RVI areas of operation in Eastern and Central Africa: click on map for description of projects in specific subregion
The Institute’s geographical area of operation covers four subregions of Eastern and Central Africa: the Sudans, the Horn of Africa, East Africa and the Great Lakes. There are active RVI programmes in South Sudan, Somalia, Somaliland, Kenya, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).
The Horn of Africa consists of Ethiopia, Eritrea, Djibouti, Somaliland, Puntland and Somalia. The Institute has worked in the region since 2008. The first annual RVI Horn of Africa Course was held in Djibouti in 2008; in subsequent years it has been held on the north Kenyan coast, and in Jinja, Uganda.
Since 2007 RVI programmes in East Africa have been managed from the Institute&rsqcuo;s regional office in Nairobi, Kenya. In 2012, the Institute established the Rift Valley Forum for Research, Policy and Local Knowledge, previously the Nairobi Forum, to promote critical discussion of political, economic, and social issues in the wider region.
The RVI has worked in the Sudans continuously since 2001. The Institute’s first research project was an eighteen-month investigation of abduction and enslavement in South Sudan during the civil war. This study established new standards in the region for rigour in front-line human rights research.
Africa’s Great Lakes region encompasses Rwanda, Burundi, the eastern provinces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and parts of western Uganda. In 2010 the Institute held its first Great Lakes Course in Entebbe, Uganda.
