As we mentioned in our fourth post, Stakeholder Assessment is a useful tool for ‘mapping’ overlapping and conflicting demands for the same water. But once basic requirements have been met (i.e., in terms of quantity and quality of water), how should the relevant parties organize their interactions? Does each side push ahead and seek to […]
Where Complexity and Uncertainty Prevail, Joint Fact-Finding May Provide a Way Forward
In our last post, we described the value of a carefully structured Stakeholder Assessment as a tool for identifying relevant stakeholders, as well as their interests, in a conflict. It can also be used to identify facts in contention or missing information– i.e. ‘what the parties know or think they know about the problem?’ In […]
Coping with Uncertainty and Feedback in the Nile Basin
This article is the second installment of the series Water Diplomacy: Issues of Complexity Science and Negotiation Theory — Water disputes are difficult to resolve because they are complex. These disputes occur in open and changing systems with numerous stakeholders, interactions, and interdependencies that make it difficult to anticipate or manage complex systems. One aspect of complexity has to do with uncertainty in how the networks and systems involved are likely to respond to stresses, such as
Hydropolitics of the Nile, the 18th Camel and Water Diplomacy
(From the Cairo Airport Lounge) Returning to Boston from Nazareth, Ethiopia after leading an intensive two-day workshop organized by ENTRO/ENSAP. The theme was Water Diplomacy Framework : from theory to practice with a focus on transboundary water issues. Over sixty water professionals, decision makers, diplomats, and non-governmental actors from the four Eastern Nile countries (Egypt, Ethiopia, Sudan, and South […]