The sixth annual Juba Lecture Series, held in November 2017, focused on themes of dialogue at both the local and national levels. The lectures—a collaboration with the Institute for Justice and Peace Studies at Catholic University of South Sudan, with support from the Australian Embassy in Addis Ababa—are designed to support local knowledge and provide a safe, open space for debate on key…

More than 200 people attended the first event of the Rift Valley Institute's Nairobi Forum on 11 October 2012. 'A Somali Spring? prospects for a post-transition Somalia' featured four speakers: Kenneth Menkhaus, Professor of Politics at Davidson College in North Carolina; Amal Ismail, founding publisher of The Bridge magazine; Jabril Abdulle, Director of the Centre for Research and Dialogue in…

Mark Bradbury, the RVI Horn of Africa and East Africa Regional Director, began the meeting by introducing Marleen Renders, the author of Consider Somaliland: State-Building with Traditional Leaders and Institutions (Leiden: Brill, 2012). He noted that her book came at a timely moment. The new government in Mogadishu is involved in a process of state-building, and is confronted with similar…

Mark Bradbury, the RVI Horn of Africa and East Africa Regional Director, began the meeting by introducing the Heritage Institute for Policy Studies (HIPS), a Mogadishu-based think-tank which is launching its first report by Anab Nur entitled ‘Hasty Repatriation: Kenya’s attempt to send Somali refugees home’. He noted that large populations of refugees and IDPs are critical regional…

The death of Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi in August 2012 marked the beginning of the end of a generation of ‘reform rebels’ that came to power in East Africa in the 1990s. Prime Minister from 1995 until his death, Meles’ political influence within Ethiopia and the East Africa region was significant. A formidable intellect and at one time the face of a heralded African renaissance, he…

Ken Menkhaus noted the perception shared by the international community and by neighbouring countries that Jubbaland is an emerging federal state in Somalia. But, he asked, does Jubbaland have the key features, like those of Somaliland and Puntland, that would enable it to become a functional administrative unit? Jubbaland is not, he suggested, an ‘ethno-state’ like Puntland, because it is not…

Mark Bradbury, the RVI Horn of Africa and East Africa Regional Director, welcomed Nuruddin Farah, Binyavanga Wainaina and the large audience to the Nairobi Forum. In his introductory remarks, he described one of his first encounters with Farah, who had called him to critique a report he had written on Somalia. That conversation, Bradbury said, underlined for him the importance of understanding…

Mark Bradbury, the RVI Horn of Africa and East Africa Regional Director, opened this joint event with BIEA to launch a special issue of the Journal of Eastern Africa Studies dedicated to Somalia. This seminar was one of a series of talks on state-building in Somalia and an opportunity to explore significant changes occurring over two decades of statelessness. Ambreena Manji, Director…

On 7 May 2013, the Federal Government of Somalia and the UK government will co-host the Somalia Conference in London aimed at harnessing international support for reconstruction and recovery in Somalia. The Rift Valley Institute (RVI) organized a pre-conference forum in Mogadishu on 27 April, between members of the public and the government of Somalia’s technical committee for the conference. …

Ambreena Manji, Director of the British Institute in Eastern Africa (BIEA), welcomed all those attending and expressed her hope for further collaboration, particularly around issues of climate change and land use in the Horn of Africa. Mark Bradbury, RVI Horn of Africa and East Africa Regional Director, introduced the seminar, which was organized in collaboration with the Future Agricultures…