*By Invitation Only/Closed Session*

The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) has been a center of regional political interaction in what is known as the Eastern Nile Basin. For a decade, the dam has shaped the hydro-politics of the Nile, particularly the tripartite political relation between Ethiopia, Sudan and Egypt. Unprecedented negotiations unfolded inviting major global and regional powers, including the UNSC, AU and the US government to intervene in the search for an amicable solution. The dam also became a priority agenda in the national politics of the three states, mainly Egypt and Ethiopia.

Despite ongoing negotiations, lack of basin-wide agreement that defines the water share of the basin countries seriously arrests the process of negotiations. Although the Declaration of Principles signed in December 2015 could be taken as a positive step, the three countries could not manage to agree on a mechanism to guide the filling and operation of the GERD. The crisis of multilateralism at the global scale, the historic power competition and politics of mutual intervention and mistrust, as well as unstable politics in the riparian states has conditioned the negotiations process…ReadMore