Teacher announcements for RVI's Annual Field Courses
New teachers have been announced for the RVI’s three Annual Field Courses which will take place in Entebbe, Uganda, in June 2017. The five day courses provide professionals with a unique opportunity to network and learn from leading experts in the fields of research and policy.
The Sudan and South Sudan Course (4–9 June) will be led by Magdi el-Gizouli, a renowned Sudanese scholar, and Nicki Kindersley, whose work examines political mobilisation and migration in the two Sudans. Magdi and Nicki will be joined by a faculty of specialists based in the region and beyond including David Deng, Ghazi al-Atabani, Douglas Johnson and Rebecca Glade.
The Great Lakes Course (11–16 June) will see Jason Stearns and Yolande Bouka return as Co-Directors. The Course will examine transitions in the DRC, Rwanda and Burundi, focusing on key events in the upcoming year. Confirmed teachers include Willy Nindorera, Jean Omasombo, Assumpa Mugiraneza and Stephanie Wolters.
The Horn of Africa Course (18–23 June) will focus on Ethiopia, Eritrea and the Somali regions. It will be directed by Laura Hammond and Terrence Lyons. They will be joined by a team of regional specialists including Dereje Feyissa, Ken Menkhaus and Lee Cassanelli.
For further information about this course, please contact cou...@riftvalley.net.
Publications
Land Matters in Mogadishu
Mogadishu has for more than two decades been one of the most highly contested cities in the world. Since the collapse of President Siyad Barre’s government in early 1991, it has been the object of both military and political struggles almost without interruption. This report, published in partnership with the Heritage Institute for Policy Studies in Mogadishu, considers the current state of land governance and the nature of continuing land disputes in Mogadishu, which remains one of the most difficult and sensitive issues of the capital’s long process of recovery and normalization. Land disputes are not simply a result of the conflict that engulfed the city following the 1991 state collapse... READ MORE >
Drought in the Horn of Africa Roundtable
In early 2011, the scale of famine affecting the Horn of Africa was only just beginning to receive international attention, despite early warnings in the previous year. It was not until July that famine was formally declared. The famine killed 250,000 people in southern Somalia alone, and displaced and destroyed the livelihoods of hundreds of thousands of others. Many sought refuge in Kenya, which was also coping with a nation-wide drought and food shortages. Six years after the 2011 famine, the region is facing a disaster of a similar scale. On 8 February 2017, the Rift Valley Institute and the Centre for Humanitarian Change... READ MORE >
Supporting the delivery of high‐quality research in the Somali Regions
A growing youth population, high levels of unemployment and limited opportunities for vocational training have led to a steady increase in the number of young Somali men and women seeking higher education courses that will provide them with skills for employment. This demand has led to a proliferation of over fifty colleges and universities in the Somali regions that offer an array of courses. Many young people pursue higher education as a way to gain skills that will provide them with employment and an alternative to migration (tahriib). Unfortunately, the quality of education that is available within these institutions is often poor due to a lack of funding, resources and the availability of experienced teaching staff, and therefore does little to discourage the search for better educational opportunities abroad... READ MORE >
Upcoming events
Eastleigh Launch: Impact of War on Somali Men
There has been little enquiry into the reality of the lives of Somali men and male youth following the collapse of the State in 1990. On 5 March 2017, the Rift Valley Forum and the Aw Jama Cultural Centre will host a panel discussion to discuss the findings of the inception phase of RVI's Impact of War on Somali Men research project. The study investigated the impact of war and state collapse on Somali men and male youth through interviews and focus group discussions with some 400 men and 90 women in south-central Somalia, Puntland, Somaliland, and Dadaab and Eastleigh in Nairobi, Kenya.... READ MORE >
When many of his colleagues at the archives fled to refugee camps in 2013, he remained in his office—a small shipping container, used to digitize archives, on the grounds of a Juba hotel—and listened to the familiar sounds of war outside. “We’ve never learned from the past,” he thought.... READ MORE >
