This blog post was written by Michael Woldemariam and Jutta Bakonyi, the Co-Directors of Studies for the Rift Valley Institute’s Horn of Africa Course, which will be taking place in Ethiopia from 17-21 June 2019. Michael and Jutta will be joined…
News
SEARCH
NEWS TYPES
REGION
This blog post was written by Nicki Kindersley and Magdi el-Gizouli, the Co-Directors of Studies for the Rift Valley Institute’s Sudan and South Sudan Course, which will be taking place in Sagana, Kenya from 20-25 May 2018. The course…
This blog post was written by Terrence Lyons and Peter Chonka, the Co-Directors of Studies for the Rift Valley Institute’s Horn of Africa Field Course, which will be taking place in Sagana, Kenya from 27 May to 1 June 2018….
Berouk Mesfin, Senior Researcher at the Institute for Security Studies (ISS), interviews Christopher Clapham, Emeritus Professor at the University of Cambridge, and Lee Cassanelli, Associate Professor of History at the University of Pennsylvania, on the topic of a life…
The RVI’s 2014 annual field courses, now in their eleventh year, were held from May to July in Eastern and Central Africa. The Horn of Africa Course held in Kenya, from 31 May to 7 June 2014, and covered…
June and July were months of intensive study for students on the Institute’s annual field courses. The courses involved over 140 participants, thirty teachers, and an administrative staff of eight. The 2013 season ended mid-July with the last of the…
Michael Woldemariam and Terrence Lyons discuss the history and future of Eritrea on the 2014 Horn of Africa Course….
More than forty specialists on Eastern and Central African history, politics, economics and culture taught on the RVI’s annual field courses this year. Journalists and activists joined academics, humanitarians, and policy-makers for three intensive one-week events covering the Horn of Africa,…
The Rift Valley Institute’s annual field courses will be held in East Africa in June and July 2015. Course applications are now open. Locations of courses will be confirmed in early 2015. ONLINE APPLICATION FORM Taught by teams of…
The RVI annual field courses feature teams of up to fifteen teachers composed of regional specialists drawn from the region itself and from Europe and America. The most recent additions include Laura Hammond and Berouk Mesfin on the Horn…
Recent Publications

Thinking about Borderlands: Observations and implications from XCEPT programme research
March 31, 2025
Do the ways in which policymakers and national governments view borderlands reflect how the communities living there experience them? Building on this, can a better understanding of the characteristics of borderlands help in promoting development, improving governance and making more

Digital Governance and Security in the Horn of Africa
March 28, 2025
While digital finance—including mobile money—has developed unevenly across Somalia, Ethiopia and Kenya, such technologies are nevertheless transforming everyday economic activities. In some cases, borderlands and cross-border financial flows are central to these digital developments and are driving further innovation. From

Legally Informal: Women, conflict and cross-border trade in the Mandera tri-border area
March 28, 2025
In the Mandera triangle—a pastoralist region encompassing the point at which the borders of Kenya, Ethiopia and Somalia meet—the reality of local and cross-border trade often diverges widely from official state policies of control. This disjunction has created a grey