This blog was written by RVI Fellow, Nisar Majid, RVI D-Hum Project researchers, Ahmed M. Musa and Sahra Ahmed Koshin, and Salman Hassan and Khalif Abdirahman. The blog was originally published on the LSE website. On 22 April…
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This blog was written by RVI Fellow Nisar Majid and Ahmed M. Musa, post-doctoral researcher at the Diaspora Humanitarianism (D-Hum) project run by the Danish Institute for International Studies, the Institute of Development Studies at the University of Nairobi, Rako Research and…
This article was written by Abdirahman Edle Ali, Abdirahman Mustaf Mohamed, Jethro Norman, Karuti Kanyinga and Peter Albrecht. The authors are part of the Diaspora Humanitarianism in Complex Crises (D-Hum) research programme, a consortium made up of the Danish…
This blog was written following a meeting of researchers and practitioners working on Somalia, on 1 April, hosted by the Rift Valley Institute (RVI) and facilitated by the Centre for Humanitarian Change (CHC). Thanks to Daniel Maxwell, Hannah Stogdon,…
This article was written by Abdirahman Edle Ali, Ahmed M. Musa, Mohamed Aden Hassan, Nauja Kleist and Mark Bradbury. The authors are part of the Diaspora Humanitarianism in Complex Crises (D-Hum) research programme, a consortium made up of the…
Wisdom was the theme of this year’s Hargeysa International Book Fair (HIBF), held annually in Somaliland. A long-running supporter of the HIBF, RVI staff including Mark Bradbury (Executive Director), Anna Rowett (South Sudan Programme Manager), Mimi Bior (South Sudan Programme Officer),…
For over two decades Ethiopia’s political federation has been organized around the principle of ‘democratic centralism’. This philosophy also lies at the heart of the ruling Ethiopian Peoples’ Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) coalition, and its centralized decision-making culture. Until…
The Institute recently wrapped up its fifteenth year of annual field courses, which were held this year in May and June in Kenya. The one-week intensive courses covered an array of historical and contemporary issues in the Horn of Africa, Sudan and…
In June and July, the Rift Valley Institute will hold the 2019 annual field courses in Ethiopia. Now in their sixteenth year, each course examines a different sub-region within eastern and central Africa: Sudan and South Sudan, the Great Lakes and the Horn of Africa. They…
Haji Abdulkarim Hussein Yusuf, known as ‘Haji Abdi Warabe’, died in Hargeysa, Somaliland, on Friday 10 May 2019. His precise age is unknown, but local reports state that he lived to over one hundred. He was buried in a small…
Recent Publications

Enhancing the Role of Borderland Communities in Ethiopia’s Foreign Policy
October 15, 2025
Ethiopia’s borderland communities (BLCs) have historically influenced the country’s relations with its neighbours. These peripheral regions often serve as hubs for cross-border trade, repositories of natural resources and, at times, flashpoints of conflict. Surrounded by six neighbouring countries – Djibouti,

Women in the Social Sciences and Humanities in Ethiopia: The case of Addis Ababa University
October 10, 2025
This preliminary assessment is part of the launch exercise of the Ethiopian Women Researchers’ Network (EWNET). Focusing on Addis Ababa University as a pioneering higher institution in the country, the study looks into the status of women within these disciplines
Iddir in Contemporary Social Science and Humanities Research in Ethiopia: Historicizing and theorizing local infrastructures of care
October 3, 2025
The second Ethiopian Women Researchers Network (EWNET) seminar was delivered by Desalegn Amsalu, Anteneh Tesfaye, Yasmin Bushra and Helen Zeru on 3 July 2025 at Addis Ababa University’s Alle School of Fine Arts & Design. EWNET SEMINAR SERIES REPORT The