SIWI Reflections 2025: When knowledge begins to travel

What was the most meaningful thing you worked on in 2025?

When I look back on 2025, the most meaningful part of my work was not a single meeting or milestone, but a shift in perspective. The launch of the Routledge Handbook of Water Diplomacy marked the end of a long and collective process which was years of collaboration, debate, and shared learning but it also marked the beginning of something new.

What stayed with me was the moment when the Handbook stopped feeling like a project we were still shaping and started to feel like something moving beyond us. Seeing it circulate, be referenced, and spark conversations in different contexts was both humbling and energizing. It reinforced an important lesson: the real value of this kind of work lies not in producing knowledge, but in creating something that others can interpret, adapt, and use in ways we cannot fully predict.

Why did it matter — what difference did it make, or will it make?

What mattered most was how the Handbook was positioned and what followed its release. Making it open access was a deliberate choice, grounded in the belief that tools for cooperation should be accessible to those who need them most, regardless of institutional affiliation or resources.

In 2025, this openness began to translate into early follow-up engagements. The Handbook became a reference point in discussions and capacity development activities on water negotiation, including work with ministries, actors from shared river basins, and stakeholders operating in complex political environments. While it is still early to assess long-term impact, these initial connections suggested that the content resonates with practitioners who are dealing with uncertainty, competing interests, and fragile trust.

On a more personal level, this experience reaffirmed something I have come to value deeply in my work: water diplomacy is not about delivering neat solutions or technical fixes. It is about supporting processes — helping people talk to each other, stay engaged when things are difficult, and find ways to move forward together. Impact, in this sense, is often incremental and relational rather than immediate or measurable.

What are you excited to take forward into 2026?

Looking ahead to 2026, I am particularly excited to build on this momentum and continue working at the intersections where water meets other sectors. Many of the most pressing transboundary water challenges today are shaped by decisions made in foreign policy, security, energy, agriculture, and development cooperation. Yet water is often treated as a secondary or technical issue in these spaces.

Bringing water diplomacy closer to those working on complex, cross-sector challenges feels both necessary and timely. I am motivated by the opportunity to engage with new stakeholders who may not identify as water professionals, but whose choices have profound implications for shared waters and for cooperation more broadly.

Continuing to connect knowledge with lived experience and to learn alongside practitioners as contexts evolve is something I look forward to in the year ahead. If 2025 was about letting a collective effort take shape and travel, then 2026 feels like a year to deepen those conversations and explore where they can lead.