Rift Valley Institute

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RVI Nairobi Forum - War Crimes and Statebuilding (Storymoja Festival) Oct 07, 2014

Show notes

The Rift Valley Institute’s Nairobi Forum, in partnership with Storymoja Africa, hosted a panel discussion with Rasna Warah (Kenya), author of War Crimes in Somalia, Michael Walls (UK) of UCL, author of A Somali Nation-State, to discuss Somali history, political transitions and foreign aid at the 2014 Storymoja Festival. The authors were joined on the panel by Parselelo Kantai (Kenya), investigative journalist and regional editor of the Africa Report, Fatuma Abdulahi (Somalia), founder of the Warya Post, and Neil Wigan, the British High Commissioner to Somalia. The panel was moderated by lawyer Ramsey Beck (USA).

RVI Nairobi Forum - The 'other' Kenya: A conversation with Mohammed Adow Jan 27, 2014

Show notes

Mohammed Adow discussed his recent documentary, Not Yet Kenyan, which aired on Al Jazeera English Channel on 14 November, at a meeting of the Nairobi Forum. The documentary brings to the fore a divide in Kenyan society, revealing a history of discrimination since independence against ethnic Somalis in North Eastern Kenya. Born and raised in Garissa County in northeast Kenya, Mohammed Adow witnessed at first hand the political and economic marginalisation of this part of Kenya. For "Not Yet Kenyan" he went back to see how the region and its people had survived and started to prosper, only to find that Kenya's intervention in Somalia and the actions of al-Shabaab are threatening to throw the region into turmoil. During the meeting RVI fellow Justin Willis, Professor in History at the University of Durham, talked with Mohammed Adow about his experiences and the story behind this documentary. They discussed the issues with Dr Ekuru Aukot, a Constitutional Lawyer, who hails from Turkana in northwest Kenya.

RVI Field Courses - Reflections on a life of research in the Horn of Africa Jan 27, 2014

Show notes

Berouk Mesfin, Senior Researcher at the Institute for Security Studies (ISS), interviews Christopher Clapham, Emeritus Professor at the University of Cambridge, and Lee Cassanelli, Associate Professor of History at the University of Pennsylvania, on the topic of a life of research in the Horn of Africa, on the 2013 Rift Valley Institute Horn of Africa Field Course in Jinja, Uganda.

RVI Nairobi Forum - South Sudan: Is Peace Possible? Jan 15, 2014

Show notes

Thousands have died and hundreds of thousands have been displaced as a result of the political crisis in South Sudan. Armed conflict continues as peace talks between government and opposition begin in Addis Ababa. Leading South Sudanese civil society institutions came together in Nairobi to sponsor discussion of the current situation, its historical origins and the prospects for a peaceful resolution. The meeting was organised by the Rift Valley Institute's Nairobi Forum and supported by the Open Society Initiative for Eastern Africa.

RVI Nairobi Forum - LAPSSET Dec 27, 2013

Show notes

On 4 October, the RVI Nairobi Forum held a public meeting to discuss the Lamu Port-South Sudan Ethiopia Transport Corridor (LAPSSET), a flagship project of Kenya’s government-sponsored Vision 2030. A panel composed of representatives of government, parliament and civil society discussed the effects that this major project will have on communities in northern Kenya and neighbouring countries. The meeting attracted participation from donors and researchers, representatives of government and the communities affected by the project.

RVI Nairobi Forum - IGAD and Somalia Dec 27, 2013

Show notes

On 25 October 2013, the RVI Nairobi Forum convened a distinguished panel of speakers to reflect on IGAD’s past and future role in Somalia. Ambassador Mahboub Maalim, the Executive Secretary of IGAD, was the keynote speaker. He was joined on the panel by Ambassador Mohamed Ali, Somalia’s Ambassador to Kenya. The meeting was chaired by Jan-Petter Holtendahl, Counsellor for Somali Affairs for the Royal Norwegian Embassy in Nairobi.

RVI Nairobi Forum - Remittance transfers to Somalia Oct 10, 2013

Show notes

On 11 September the RVI Nairobi Forum hosted a discussion about UK and US banks' discontinuation of their services to Somali remittance companies. The occasion was the launch of a report by Oxfam and Adeso Keeping the Lifeline Open: Remittances and Markets in Somalia. The report highlights the positive impact of remittances on Somali livelihoods and assesses the compliance of money transfer operators, and their due-diligence procedures. Speakers at the meeting appealed to Barclays—the last bank to offer such services—to postpone their 30 September deadline for another year. On 30 September, a fortnight later, Barclays postponed the deadline for two weeks.

RVI - Miraya FM South Sudan Archive feature Aug 14, 2013

Show notes

On 15 June 2013, Miraya FM in Juba broadcast a feature on the process of digitizing documents for the South Sudan National Archives. The project is a collaboration between the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports, RVI, UNESCO, UNOPS and the Government of Norway. ‘The documents are important,’ the report says, ‘as they will form part of the foundations of South Sudanese national identity. They trace the cultural, social and political development of the new state.’

RVI Juba Lecture Series - My Mother Will Not Come to Juba Report Launch Jun 30, 2013

Show notes

In South Sudan, delays in the formulation of a new national constitution have led to growing public concern. My Mother Will Not Come to Juba: South Sudanese Debate the Constitution is the record of a series of public lectures and discussions held at the University of Juba in March 2013. The launch of the report, which is available for free download, featured many of the participants in the original lecture series, including Akolda Ma'an Tier (Chairman of the Constitutional Review Commission), Merekaje Lorna, Leben Moro, Don Samuel, Ben Lou Poggo and Henry Swaka.

RVI Nairobi Forum - Pastoralism and Development in Africa - Part 1 May 13, 2013

Show notes

On 29 April the Hon. Mohamed Elmi (MP, Tarbaj) presented a paper at the Nairobi Forum on Lessons from the Ministry of Northern Kenya, reflecting on the work of his former Ministry in supporting pastoralism and development in Kenya’s arid and semi arid lands. The former Minister was one of several speakers at a seminar hosted by the Nairobi Forum in collaboration with the Future Agriculture Consortium, to launch the book Pastoralism and Development in Africa: Dynamic Change at the Margins. Other speakers and authors included Jeremy Lind (Institute of Development Studies), Hussein A. Mahmoud (Pwani University), Abdirizak Arale Nunow (Inter-Parliamentary Union, IGAD), Polly Ericksen (ILRI) and Francis Chabari (Kenya Drylands Livestock Development Programme). The proceedings were chaired by Deborah Nightingale (RVI Fellow) and the Hon. Chachu Ganya (MP, North Horr). The speakers illustrated the dynamic changes happening within pastoralism in Kenya, with discussions of innovations in livestock trade, land expropriation, environmental change, and policy initiatives to mitigate recurrent disasters through resilience programmes. This podcast is part 1 of 2.

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