By Deng Ghai Deng
The Nile Basin Initiative (NBI) has inaugurated a four-day training workshop for South Sudanese journalists aimed at enhancing their understanding of Nile Basin cooperation.
The workshop, which began on Wednesday, is taking place in Juba and involves over 20 media professionals from various outlets across the country.
The NBI, established in 1999, is an intergovernmental partnership comprising ten member countries including Burundi, DR Congo, Egypt, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan, Sudan, Tanzania, and Uganda. Its primary goal is to foster cooperative and sustainable management of the Nile River.
Dr. Florence Grace Adongo, the Executive Director of NBI based in Entebbe, Uganda, emphasized the significance of the workshop during her address.
“The media fraternity has a crucial role to play in dispelling misinformation and ensuring accurate information reaches the public,” she said.
“A strong partnership between NBI governance and the media is essential for correcting misconceptions and presenting factual information about the transboundary water cooperation,” Adongo stated.
The training, facilitated in collaboration with Media In Cooperation and Transition (MiCT), a German-based NGO, is part of a broader program titled “Strengthening Media Capacities and Networks in the Nile Basin.”
This initiative is funded by the German Federal Foreign Office and aims to build strategic media partnerships to advance the NBI’s Shared Vision Objective—achieving sustainable socio-economic development through equitable utilization of Nile Basin water resources.
Peter Mahal Akat, Undersecretary in South Sudan’s Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation, underscored the importance of media in promoting Nile Basin cooperation.
“The media plays a critical role in raising awareness about the benefits of Nile cooperation and the necessity for basin states to work collaboratively to address shared challenges,” Akat remarked.
He highlighted that the training seeks to enhance media capacities and foster networking to support solution-oriented approaches to water-related issues.
The NBI and MiCT formalized their collaboration through a Memorandum of Understanding signed in May 2024, focusing on strengthening media capacities and networks to address water-related challenges in the Nile Basin.