CONFERENCE | KENYA | 1-5 SEPTEMBER 2024 The Diaspora Humanitarianism in Complex Crises (D-Hum) research project is organizing a small international conference in Kenya on vernacular humanitarianism in a global perspective – and we have just a few spots…
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After a two-year hiatus caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, RVI held its first in-person residential course at the end of June 2022 in Naivasha, Kenya. The programme restarted with the popular Horn of Africa course, which focuses on the…
This briefing was written by Micheal Woldemariam 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 Kenya from 27 June to 01 July 2022. Michael…
Historically the production of knowledge reflects a history of unequal power relations and the economic domination of the Global South by the Global North. Africa sits at the centre of this inequality. Accordingly, the production of knowledge on African…
RVI’s partner in Somaliland, the Institute for Peace and Conflict Studies (IPCS) at Hargeysa University, has released two compelling new publications. These are: the latest volume of the Somaliland Peace and Development Journal; and a new report, ‘Partners or Competitors: The…
Jatin Dua – Associate Professor of Anthropology, University of Michigan. After six days stationary in the Suez Canal, the Ever Given—a Panamanian-flagged container ship traveling from Malaysia to the Netherlands—was finally unstuck and able to continue its journey. While…
This article was written by Ahmed Musa, Jethro Norman, Mark Bradbury, Mohamed Aden Hassan and Nauja Kleist. The authors are part of the Diaspora Humanitarianism in Complex Crises (D-Hum) research programme, a consortium made up of the Danish Institute…
Maqaalkan waxaa qoray Axmed Shire iyo Cabdideeq Warsame oo ka wada tirsan Jamacadda Puntland State. Waa maqaal kasoo dhex baxay mashruuca X-Border Local Research Network, gaar ahaan barnaamijka DFID ee Cross- Border Conflict—Evidence, Policy and Trends (XCEPT), waxaana…
This blog was written by Ahmed Shire and Abdideeq Warsame from Puntland State University and is a product of the X-Border Local Research Network, a component of DFID’s Cross- Border Conflict—Evidence, Policy and Trends (XCEPT) programme, funded by…
This blog was written by Freddie Carver and is a product of the X-Border Local Research Network, a component of DFID’s Cross- Border Conflict—Evidence, Policy and Trends (XCEPT) programme, funded by UKaid from the UK government. The programme…
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