Summary The sustained movement of people, goods and ideas across the African Red Sea Region has been and continues to be so intense that it binds together communities throughout the region in a unified multifaceted socio-economic system that transcends…
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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Codka kalsooni kala noqoshada ee 25-kii Luulyo lagu riday Ra’iisul Wasaarihii Soomaaliya wuxuu horseeday kalsooni darro siyaasadeed oo kasoo cusboonaatay Soomaaliya; dhaqanka siyaasadeed ayaa ah in uu Madaxweynaha soddon maalmood kusoo magacaabo Ra’iisul Wasaaraha xiga, kaasoo isaguna magacaabi doona…
The vote of no confidence on 25 July in the Prime Minister has led to renewed political uncertainty in Somalia; the constitution gives the President thirty days from this date to appoint the next Prime Minister, who will in…
Bosaso and the Gulf of Aden: Changing dynamics of a land-sea network is the second report in a series looking at the relationship between modern-day Puntland, a semi-autonomous region of north-east Somalia, Yemen and the wider Gulf region. It…
The third update from RVI’s Somali Dialogue Platform project examines political dynamics around elections in Somalia and considerations for advancing dialogue to reach consensus. The update is a product of the Somali Dialogue Platform, which supports Somalis to achieve consensus on…
Despite progress in some significant areas, Somalia’s politics continue to be shaped by stark differences between key political players. This is most evident in the ongoing disagreement around one-person-onevote (OPOV) elections, the framework for which is timetabled to be…
In early 2019, the Federal Government of Somalia announced that it had raised the government budget to USD 300 million, and by August 2019 had recorded public expenditure of USD 171 million. This enabled the IMF to announce on…
The number of Coronavirus (COVID-19) infections and related deaths is rapidly increasing in Somalia. However, at present it is the secondary, primarily economic, effects of the pandemic that are being most keenly felt. The impact on the khat trade…
Towards a common research agenda: A research synthesis paper to inform the implementation of the Global Refugee Compact is designed to inform future policy making and programming in relation to Ethiopian government and international support to refugees. Specifically, it aspires…
The Greater Horn of Africa’s (GHoA) borders and borderlands are spaces of cooperation and linkage—marked by centuries of cross-border trade and extensive kinship and social ties—that defy political demarcation and control. Borders and borderlands share numerous security and development…
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