Supported by the EU Trust Fund, the Research and Evidence Facility (REF) on migration in the Horn Of Africa has been created to collate and produce evidence and policy relevant knowledge.
We are conducting research on the drivers of migration, dynamics of cross-border economies and centre/periphery relations, the features and limitations of government migration management systems and social service provision, drivers of radicalism and violent extremism, and opportunities for strengthening resilience. The research is conducted by a consortium made up of SOAS as the lead partner, the University of Manchester and Sahan Research, based in Nairobi, Kenya.
The Horn of Africa (HoA) is a region with a long history of crises, including conflict, natural disasters, and mass displacement of people both within and across its borders. It is also one of the most diverse in term of cultures, ethnicities, and religions of the African continent. The region’s complexities, combined with a rapidly expanding and increasingly youthful population, are producing progressively more acute challenges to international peace and security.
Latest news, research and commentary
Examining the durable solutions capacities in Kismayo and Afgoye
Aweis Ahmed, Farhia Mohamud, Mahad Wasuge Internal displacement and refugee repatriation in Somalia are closely tied to the dynamics of climate change and environmental degradation, and in addition to a highly volatile security context. Somalia is currently experiencing severe drought caused by successive failures of the rains, resulting in the third food emergency in a decade. Looking at the ways people have responded to previous periods of acute food shortages,
Operationalising a whole-of-society approach
Oliver Bakewell, Javans Okhonjo Wanga Whether people are migrating freely in the hope of improving their quality of life or fleeing as refugees to save their lives in the face of persecution, conflict and violence, the movement of people across the world creates both enormous challenges and great opportunities for societies in every continent. The complex set of drivers shaping people’s movements and the large array of stakeholders involved as
Podcast: South Sudan’s decades of displacement
People in South Sudan have experienced decades of forced displacement and cross-border mobility, resulting in families split across the country and neighbouring Sudan, Kenya, Ethiopia and Uganda. According to the United Nations as of 2021, more than four million South Sudanese citizens were displaced either internally or internationally. Samuel Hall in collaboration with Research and Evidence Facility (REF) explored the experiences of displacement, return, and reintegration among South Sudanese refugees,
Closing the environment-migration gap in climate policy and programmes in Kenya
Hussein Abdullahi Mahmoud, Padmini Iyer, Louisa Brain, Maissoun Hussein This paper explores mobility and migration in the context of strategies of adaptation to dynamic environmental changes in Tana River County of coastal Kenya. The study has three objectives. First, it critically considers the extent to which migration represents a strategy for adapting to environmental change and ecological degradation. For example, for whom and under what circumstances does moving serve as
Bridging the gap: environmental change, mobility and policy in Ethiopia’s Somali Region and Somaliland
Abdirahman Ahmed, Mohamed Fadal, Maissoun Hussein, Padmini Iyer, Louisa Brain Environment and mobility are closely linked in a myriad of complex and contextualised ways. Environmental change, in conjunction with a range of overlapping economic, political, social and demographic factors, influences migration patterns and preferences in the Horn of Africa (HoA). These phenomena – and the associated pressures on livelihoods, such as decreased availability of water and pasture for animals, deteriorating
Kalyango Ronald Sebba
Kalyango Ronald Sebba is a lecturer in the Department of Social Work and Social Administration at Kyambogo University, in Kampala, Uganda.
Watch: our approach to migration research
This project is funded by European Union Emergency Trust Fund for Africa.
The contents of this website are the sole responsibility of Research & Evidence Facility and do not necessarily reflect the views of the European Union.
