The Horn of Africa consists of Ethiopia, Eritrea, Djibouti, Somalia and Somaliland. The Institute has worked in the region since 2008, mostly in Somalia, Somaliland and Ethiopia, where we have had an office since 2023.
Notable recent or ongoing projects and partnerships include:
- The Somali Dialogue Platform, which since 2023 has been funded under the Somali Stability Fund (SSF), works to facilitate agreement amongst Somalis on contentious political issues and has produced a body of research work to inform this.
- The Ethiopia Peace Research Facility, supported by the UK government, carries out research on peace, conflict and issues related to social cohesion in Ethiopia.
- Research in Somalia, Somaliland and Ethiopia under the UK government’s XCEPT (Cross-Border Conflict Evidence, Policy and Trends) programme.
- Support for the Hargeysa Cultural Centre in Somaliland, including the annual Hargeysa Book Fair.
Other major projects in recent years include: work with the World Bank on urbanization (2020) and tax in Somalia; a study on the influence of the Gulf states and Turkey in the region (2021); andsupport for early career scholars from Somalia as part of the Diaspora Humanitarianism project. In previous years, RVI carried out studies on elections in Somaliland (2015); land in Mogadishu (2017); and the impact of war on Somali men, amongst others. RVI has also run the Horn of Africa field course, most years, since 2008, when the first course was held in Djibouti.