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 East Africa Regional Director—as Executive Director from 1 January 2017. Mark…

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 fund has enabled young scholars and activists from Eastern and Central Africa to participate in RVI…

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 media, working in radio, film, print journalism and public relations for over half a century. Tafari's life spanned revolutionary changes…

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 returning to Uganda, and looks forward to holding all three courses on the shores of Lake Victoria. Entebbe…

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 returning to Uganda, and looks forward to holding all three courses on the shores of Lake Victoria. Entebbe…

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 forced his family to flee their home in 1988 to Ethiopia. After the war Said was able to resume his studies to become one…

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 two universities to build their capacity to deliver high quality research.…

The Rift Valley Institute’s annual field courses will be held in East Africa in June and July 2016. Course applications are now open. Taught by teams of leading regional and international specialists, the three courses—now in their thirteenth year—provide the basis for an understanding of current political and developmental challenges in the…

The eastern 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 how do we ensure our analysis is adequate? In the coming months, researchers of the second phase of RVI’s Usalama Project will share some of…

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 the Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers at the New York Public Library. Philip Winter has been the representative for…