Philip Winter, a founding Fellow of the RVI, will be Acting Executive Director of the Institute from October 2015 to June 2016. John Ryle, the RVI Executive Director, will be on leave during that time as a Fellow at…
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The RVI’s 2015 annual field courses began in June in Naivasha, Kenya, in the heart of the Great African Rift Valley. The courses, now in their twelfth year, started with the Horn of Africa Course, which took place from…
The Institute for Peace and Conflict Studies (IPCS) in the University of Hargeisa, the Centre for Postgraduate Studies, Research and Capacity Building (CPSRCD) in Puntland State University and the Rift Valley Institute have embarked on two-year partnership to enable…
The Rift Valley Institute’s annual field courses will be held in East Africa in June and July 2016. Course applications are now open. ONLINE APPLICATION FORM Taught by teams of leading regional and international specialists, the three courses—now in…
RVI is sad to announce the loss of our colleague Said Mohamed Dahir, who collapsed and died unexpectedly on 5 March 2016. Born in Hargeysa, Said’s childhood like many others of his generation was marked by civil war, which…
The eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is home to dozens of armed groups. Studying these groups and the way they affect local governance and conflict dynamics is challenging. How can we gather reliable data on these groups? And…
Due to operational reasons beyond RVI’s control, this year’s annual Field Courses will now be held in Entebbe, Uganda rather than Ethiopia. Entebbe was the location of the first Great Lakes Course in 2010. RVI is excited to be…
Tafari Wossen, one of the founding Fellows of the Rift Valley Institute, died in Washington DC in June 2016, at the age of 76, after a long illness. A former civil servant, he was a veteran of the Ethiopian…
The RVI scholarship fund is relaunched this month as the RVI Shading Tree Fund. This follows a generous donation from the family of Ranald Boyle, a former District Commissioner in South Sudan. Since the Institute was founded, the scholarship…
The RVI Board of Trustees announced today that the Executive Director of the Rift Valley Institute, John Ryle, will step down at the end of 2016 after fifteen years as head of the organisation. The trustees have appointed Mark Bradbury—currently RVI Horn of Africa and…
Recent Publications
Political Economy of Cash and Markets in Sudan
February 27, 2026
The research provides a snapshot of the war in Sudan in the period from February to April 2025. However, the war is dynamic, with political alliances and territorial control changing. The April 2023 conflict between the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF)
Rethinking Ethiopia II: Youth and politics
February 26, 2026
Seminar report Rethinking Ethiopia, a collaborative essay competition initiative between Addis Ababa University’s Institute for Peace and Security Studies (IPSS) and the Rift Valley Institute’s (RVI) Peace Research Facility (PRF), offers a platform for Ethiopian youth to express their ideas
2025 Year in Review
February 16, 2026
The 2025 Year in Review provides an overview of the Rift Valley Institute’s work over the past year across eastern and central Africa. The report highlights RVI’s research and publication outputs, education and training activities, and public forums and convenings,