Main informations
Nile Basin Initiative Secretariat,
P. O. Box 192, Entebbe, Uganda
Name | Position | |
---|---|---|
Tom Waako Baguma
|
twaako@nilebasin.org
|
Program Officer
|
Basic data
Mean Annual Rainfall over entire basin: 2,000 billion m3
Over 5.5 million ha in Egypt and Sudan with potential to expand to
10.4 million ha. Planned expansion includes 387,000 ha in Uganda, Tanzania and Kenya and 265,000 ha in Ethiopia. The other Riparian Countries have no irrigation potential and depend on rain-fed agriculture.
Major means of food production
Website
Geographical scope
This includes the whole Nile Basin comprising of all sub-basins and watercourse systems contained therein.
Countries | Area |
---|---|
Burundi
|
13000km²
|
Dem Rep of Congo
|
21700km²
|
Egypt
|
273100km²
|
Eritrea
|
3500km²
|
Ethiopia
|
356900km²
|
Kenya
|
50900km²
|
Rwanda
|
20800km²
|
Sudan
|
1931300km²
|
Uganda
|
238900km²
|
Function/mandat
NBI is a multi-functional river basin organization whose main objectives are:
♦ Provision of a platform for co-operation and for building working
relationships between the Riparian Countries
♦ Provision of an arrangement by which to move forward from discussion to action
♦ Implementation of the “Strategic Action Program”
Organisation
The committee of ministers from the Riparian Countries (Nile-COM) is the highest decisionmaking body of NBI. This is supported by the Technical Advisory Committee (NileTAC) composed of two senior officials from each country. The secretariat (NileSEC) provides administrative, financial and logistical support and services to Nile-COM and Nile-TAC. Nile-SEC is responsible for the coordination of the Shared Vision Program (SVP) working groups and Subsidiary Action Programs (SAP). A long-term partnership between riparian states and the international community is maintained by the International Consortium for Cooperation on the Nile (ICCON), a unique forum convened by the World Bank. ICCON ensures coordinated and transparent support for enhancing cooperative water resources development and management by implementing SVP and SAP projects in partnership with member states. This is supposed to contribute to strengthening the cooperation mechanism, long-term sustainable development, socioeconomic growth and regional integration.
This includes the cooperative structure and organs for river/lake basin organizations, national state representation, the rules that govern their internal relations and their interaction with nation states/administration and their mandate and authority. Such structures include colonial agreements now regarded as colonial impositions that need reviewing and existing agreements most of which do not provide for any monitoring and enforcement mechanisms. Recent agreements focus more on cooperation in sharing the water resources and in promoting socioeconomic development in the basin. International law on water, in dire need of a review, is poorly developed and only concerns itself with rights and responsibilities of states.
The NBI plans to implement projects, in partnership with member states, that will contribute to strengthening the cooperation mechanism and to long-term sustainable development, economic growth and regional integration. This will be achieved through the implementation of two complementary sub-programs: The Shared Vision Program (SVP) and the Subsidiary Action Program (SAP). The SVP will contribute in the creation of an enabling environment for investments and action on the ground and will promote the shared vision through a set of effective basin-wide activities. The Shared Vision Projects will be Power Forum, Water Resources Management, Environment, Agriculture, Applied Training, Benefit Sharing and Communications with the Project Management Units in Tanzania, Ethiopia, Sudan, Kenya, Egypt, Uganda and the Nile-SEC HQ respectively. An initial set of seven basin-wide SVP projects has been endorsed by NileCOM and their project documents prepared. They include: environmental action, power trade, efficient water use for agriculture, water resources planning and management, communications, applied training, and socio-economic development and benefit sharing. SAP plan and implement action on the ground at the lowest appropriate level. They will comprise actual development projects at sub-basin level, involving two or more countries in order to address the challenges of regional co-operation and development opportunities with transboundary implications. Two groups of countries have been formed to investigate the development of investment projects on the Nile Basin. These are the Eastern Nile Group (ENSAP), which includes Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia; and the Nile Equatorial Lakes Group (NELSAP) comprising Uganda, Tanzania, Kenya, Rwanda, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Information is formally provided to the member states and other stakeholders through the secretariat and the organization website. Regular meetings of the committees, conferences and workshops at different levels result in new policy formulations and modifications of existing and planned measures that are made available to stakeholders by the secretariat and/or website.
The Nile-COM in consultation with Nile-TAC is the sole decision-making organ. Disputes, if they occur, are referred to the COM and TAC committees who work out solutions mutually acceptable to the parties involved. In case such solutions do not work the aggrieved parties may be referred to international arbitrators in water conflict resolution and transboundary waters such as Potential Conflict to Cooperation Potential (PCCP).
NBI is supported by contribution from the NBI countries themselves and through the generous support of several multilateral and bilateral donors. The funds so raised are managed through a World-Bank managed Nile Basin Trust Fund (NBTF). At the basin-wide level NBTF funds support the implementation of the projects within SVP, strengthening of NBI institutional capacity and facilitating the process of NBI dialogue and engagement. At the sub-basin level, NBTF funds support the preparation and implementation of investment projects, building capacity for regional coordination and preparation of joint projects and providing advisory services and support to sub-regional institutions.
Stakeholder participation into the NBI activities is ensured through the Nile Basin Discourse (NBD), a network of civil society organizations from the ten countries of the Nile basin. The network seeks positive influence over the development of projects and programs under NBI and other Nile-related programs. The overall objective of NBD is to promote sustainable and equitable development, poverty reduction, and cooperation between all stakeholders in the Nile Basin. NBD is continuously getting more engaged in NBI activities and in so doing bringing the voices of the voiceless into the heart of this key inter-governmental process. Website: www.nilebasindiscourse.org
After successful implementation of the TECCONILE project, the Nile countries ministers in charge of water affairs agreed to expand the mandate of TECCONILE and therefore launched a new transitional institutional mechanism under the name Nile Basin Initiative (NBI), in February 1999. This is considered to be a transitional arrangement until a permanent legal framework is put in place. The NBI member states are Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Egypt, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda.
Legal basis
Date | Treaty name | Signatories | Basin |
---|---|---|---|
1891-04-16
|
Boundary Protocol
|
Italy
Great Britain
|
Nil basin
|
1902-03-18
|
Exchange Notes
|
Great Britain
Ethiopia
|
Nil basin
|
1902-05-05
|
Frontier Agreement
|
Great Britain
Etiopia
|
Nil basin
|
1902-05-15
|
Frontier Agreement
|
Great Britain
Ethiopia
|
Nil basin
|
1906-05-09
|
Sphere of Influece Agreement
|
Congo
Great Britain
|
Nil basin
|
1906-12-13
|
Abyssinia Agreement
|
France
Great Britain
Italy
|
Nil basin
|
1925-12-20
|
Exchange of Notes
|
Great Britain
Italy
|
- |
1929-05-07
|
Exchange of notes
|
Egypt
Great Britain
|
Nil basin
|
1934-11-22
|
Water Rights Agreement
|
Belgium
Great Britain
|
Nil basin
|
1946-12-07
|
Profits Utilization
|
Egypt
Great Britain
|
Nil basin
|
1949-05-31
|
Owen Falls Agreement
|
Egypt
Great Britain
Northern Ireland
|
Nil basin
|
1949-12-05
|
Owen Falls Agreement
|
Egypt
Great Britain
|
Nil basin
|
1949-09-29
|
Boundary Agreement
|
Ethiopia
Great Britain
Northern Ireland
|
Nil basin
|
1950-01-19
|
Cooperation Agreement
|
Egypt
Great Britain
|
Nil basin
|
1950-04-08
|
Tripartite Committee Protocol
|
Belgium
France
Luxembourg
|
Nil basin
|
1952-07-16
|
Owen Falls Agreement
|
Egypt
Great Britain
Northen Ireland
|
Nil basin
|
1959-11-08
|
Water Utilization Agreement
|
Sudan
United Arab Republic
|
Nil basin
|
1960-01-17
|
Permanent Technical Committee
|
Sudan
United Arab Republic
|
Nil basin
|
1977-08-24
|
Kagera River Basin Agreement
|
Burundi
Rwanda
Tanzania
Uganda
|
- |
1981-05-18
|
Huganda Accession
|
Burundi
Rwanda
|
- |
1993-01-01
|
Establishment of TECCONILE
|
Egypt
Sudan
Rwanda
Tanzania
Uganda
Zaïre
|
Nil basin
|
1993-07-01
|
Cooperation Framework
|
Egypt
Ethiopia
|
Nil basin
|
1994-08-05
|
Environmental Management Agreement
|
Kenya
Tanzania
Uganda
|
- |
1999-02-01
|
Expansion of TECCONILE-NBI
|
Burundi
DRC
Egypt
Ethiopia
Kenya
Rwanda
Sudan
Tanzania
Uganda
|
Nil basin
|