somali refugees to assemble in refugee camps […]
Juba Lecture Series 2013
The 2013 RVI Juba Lecture series, held in collaboration with the Centre for Peace and Development Studies at the University of Juba, were held on 6-8 March 2013 at the university’s New Hall, addressing the theme ‘Building the Constitution in South Sudan’. The three keynote speakers were Professor Akolda Tier, Chair of the South Sudan […]
Every Day Is For the Thief
The Nigerian-American writer, photographer and art historian Teju Cole (@tejucole) was in conversation with John Ryle (@johnryle), Director of the Rift Valley Institute, at Bard College, New York State, on 16 April. Born in the United States to Nigerian parents, Teju Cole was raised in Nigeria and moved back to the United States when he was 17. He currently lives in Brooklyn, […]
Rethinking state-building in Somalia
On 6 December 2012, the Nairobi Forum hosted a seminar on ‘Rethinking state-building in Somalia: Negotiated statehood and hybrid governance’. The first discussion was led by Dr Marleen Renders, author of Consider Somaliland: State-Building with Traditional Leaders and Institutions. Subsequent panels included representatives from Somali Peace Line, the Association of European Parliamentarians for Africa (AWEPA), Pact Kenya, […]
Somaliland election observers at the RVI Nairobi Forum
On 4 December 2012, the RVI’s Nairobi Forum presented the assessments of five members of the International Election Observer team who monitored district elections in the Republic of Somaliland on 28 November. They were the fifth democratic elections held in Somaliland since 2002 and followed several weeks of campaigning. The observers presenting their findings at […]