Mina Michel Samaan is one of the PhD scholars at TU-Braunschweig who are funded by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) through the EXCEED-SWINDON project. Mina has started his study at the Institute of Social Sciences since November 2013, and he is focusing in his dissertation on transboundary water governance, particularly in the Nile Basin.
By accepting his abstract entitled, “The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam and challenges of climate change,” Mina was invited to participate as an oral presenter in the Stockholm World Water Week, that took place from August 28 to September 2, 2016. His participation was fully funded by the Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI) grant to students whose participation would contribute to the success of the WWW 2016.
As a part of the “Water security in a changing world: coping with threats” seminar, Mina delivered his presentation, where high-level officials from Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan were attending (available in the links below). In particular, the Sudanese Minister of Water Resources, high representatives of the Egyptian and Ethiopian Ministries of Water Resources and Foreign Affairs were present. The members of the Tripartite National Committee that involves the three countries to negotiate over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam also attended. In addition, the Executive Director of the Nile Basin Initiative and several international experts on the Nile were there. The hall was full and the audience represented the policy makers, scientific community, and inter-governmental and non-governmental organizations, which made the discussions that followed the presentation interesting and fruitful.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZZ4qL5DcAXw
During the week, Mina was able to talk to the Egyptian, Ethiopian and Sudanese Ministers of Water Resources, and they generously gave him the chance to run interviews with them for the sake of his research. Moreover, he was able to take an exclusive photo with the three of them.
Mina was able also to run several interviews with the executive director of the Nile Basin Initiative (inter-governmental organization), and the late president of the Nile Basin Discourse (non-governmental organization), in addition to interviews with those experts that have been studying the Nile for long time, in the fields of international relations, international water law, and water-energy-food nexus.
It is worth mentioning that Mina had participated at the 5-Year EXCEED Closing Symposium in Braunschweig (September 22-23, 2014), and at the 74th Midwest Political Science Association Annual Conference in Chicago (April 7-10, 2016), and he is invited to give an oral presentation at the 58th International Studies Association Annual Convention in Baltimore (February 22-28, 2017). Additionally, his poem “Braunschweig in my closed eyes” had won the second-place prize of the 2015 Mein_Lyrik Poetry Contest, through which he described his experience as an international student coming to study in Braunschweig with the support of the DAAD.