Engineering Cooperation in the Eastern Nile

Ibrahim Shaqlawi

This week in Nairobi, I had the opportunity to take part in interactive dialogue sessions that brought together delegations from the Eastern Nile Basin countries alongside experts in media, water, and gender. It was a political and media moment through which I witnessed a shift in the developmental and regional discourse—towards a wider awareness of the importance of moving beyond hard tools to softer approaches based on trust-building, diplomacy, and turning conflicts into opportunities for cooperation.
It seems that the Eastern Nile Basin—comprising Sudan, Egypt, Ethiopia, and South Sudan—is closer than ever to a comprehensive review of methods and mechanisms of cooperation. The challenges and overlapping roles of influence, whether in water resources management or within tense political contexts, no longer allow for the luxury of stagnation or waiting.
A growing sense emerged in the corridors of the workshop that the river is no longer simply a shared natural resource, but a stage upon which new forms of political and cultural understanding are being tested. Alongside the technical work, the dominant orientation of the workshop also carried an implicit political message: we need to redefine the concept of partnership in the basin—not merely based on exchanging benefits, but on mutual recognition, complementarity, and the distribution of roles in ways that reflect reality and aspirations.
One of the most important keys to this shift was the integration of developmental media and gender into the water management approach. The workshop moved beyond the classical view of resources to a more holistic understanding, in which media is seen as a driver of public discourse and gender as an entry point for the effective participation of all groups.
Media is no longer understood simply as a transmitter of news, but is treated as a political and developmental actor capable of shaping public opinion, shifting debate from conflict to dialogue, and from politicisation to participation. This was embodied in the session delivered by media expert Faisal Mohamed Saleh, who boldly raised questions about the responsibility of the media in countering incitement, and the potential use of interactive drama and community theatre as alternative narratives restoring value to the voice of ordinary people in the Nile’s villages and plains.
As for water diplomacy, a core theme of the workshop, it was presented as a foundational negotiating tool as well as a value-based and strategic system that redefines the relationship between state and resource, state and society, and even between cross-border local communities.
The workshop was delivered by Eng. Faki Ahmed, former director of ENTRO, encouraged looking at diplomacy from a cultural and human perspective, showing how theatre, drama, and local storytelling could be used in negotiations and communication, filling gaps that formal politics alone cannot.
In parallel, the workshop reaffirmed the centrality of gender, not as a mere procedural item within projects, but as an essential entry point for understanding power dynamics and the equitable distribution of resources. Women were not addressed here as beneficiaries alone, but as social forces with a leadership role in water and development decision-making.
Through the presentations of Canadian expert Ellen Hagemann and the interventions of participants, it became clear that betting on gender is inseparable from a larger commitment to social justice, which in essence is a prerequisite for genuine stability and lasting peace.
As the workshop advanced, a specifically Sudanese model began to take shape, co-developed by the Sudanese delegation led by Dr. Saleh Hamad, head of the Technical Department at the Ministry of Agriculture and Irrigation, and Professor Ahmed Siam of the UNESCO Water Chair at Omdurman Islamic University, along with other members. This model can be seen as a practical and expandable initiative based on three pillars: a multi-platform developmental media addressing audiences in a simple and context-sensitive language; cultural diplomacy that integrates negotiation into the context of arts and theatre while simplifying environmental discourse; and the full integration of gender as a philosophy of planning and execution, not merely as an additional component.
If implemented, this model could place Sudan in a pioneering role among basin states, particularly given its cultural and historical heritage that equips it to act as a mediator—not only geographically, but also in moral, ethical, and political terms.
In the context of these shifts, the importance of bringing developmental media and water diplomacy to the fore as central tools for engineering future cooperation in the basin becomes clear. Media, when developmental, does not stop at reporting reality, but participates in reshaping it, granting communities the ability to express their identities and needs.
At its core, it is a tool for dismantling misconceptions, building spaces of trust, and breaking the psychological barriers accumulated by political tensions.
Diplomacy, when practised in cultural and human terms and combined with technical expertise, opens closed doors and provides different parties with opportunities to meet beyond the logic of victory and defeat.
In a moment when challenges are edging towards explosion, the call for such soft tools has become both a political and moral necessity. It reflects a regional shift in awareness—towards the understanding that stability is not built solely by high-level policies, but also through micro-level agreements, discourse, culture, and community participation.
What I witnessed in Nairobi this week was a strategic exercise in imagining a different future for the Nile Basin—one based on convergence, not discord; on complementarity of roles, not duplication or collision.
The message of this workshop was clear: the Nile Basin is not an arena for competing sovereignties, but an opportunity to shape an African model of integration and sustainable development. Suppose we truly heed what was said in Nairobi and translate the forthcoming recommendations into tangible projects. In that case, we will have laid the first stone on the path to genuine peace—the kind of peace that is not decided only in political chambers, but is built, shaped, and circulated among people, in the media, in theatre, in community dialogue, and in every space where people feel that they share in the water—and in the destiny.

Shortlink: https://sudanhorizon.com/?p=7688