This week I was afforded the opportunity to experience the dialogue sessions and interactive discussions that brought together delegations from the Eastern Nile Basin countries, and experts in media, water, and gender in Nairobi. This experience was a political and media moment through which I discovered a transformation in the developmental and regional discourse, toward a broader awareness of the importance of transcending rigid tools toward soft approaches based on building trust and diplomacy, and transforming conflicts into opportunities for cooperation.
It seems that the Eastern Nile Basin, which includes Sudan, Egypt, Ethiopia, and South Sudan, is coming closer than ever to a comprehensive review of cooperation methods and mechanisms. The challenges and overlaps related to roles and influence, whether in water resource management or in tense political contexts, clearly no longer allow the luxury of stagnation or waiting.
There was a growing feeling in the corridors of the workshop that the river is no longer merely a shared natural resource, but has become a field for testing new forms of political and cultural understanding. The orientation that dominated the workshop alongside the technical work also carried in its content an unspoken political message: we need to redefine the concept of partnership in the basin, not merely on the basis of benefit exchange, but on the basis of mutual recognition, integration, and distribution of roles reflecting reality and aspirations.
One of the most prominent keys to this transformation was manifested in incorporating developmental media and gender into the water management approach, where the classical view of resources was surpassed toward a more inclusive understanding, seeing media as a tool for steering public discourse, and gender as an entry point to engage all groups effectively.
Media is no longer understood merely as a conveyor of news, but is treated as a political and developmental actor capable of influencing public opinion, guiding the discussion from conflict to dialogue, and from politicization to participation. This was embodied in the workshop led by media expert Faisal Mohamed Salah, which boldly posed questions about the media’s responsibility in confronting inciting discourse, and the possibility of using interactive drama and community theater as alternative narratives that restore dignity to the voice of the ordinary person in the Nile’s villages and plains.
As for water diplomacy, which formed a fundamental axis in the workshop, it was proposed as a foundational negotiation method, in addition to being a system of values and strategies that redefines the relationship between the state and the resource, between the state and society, and even among local communities across borders.
The workshop presented by Engineer Faki Ahmed, former director of Intero, stimulated consideration of this diplomacy from a cultural and human perspective, and showed how theater, drama, and local storytelling can be used in negotiation and communication contexts, and can fill the gaps that official politics alone cannot fill.
Meanwhile, the workshop reinstated the importance of gender issues, viewing them not merely as a procedural item within projects, but as a necessary entry point for understanding the equation of power and the fair distribution of resources. Here, the woman was not presented as a commodity but as a beneficiary, alongside being a social force with a leadership role in water and developmental decision‑making.
Also, through the presentations given by Canadian Ellen Hagman, and participants’ interventions, it became clear that the bet on gender does not separate from a larger bet on social justice, which in its essence constitutes a precondition for any real stability, and any lasting peace.
With the passing days of the workshop, a special Sudanese model began to take shape, in whose formulation the Sudanese delegation participated under the leadership of Dr. Saleh Hamad, head of the Technical Unit at the Ministry of Agriculture and Irrigation, and Professor Ahmed Siyam, UNESCO Chair for Water at Omdurman Islamic University, and the rest of the delegation. It can be thought of as an initiative that is feasible for implementation and expansion, based on three pillars: developmental multimedia media that addresses the public in simple language sensitive to the context; cultural diplomacy that integrates negotiation in the context of arts and theater with simplification of environmental discourse; and full inclusion of gender as a philosophy of planning and implementation, not only as an additional component.
This model, if placed into effect, could position Sudan in a pioneering role among the basin countries, especially since it enjoys a cultural and historical legacy that qualifies it to play the role of mediator, not only geographically, but in the value‑based, moral, and political spheres.
In the context of these transformations emerges the importance of recalling developmental media and water diplomacy as central tools in engineering future cooperation among basin countries. Media, when developmental, does not suffice with conveying reality, but participates in reshaping it, and grants communities the ability to express their identities and needs.
And it is, in its essence, a tool to dismantle misconceptions, to build spaces of trust, and to break the stagnation and psychological barriers that have accumulated in consequence of political tensions.
As for diplomacy, when practiced in a cultural and human manner, with engineering expertise, it opens closed doors, and grants different parties the opportunity to meet outside of the logic of victory and defeat.
The idea of invoking these soft tools, at a moment when challenges seem closer to explosion, has become a political and ethical necessity. And it reflects a shift in regional awareness, toward realizing that stability is not built only by higher policies, but also by minor understandings, by discourse, by culture, and by community participation.
What I witnessed in Nairobi this week was a strategic exercise in imagining a different future for the Nile Basin, built on convergence rather than divergence, on the integration of roles rather than their duplication or collision.
According to #Face_of_Truth the message of this workshop confirmed that the Nile Basin is not a field for contesting sovereignties, but an opportunity to craft an African model for integration and sustainable development. And if we do well to listen to what was said in Nairobi, and turn the forthcoming recommendations into real projects, we will have placed the first stone on the road to true peace. That peace which is not decided by political chambers only, but is built, formed, and exchanged among people, in media, in theater, in community dialogue, and in every space in which a human feels they are a partner in water, and in destiny.
Wishing you well and in good health
Thursday, 18 September 2025
Shglawi55@gmail.com
