Rift Valley Institute

Rift Valley Institute The RVI is a non-profit education, research and publishing organization. www.riftvalley.net

05/06/2026

"Women’s work is funding education, it’s funding healthcare."

In Episode 4 of the Beyond Series, Nicki Dawn highlights the central role women play in sustaining communities and economies across Sudan and South Sudan.

Far from being peripheral to economic life, women are helping finance education, healthcare and social support systems through trade, cooperation and everyday economic activity. Their work underpins networks that connect communities and livelihoods across borders.

The episode explores how women are reshaping economic life in ways that are often overlooked in discussions of conflict, mobility and development.

Listen: http://tinyurl.com/BeyondXCEPT4

Learn more: http://xcept.riftvalley.net

04/06/2026

‘Women are not just passive victims of conflict, or of poverty, or of climate shocks.’

In Episode 4 of the Beyond Series, Dalle Abraham challenges common assumptions about women in conflict-affected regions.

Drawing on research from the Mandera tri-border area, he highlights the role women play as traders, business owners and economic actors sustaining households and local economies. Far from being peripheral, women are central to the movement of goods, services and livelihoods across the borderlands.

The episode explores how trade, mobility and local economic systems shape everyday life in one of the Horn of Africa’s most interconnected regions.

Listen: http://tinyurl.com/BeyondXCEPT4
Read Dalle’s paper: https://tinyurl.com/legallyinformal
Learn more: http://xcept.riftvalley.net

04/06/2026

“It’s not the absence of order, rather it’s a space governed by its own rules.”

In Episode 4 of the Beyond Series, Sahra Ahmed Koshin reflects on what policymakers and outsiders often misunderstand about informal economies.

Listen: tinyurl.com/BeyondXCEPT4

Drawing on her research with women traders in Galkayo’s khat economy, Sahra argues that informality should not be seen as disorder. Instead, it operates through its own systems of trust, reputation and accountability, which traders learn to navigate through lived experience and social networks.

Read Sahra’s paper: https://tinyurl.com/GalkayoKhatEconomy

The episode explores labour, trade and gender dynamics in the borderlands of Somalia, Puntland and the Mandera Triangle, highlighting how women create economic opportunities and navigate risk in challenging environments.

Learn more: xcept.riftvalley.net

29/05/2026

“…she managed to sneak out of town.”

In Episode 3 of the Beyond Series, Deng Kuol recounts how a small quantity of sorghum seed was smuggled out of occupied Abyei during a period of displacement and conflict.

Listen: http://tinyurl.com/BeyondXCEPT3

Deng’s research explores the importance of sorghum among the Ngok Dinka of Abyei and reflects on how an older relative helped preserve seeds of a valued sorghum variety called ruath during a time of profound uncertainty.

Read Deng’s paper: https://tinyurl.com/grainsaslife

The story highlights a central theme of the episode: food is more than sustenance. It is memory, identity, culture and continuity. Through lived experience storytelling, the episode explores how conflict, displacement and regional economic change are reshaping food systems, cultural practices and everyday life across South Sudan’s borderlands.

Learn more: http://xcept.riftvalley.net

28/05/2026

“…that cassava can easily be changed into livestock or cash money, which can be used for bridewealth.”

In Episode 3 of the Beyond Series, Luga Aquila reflects on how one cassava variety, yoyoji-yoyoja (“you can now get engaged”), became tied to marriage, wealth and social status in Pojulu society.

The episode explores how conflict, displacement and regional economic change are reshaping food systems and cultural practices across South Sudan’s borderlands.

In his paper, Luga traces how a newer cassava variety geared towards market production gradually displaced older social meanings tied to bridewealth and family wealth redistribution.

Listen: http://tinyurl.com/BeyondXCEPT3
Read Luga’s paper: https://tinyurl.com/youcannowgetengaged
Learn more: http://xcept.riftvalley.net

Have you had a chance to read our May 2026 newsletter yet?This month’s edition features reflections on leadership and th...
28/05/2026

Have you had a chance to read our May 2026 newsletter yet?

This month’s edition features reflections on leadership and the Pan-African imperative, conversations on resilience in East Africa’s drylands, updates from across our programmes and the latest from the Beyond XCEPT podcast series.

Read it here: https://tinyurl.com/yhsayrb3

Stay connected and subscribe to our mailing list: tinyurl.com/RVINewsletter

19/05/2026

“…any indigenous food is foreign and backward. That’s what they would say.”

In Episode 3 of the Beyond Series, Elizabeth Nyibol reflects on how conflict, displacement and migration are reshaping relationships to indigenous foods and agricultural knowledge in , particularly among younger generations raised away from their ancestral environments.

The episode explores food, memory, displacement and survival through the stories of three South Sudanese researchers.

Listen: http://tinyurl.com/BeyondXCEPT3
Learn more: http://xcept.riftvalley.net

Global order is shifting, with major implications for politics, economics and conflict across eastern Africa.How are gov...
19/05/2026

Global order is shifting, with major implications for politics, economics and conflict across eastern Africa.

How are governments, regional institutions and civil societies in the region responding to these geopolitical changes, and what choices lie ahead?

Join the British Institute in Eastern Africa, Chatham House Africa Programme and RVI for this public discussion bringing together leaders and thinkers from across the region.

21 May 2026 | 11am–12:30pm EAT | BIEA Nairobi and online

Register: tinyurl.com/eafriwo

18/05/2026

Young people in Hargeisa are graduating into a job market unable to absorb them, while social media and diaspora connections create constant exposure to opportunities, mobility and life abroad.

In Episode 2 of the Beyond Series, Peter Chonka reflects on how digital connectivity shapes migration aspirations in Somaliland, while also highlighting the inequalities that determine who gets to move freely and who does not.

Listen: http://tinyurl.com/BeyondXCEPT2
Learn more: http://xcept.riftvalley.net

15/05/2026

“It’s either I go or maybe die trying.”

In Episode 2 of the Beyond Series, Joseph Diing explores how social media is reshaping migration in South Sudan’s borderlands. Images shared by friends abroad, from Italy, France or the UK, create powerful visions of success that encourage young people to take increasingly risky journeys in search of a different life.

The episode explores movement, migration and digital belonging across conflict-affected borderlands.

Listen: http://tinyurl.com/BeyondXCEPT2
Learn more: http://xcept.riftvalley.net

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