Ndeye Magatte Kebe (Senegal)

Ndeye Magatte Kebe (Senegal)

(Founder of HydroDiplomacy and LesAfricaines 

| President of WIIS Senegal | Journalist |

 Communications and Project Management Professional)

Some water leaders build infrastructure. Others create the knowledge, public dialogue and political understanding through which water can be governed cooperatively. Ndeye Magatte Kebe has built her leadership around the power of communication: making Africa’s water institutions, experts and solutions more visible, and ensuring that water is understood not only as a natural resource, but as an issue of diplomacy, peace and collective security.

In 2022, she founded HydroDiplomacy, a digital platform dedicated to water diplomacy, water governance and integrated water resources management. With particular attention to the water–peace–security nexus and women’s leadership, the platform brings African perspectives into conversations that are too often framed elsewhere. It promotes the initiatives, institutions, experts and practices helping countries and communities manage shared water resources sustainably, inclusively and cooperatively.

Through HydroDiplomacy, Ndeye documents the people and institutions shaping Africa’s water future, from basin organisations and national ministries to researchers, diplomats and women professionals. Her work recognises that water cooperation depends on public understanding: technical knowledge must be communicated clearly, good practice must travel across borders, and African expertise must be visible enough to influence regional and international policy.

This commitment to visibility began long before HydroDiplomacy. A journalist and communications professional with more than fifteen years of experience, Ndeye founded LesAfricaines in 2018 as a digital media platform dedicated to showcasing the achievements, initiatives and leadership of African women. Through both platforms, she has created space for African women to be presented not as peripheral participants in development, but as experts, decision-makers, innovators and architects of the continent’s future.

She currently serves as Project and Communications Officer for the Gender and Responsible Artificial Intelligence Network (GRAIN) at IPAR, the Initiative Prospective Agricole et Rurale. In this role, she coordinates communication activities and supports the implementation of a pan-African network promoting inclusive, responsible and gender-responsive artificial intelligence. The work extends the same principle that defines her journalism: new systems of knowledge and technology must be shaped with women, not simply delivered to them.

In 2025, she also assumed leadership responsibilities as Head of Programs and Projects at the Pan-African Union of Journalists for South–South Cooperation (UPJ-SUD), based in Rabat, Morocco. Through this role, she contributes to regional cooperation, professional capacity-building and innovation among African journalists, while advancing credible and responsible information as a foundation for sustainable development.

As President of Women in International Security Senegal, she brings the water–peace–security connection into an even broader field of leadership. WIIS Senegal promotes women’s participation in peace, security and international affairs, including conflict prevention and resolution. For a continent where water scarcity, climate pressure, displacement and competition over natural resources increasingly intersect, this work reinforces a central truth: sustainable water governance is also an investment in peace.

Ndeye is a member of several national and international professional networks, including the International Union of the Francophone Press and the LesPanafricaines Network. She regularly contributes to regional and international discussions on water governance, cooperation, women’s leadership, peace and security. She holds a Master’s degree in Journalism and Communication and draws on her experience in journalism, institutional communication and project management to foster dialogue, knowledge-sharing and collaboration across Africa.

Through HydroDiplomacy, Ndeye Magatte Kebe has made communication part of Africa’s water infrastructure. By connecting water with diplomacy, peace, gender and public knowledge, she demonstrates that securing the continent’s water future also requires storytellers who can make cooperation possible and ensure African women are heard wherever decisions about water are being made.

Sources: Biography - Ndeye Magatte Kebe; IPAR; HydroDiplomacy; Agence de Presse Sénégalaise (November 2025); Seneweb (September and November 2025); Global Forum for Media Development; LesAfricaines.