The South Omo Research Center and Forum for Transcultural Understanding has been created as part of the new policy of the Institute of Ethiopian Studies, Addis Ababa University, which supports the development of new research centers in different regions of Ethiopia. The new centers are meant to enhance mutual understanding and cooperation between the various peoples of Ethiopia.

The central idea underlying SORC is that the very process of seeking to gain an understanding of one's own and the other's culture will enhance friendship rather than perpetuate existing animosities. That is, the programme of the center is built on the premise that once the many linguistically and culturally diverse groups of southern Ethiopia are offered the opportunity to jointly debate their differences, they will also soon come to discuss their similarities and the possibility of working jointly together in the future.

In the coming years the programme of the South Omo Research Center and Forum is meant to focus on the following activities:

• Ethnographic film projects where representatives of different groups of Southern Ethiopia, together with anthropologists and film makers produce, screen and debate films about their respective cultures and different ways of life.

• Sound recording projects where representatives of different groups of Southern Ethiopia, together with anthropologists, linguists and musicologists make, play and debate recordings of their respective music, language and other sounds of culture.

• Text projects where representatives of different groups of Southern Ethiopia, together with anthropologists and historians record, transcribe, translate and debate their different cultures and histories.

• Cultural encyclopaedia projects where the traditional knowledge of the natural and cultural environment of different groups of Southern Ethiopia is recorded and analysed.

• Development of a cultural heritage documentation center with exhibits of cultural heritage items, library, audio-visual archive, and publication of research results.

• Regular meetings and events where representatives of different groups of southern Ethiopia participate and debate their past, present and future.

• Video recordings of major meetings, events and debates, with a view to making the activities of the center available to a wider audience through television within Ethiopia and abroad.