The Rift Valley Institute’s Rural to urban mobility project aims to better understand the dynamics of rural to urban migration and the ways in which this phenomenon impacts the social and infrastructural fabric of cities in East Africa. It is conducted…
RVI publishes books, research reports, research papers, briefings and meeting reports in a range of formats. Publications cover policy, research, arts, culture and local knowledge in the countries of eastern and central Africa. Research publications—books, reports and papers—are peer-reviewed. Some RVI publications are also available in French and/or Arabic.
The RVI is a signatory of the Budapest Open Access Initiative (2001); all publications are free for download in PDF format under Creative Commons licences. The views expressed in books and reports published by the RVI are those of the authors, not the Institute.
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The Rift Valley Institute’s Rural to urban mobility project aims to better understand the dynamics of rural to urban migration and the ways in which this phenomenon impacts the social and infrastructural fabric of cities in East Africa. It is conducted…
An analytical account of the growth of “people-to-people” peace meetings in Sudan and its borderlands, with a comprehensive bibliography and time-chart of peace meetings over two decades in Southern and Northern Sudan (including Darfur and the transitional zone between…
This Usalama report by Jason Stearns et al. examines the Banyamulenge, a Tutsi community in the Eastern DRC that has been stuck in a cycle of insurgency and exclusion for over 20 years. While the last major Banyamulenge insurgency…
A comparative study of three regional peace agreements: the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement in Sudan, Somalia’s Mbgathi peace process, from 2002 – 2004, and the 2000 Ethiopia-Eritrea Algiers Agreement. It examines the background and the historical context of the…
This report assesses obstacles and risks to the implementation of the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement and outlines steps to be taken to avoid a return to conflict. The product of a seminar held by the Horn of Africa Group,…
A guide to Sudan’s electoral system – one of the most complex in the world – and its effects on the distribution of power. The report analyses government documents to reveal errors and ambiguities in the demarcation of electoral…
A policy paper on Sudan’s political future analysing the critical events facing the country in the run up to the April 2010 elections and the 2011 referendum on self-determination for Southern Sudan. Copublished by RVI with Chatham House (the Royal Institute…
This briefing paper, submitted to the UK Associate Parliamentary Group on Sudan, discusses some of the challenges facing the international community in the lead-up to the April 2010 elections in Sudan. The paper follows up issues raised by an…
Abyei has proved to be the hardest part of Sudan’s Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) to implement, harder, even, than the determination of the rest of the North-South boundary, or the division of oil revenues. In this personal commentary Douglas…
Recent Publications
Political Economy of Cash and Markets in Sudan
February 27, 2026
The research provides a snapshot of the war in Sudan in the period from February to April 2025. However, the war is dynamic, with political alliances and territorial control changing. The April 2023 conflict between the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF)
Rethinking Ethiopia II: Youth and politics
February 26, 2026
Seminar report Rethinking Ethiopia, a collaborative essay competition initiative between Addis Ababa University’s Institute for Peace and Security Studies (IPSS) and the Rift Valley Institute’s (RVI) Peace Research Facility (PRF), offers a platform for Ethiopian youth to express their ideas
2025 Year in Review
February 16, 2026
The 2025 Year in Review provides an overview of the Rift Valley Institute’s work over the past year across eastern and central Africa. The report highlights RVI’s research and publication outputs, education and training activities, and public forums and convenings,