Context
The Nile is 6,695 kilometers long, making it the longest river on earth. Its catchment area covers around a tenth of the surface of Africa and is home to almost a quarter of the African population. For these people the river is by far the most important freshwater reservoir in the region.
Demand for water in the entire region is constantly increasing due to economic development and population growth. However, water resources are already intensively utilized and climate change and land use changes are also having a negative impact on water availability. The Nile basin is therefore one of the conflict-prone river basins and up until now there has been no agreement on water allocation between the riparian states.
In 1999 the Nile basin states founded the Nile Basin Initiative (NBI) in order to promote dialogue and initiate joint investment projects. NBI member states include Burundi, DR Congo, Egypt, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan, Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda.
Working in close coordination with other donors, Germany has been a partner to the NBI and its member states for many years. GIZ – on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) – has been cooperating with NBI since 2002, and is currently supporting the implementation of NBI’s Strategic Plan for 2012-16.
Objective
NBI’s contribution to consensus building and cooperation in water resources management and development between the Nile Basin’s riparian countries is enhanced.
Approach
GIZ is supporting the NBI by providing technical and process advice in four closely linked areas. The project, jointly run by GIZ and the NBI, is:
- promoting dialogue between key national stakeholders from policy making, administration, science, civil society and the mass media that have a significant role to play in ensuring cooperation on issues relating to the Nile, and bringing these stakeholders together in various forums and discussion formats.
- supporting Nile basin states to make sound decisions on cooperative water resources management. The NBI’s decision support systems are being utilized to develop scenarios for key management issues, and to formulate recommendations together with the basin states on what action should be taken. The project will also help states to implement a strategy for protecting regionally significant wetlands and their biodiversity.
- creating favorable conditions for sustainable investments in the Nile basin. Detailed guidelines for the implementation of the NBI Environmental and Social Policy will help member states to mitigate negative environmental and social impacts of projects under the NBI investment portfolio, and to ensure the protection of vital ecosystems of regional significance.
- building technical and personal skills so as to ensure successful water cooperation among member states. Key actors such as decision makers and technical staff of national water administrations will be given specific training and information to raise awareness on critical issues surrounding Nile cooperation.
In addition, GIZ provides technical assistance to the NBI Secretariat on issues relating to strategic planning and the institutional and financial sustainability of the organization.
Results achieved so far
With the support of the German cooperation and other donors, a political initiative has been transformed into an established and well regarded platform for dialogue between Nile basin states.
With the NBI Secretariat, a highly professional organization that is capable of delivering the services expected from a river basin organization has been built: it is supporting the exchange of information on water resources, is able to provide hydrological and socio-economic planning scenarios and has successfully reached agreement with Nile basin states on common principles and strategies for many of the issues relating to transboundary water management. The organization’s capabilities and skills are now being utilized more widely at a regional level to assist joint decision-making and are also being applied in member states’ own national planning processes.
Since its creation, the Nile Basin Initiative has significantly contributed to trust and confidence building and conflict prevention among Nile basin states. Numerous water experts from all participating countries are now working together to find regional solutions that will benefit all member states. On the sub-basin level, NBI is coordinating investments in joint infrastructure and watershed management projects with total value of around USD 1.4 billion. This includes interconnecting power networks so that the benefits of hydropower development in one part of the basin can be shared with other Nile basin states, thereby defusing conflicts on water allocations.