Yodit Balcha will be sharing her experiences as a woman water diplomat and some of the challenges and opportunities facing inclusive water diplomacy. She will be discussing how we should all be a water diplomat since Water is everyone’s issue; Water is culture! Water is religion! Water is politics!  Water is life! Water is health! Water is peace!

Further she will talk on the importance of elevating women water decision makers in informal and formal water diplomacy processes such as the Women in Water Diplomacy Network for inclusive water diplomacy. 

Speaker’s bio

Yodit Balcha (Ethiopia) is a founding member of the Women in Water Diplomacy Network and serves on the Network's Leadership Council. Yodit is also a founding member of the African Women in Water and Climate Association.

Currently, Yodit works as a Climate Adaptation research officer at the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT-Africa Hub in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Until early 2022, Yodit served as the Senior Climate Change Adaptation Advisor at the Ministry of Water, Irrigation, and Energy in Ethiopia, where she is responsible for mainstreaming climate change adaptation and resilience plans into the ministries sectoral strategic and development projects, she was also one of the few women water diplomats during the GERD negotiations back in 2019. Her work focuses on the nexus approach of Climate, Land (Agriculture), Energy, and Water Systems. Yodit holds a master’s degree in Sustainable Development from Uppsala University, a Master's course in Agricultural Economics from Haramaya University, and Bachelor's Degree in Natural Resource Economics and Management from Mekelle University.

The event is cosponsored by Nicholas School of the Environment, Duke Human Rights Center at the Franklin Humanities Institute, Africa Initiative and Rethinking Diplomacy.