One River. 437 million People. Loads of Visions: 'Realistically' assessing the Nile Basin Initiative.

Is it this header on the NBI's website far too optimistic?

Perhaps not. After all, Egypt attended its first NBI meeting in five year earlier this year (Daily News Egypt 2015), at a conference held in Khartoum, Sudan. This ended their long boycott of meetings since the Entebbe agreement was signed, much to Egypt's ire, in 2010.Yes it may have been because their close buddies, the Sudanese, invited them and hosted, but, hey, it's progress! So let us assess the NBI for all its merits, but not forgetting its shortcomings. For starters, in its website's FAQ section, no question mentions 'Egypt' or the clear problems and conflicts the Initiative has faced both in its infancy and to this day. Not as transparent as I had hoped, and quite delusional to be honest. But let's not dwell on petty details.

In case you've somehow forgotten, here's the Nile basin once again

The Nile Basin Initiative was created in 1999 and sets out to provide 'riparian countries with the only all-inclusive regional platform for multi stakeholder dialogue, information sharing as well as joint planning and management of water and related resources in the Nile Basin' (NBI 2015a: n/p). It aims to achieve 'socio-economic' development in the region, as well as promote the 'equitable utilization' of the river (NBI 2015a). It has split opinion in academic circles, with some being understandably wary of it and momentarily skeptical (see, Salman 2013), yet Belay et al (2013: 15-16) lauded it as 'the most comprehensive and complex management plan ever attempted for sustainable development of international transboundary rivers'.

Following in this vein, in this blog post I'd like to be a bit more optimistic. So I'm going to hold off on the Egypt-bashing so we can celebrate some of the NBI's achievement's and look also to their ongoing projects.

The NBI's objectives as seen on their website (Source: NBI 2015a)

Writing in 2003, Ruedi Kung posed that the NBI should and did approach the tense and charged situation in the Nile Basin with pragmatism and realism. He argues that to have expected the organisation to 'immediately address...  the share of water each country should receive' would have been 'erroneous' (Kung 2003: 6). So what form did this pragmatic approach to 'build confidence', to use Kung's (2003: 6) phrase, take? 

A current project by the name of 'Nile Cooperation for Results' (NCORE), is a two-year program which is part of the NBI's long-term 'Strategic Plan' for 2012-2016. However, it is first and foremost the first phase of five-year 'Nile Basin Climate Resilient Growth Program'. The project aims to strengthen 'the platform for cooperation and knowledge based analysis of transboundary options' regarding cooperative planning, development and management (NBI 2015b: n/p). The project also aims to divert resources towards sustainable development initiatives and focus on dam safety.

Prior to this, the Shared Vision Program (2004-2009) had succeeded in promoting an 'integrated and comprehensive approach to the management and development of the common Nile Basin water resources' (NBI 2015b: n/p). The project had cost the member states around $136 million, far more expensive than the NCORE so far, but rewarded the NBI by promoting dialogue, something which is at the core of this 16 year-old partnership (Teshome 2009).

I'll end the post here, with some of Bey et al's (2013: 16) concluding remarks, which I think put it better than I ever could:

'... [the] NBI is a paramount historical regional partnership in this new millennium as regards transboundary river basin management. This joint venture among the Nile Basin countries has created a “regional environmental-development interface think-tank” which is a vital mechanism for paving way to greater integrated water resource management that could result into mutual benefit of all without discrimination or favourism [sic]'.


 Until next time!







List of references:

Daily News Egypt (2015) http://www.dailynewsegypt.com/2015/02/22/egypt-participates-nile-basin-initiative-first-time-5-years/

Nile Basin Initiative (2015a) http://www.nilebasin.org/

Nile Basin Initiative: NBI Basin wide projects (2015b) http://www.nilebasin.org/index.php/about-us/nbi-basin-wide-projects

Belay, A., H. Semakula, G. Wambura and L. Jan (2013) 'SWOT Analysis and Challenges of Nile Basin Initiative: An Integrated Water Resource Management Perspective', Chinese Journal of Population Resources and Environment, 8, 1, 8-17.

Kung, R. (2003) 'Addressing the Dimensions of Transboundary Water Use: The Nile Basin Initiative', Mountain Research and Development, 23, 1, 4-6.

Salman, S. (2013) 'The Nile Basin Cooperative Framework Agreement: a peacefully unfolding African spring?', Water International, 38, 1, 17-29

Teshome, W. (2009) 'Transboundary Water Cooperation in Africa: The Case of the Nile Basin Initiative', Review of General Management, 2, 129-138.