In March 2017, RVI Fellow Christopher Clapham published, The Horn of Africa: State Formation and Decay, with Hurst Publishers. In the Acknowledgements, Clapham describes the role RVI’s annual Horn of Africa Course has played in developing the ideas expressed in this book….
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As part of its ongoing South Sudan Customary Authorities project, RVI, in coordination with staff and students at the University of Juba, organized an event which discussed the role of chiefs. The discussion centred around the screening of RVI’s…
Founded in 2007, the Hargeysa International Book Fair will mark it’s tenth anniversary this year. This year’s theme is connectivity, and the fair will host a delegation of renowned authors, poets, artists and academics from across Africa, including Djibouti, Kenya, Malawi, Nigeria,…
RVI’s ongoing South Sudan Customary Authorities (SSCA) project is seeking to deepen understanding of the changing role of chiefs and traditional authorities in South Sudan. As part of this project, RVI has trained a team of researchers in oral history to…
The Rift Valley Institute, with the support of the East Africa Research Fund (EARF), has embarked on a major research study looking at the leadership and influence of women in politics in Kenya, which aims to map the level…
Aly Verjee is a visiting expert at the United States Institute of Peace and a fellow of the Rift Valley Institute. Migration crises in Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa reconfigured global politics. So why – as the…
RVI’s ongoing South Sudan Customary Authorities Project is seeking to deepen understanding of the changing role of chiefs and traditional authorities in South Sudan. As part of this project, RVI has trained a team of researchers in oral history to conduct…
RVI’s ongoing South Sudan Customary Authorities Project is seeking to deepen understanding of the changing role of chiefs and traditional authorities in South Sudan. As part of this project, RVI has trained a team of researchers in oral history to conduct…
The Rift Valley Institute is one of twelve non-profit organisations to be awarded an Open Society Foundation New Executive Fund grant in 2017. The grant, which is intended to assist newly appointed leaders to implement their vision for…
Selon le premier World Internal Security Police Index (WISPI) de l’année 2016 publié cette année, un index qui classe les institutions policières du monde selon quatre critères (capacité, procédures, légitimité, résultats), la Police Nationale Congolaise (PNC) de la République…
Recent Publications

DOMINANT PATTERNS AND DYNAMICS OF URBAN CONTESTATIONS IN HAWASSA
February 12, 2025
Studying urban contestations in Ethiopia’s secondary cities can help us understand how the urban centres outside of Addis Ababa are evolving during an ongoing period of significant socio-economic and political change. In this regard, Hawassa in Sidama region provides an

RESTRUCTURING THE MARGINS: EMERGING POLITICAL ORDERS IN KENYA’S BORDERLANDS
February 11, 2025
During the past decade, northern Kenya’s peripheral border counties have become key to the central state’s political and economic agenda. This synthesis report therefore uses the concept of ‘restructuring the margins’ to unpack the findings of two case study reports

INFORMAL TRADE, GENDER AND CONFLICT DYNAMICS ON THE NEW KENYA-ETHIOPIA TRADE CORRIDOR
January 31, 2025
This report examines the effects of infrastructure development and shifting political conditions on trade and conflict at the Kenya–Ethiopia border, including on gender dynamics. In doing so, it focuses on how small-town cross-border traders in the town of Moyale, which