On 23 February world leaders gathered in London to discuss Somalia. Commentary by RVI Fellows and associates included Mark Bradbury in Open Democracy, Can the London conference on Somalia get it right this time?; Sally Healy, in the Financial…
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RVI Horn of Africa and East Africa Regional Director Mark Bradbury and RVI Senior Researcher Aly Verjee will be part of the International Election Observer team observing the Somaliland district and council elections on 28 November. These are the…
In a contribution to a new book, The Golden Fleece: Manipulation and Independence in Humanitarian Action (Kumarian Press), Mark Bradbury writes on the political fallout from the failure of state-building in Somalia. He and his co-author, Robert Maletta, review…
Abaarso Tech is a newly-established secondary school in Somaliland. The school provides international-level education for outstanding students. Rift Valley Fellow Ahmed Esa, one of the school's prime movers, seeks to recruit a number of teachers to join its staff….
On 6 December 2012, the RVI's Nairobi Forum hosted a seminar on ‘Rethinking state-building in Somalia: Negotiated statehood and hybrid governance’. The first discussion was led by Dr Marleen Renders, author of Consider Somaliland: State-Building with Traditional Leaders and…
On 21 June 2013, the Nairobi Forum and the Kwani Trust hosted Nadifa Mohamed, the Somali-British author, in conversation with Ellah Allfrey, Deputy Editor of Granta, which listed Nadifa among the best young British novelists. Born in Hargeisa and raised in South London,…
H. E. Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, President of Somalia’s Federal Government, has stressed that restoration of security is his key priority. Speaking to RVI Fellow Sally Healy during an official visit to London for talks with the British government, he…
On 21 February 2013, the RVI’s Nairobi Forum hosted a panel discussion on the regional implications of the death of Ethiopia’s Prime Minister, Meles Zenawi, in August 2012. The event, entitled ‘Ethiopia after Meles: National and regional implications’, was chaired by…
Videos of Nuruddin Farah in conversation with Binyavanga Wainaina at the Nairobi Forum and tributes by the two writers to Chinua Achebe, are now on YouTube. An interview by Tom Odhiambo with Nuruddin Farah is also available….
The poet Maxamed Ibrahim Warsame ‘Hadraawi’, has been awarded the Prince Claus Award. The award was presented to Hadraawi at a ceremony in Hargeisa on 17 April by Joost Reintjes, Ambassador of the Kingdom of the Netherlands to Kenya….
Recent Publications
SHECONF 2026: International Conference on Social Sciences and Humanities
July 9, 2026
Event report On 26 March 2026, researchers, practitioners and academics gathered in Addis Ababa for SHECONF 2026, an International Conference on Social Sciences and Humanities in Ethiopia, the first of its kind convened by the Ethiopian Women Researchers Network (EWNET).
State Capture in Africa: How elite networks undermine democracy, development and security
June 24, 2026
Key points State capture has been increasingly recognized as a major governance challenge due to the way it helps to drive many of the most pressing problems facing contemporary states, including democratic erosion, corruption, economic exclusion, insecurity and declining trust
The New Geopolitics of Eastern Africa
June 17, 2026
On 20 May, the British Institute of Eastern Africa (BIEA), Chatham House, and the Rift Valley Institute (RVI) convened a group of experts to discuss the ‘The New Geopolitics of Eastern Africa’. The closed-door roundtable considered the ongoing transformation of