The Nile Basin Initiative (NBI) is an inter-governmental partnership of 10 Nile Basin countries namely; Burundi, DRCongo, Egypt, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda,South Sudan, The Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda, established on 22nd February,1999. Eritrea participates as an observer.
For the first time in the Basin’s history, an all-inclusive basin-wide institution was established, to provide Basin States with a forum to discuss with trust and confidence the sustainable management and development of the shared Nile Basin water and related resources for win-win benefits.
The partnership is guided by a Shared Vision Objective: ‘To achieve sustainable socio-economic development through equitable utilization of, and benefit from, the common Nile Basin water resources’. The shared belief is that countries can achieve better outcomes for all the people of the basin through cooperation.
The highest political and decision making body is the NBI is the Nile Council of Ministers(Nile-COM), comprised of Ministers in charge of Water Affairs in the NBI Member States. The Nile-COM is supported by a Technical Advisory Committee (Nile-TAC),comprised of 20 senior government officials,two from each of the partner states.The NBI is one institution with three centers; the Secretariat (Nile-SEC) based in Entebbe, Uganda is responsible for the overall basin wide perspective, corporate direction of the institution and leads implementation of the ‘Basin Cooperation’ and ‘Water Resource Management’ programs. The Eastern Nile Technical Regional Office (ENTRO) based in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, leads implementation of the Water Resources Development Program in the Eastern Nile sub-basin comprising of Egypt, Ethiopia, South Sudan and The Sudan. The Nile Equatorial Lakes Subsidiary Action Program Coordination Unit (NELSAP-CU) based in Kigali,Rwanda, leads implementation of the Water Resources Development Program in the Nile Equatorial Lakes sub-basin comprising Burundi, DR Congo, Egypt,Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan,The Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda.In each Member State there is an NBI national office, which coordinates and ensures regional NBI interventions are embedded in national development planning.
What NBI does
The Basin Cooperation Program actively provides the only all-inclusive regional platform for multi stakeholder dialogue,for sharing information, joint planning management and development of the shared water and related resources in the Nile Basin.
The platform further creates opportunities for learning, networking and sharing experiences across Basin States.The objective of the water resources program is to assess, manage, and safeguard the water resources base that supports the peoples of the Nile Basin. Under this program, NBI undertakes water resources analysis to to inform riparian dialogue,strengthens Member States’ analytic capacities, formulates trans-boundary policies and promotes collaborative monitoring of the Nile Basin.The Water Resources Development Program assists Member States to identify and prepare investment projects of regional significance, which are economically viable, environmentally friendly and socially acceptable as well as mobilize financial and technical resources for their implementation by the Member States.
SHARED VISION OBJECTIVE:
“to achieve sustainable socio-economic development through the equitable utilization of, and benefit from, the common Nile Basin Water resources”.