The Great Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD): Hydropolitics, domestic and international implications

The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), a mega project on the Blue Nile River, represents a transformative development initiative for Ethiopia, while simultaneously generating far-reaching political economy, hydropolitical and geopolitical implications across the Nile River basin. 

This Research in Progress seminar examines the GERD through an integrated analytical lens, exploring its domestic drivers and impacts, as well as its broader regional and international ramifications. 

Domestically, the GERD is a centerpiece of Ethiopia's political economy, envisioned to alleviate poverty and chronic energy shortages, stimulate industrialization and reinforce state legitimacy by fostering national pride and unity. Regionally, the dam has emerged as a flashpoint of hydropolitical contestation, particularly with Egypt and Sudan, whose historical reliance on Nile waters has framed their resistance to upstream unilateralism. 

Internationally, the GERD intersects with shifting geopolitical alignments, external power interests and competing development paradigms in the Horn of Africa and beyond. 

By unpacking these layered dimensions, this presentation will provide a nuanced and critical understanding of the GERD as both a symbol of sovereign development and a catalyst for intensified transboundary water diplomacy and regional power reconfigurations.