This RWIR provides an analysis of the political landscape at the national and regional level in the Nile Basin including a political and legal analysis of the upcoming Southern Sudan referendum 2011. The objective is to prepare a base line to analyze key political events and their potential impact on Nile cooperation, within the framework of the Nile Basin Initiative (NBI), with a specific focus on the upcoming referendum in Southern Sudan. Some recommendations are explored that the international community could consider taking in the post referendum process to strengthen development and cooperation. The analysis of political events provides input to further analysis on the political economy of water in the Nile basin. The report does not provide a detailed overview of the NBI process to date which is provided elsewhere.