Nile Basin Discourse

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Nile Basin Discourse
Melakou Tegegn
Coordinator
Plot 9/11 Entebbe
P.O. Box 195 Entebbe, Uganda

Tel. +256 41 322432, +256 782 243792 (cell)

Email: coordinator@nilebasindiscourse.org, media@nilebasindiscourse.org

Description

Established in 2003, the Nile Basin Discourse (NBD) is a network of civil society organizations that work with communities within the Nile basin countries. The initiative came into existence with the creation of the secretariat’s office in Entebbe in 2003 by six National Discourse Forums (NDFs) in the riparian countries to constitute the NBD. The NBD is the civil society variant of the Nile Basin Initiative (NBI). The NBI is the intra-state institution created by the nine riparian countries in 1999 to advance cooperation between the Nile countries. The mission of NBD is to cooperate and interact with the Nile Basin Initiative (NBI) to ensure civil society involvement in its programs and projects. NBI has a grand plan for sustainable development through:br />

• Supporting the process of dialogue on the development of the Nile basin.
  
• Providing and facilitating exchange of information concerning developments and activities within the Nile basin.
  
• Establishing and maintaining an information centre that will facilitate the sustainable utilization and management of the Nile basin resources.
  
• Promoting and supporting research on relevant issues in the Nile basin.
  
• Supporting other initiatives in the Nile basin that promote peace and conflict resolution.
  
• Promoting the sustainable use and equitable distribution of the Nile basin resources in tandem with environment, gender and pro-poor issues.

To actualize its mandate, the NBD engages the NBI through its National Discourse Forums (NDFs) in each country. Nine countries are members of the NBI, while Eritrea has an observer status. The NBD has ten NDFs in all the riparian countries of the Nile (Burundi, DRC, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Sudan, Tanzania, and Uganda). So far, forums have been registered in five of them: Sudan, Rwanda, DRC, Tanzania, and Burundi.

NBD has been funded by the Canadian aid agency, CIDA, and DFID. DFID’s engagement is set to lapse at the end of 2007. In 2004 the NBD faced temporary difficulties after it ran out of initial funding from Canadian CIDA. It was relaunched at the end of 2005 with the assistance of the UK Department for International Development (DFID).

Track Record

Despite the 2004 debacle, the NBD has once again institutionally been re-established with a fully functional secretariat in Uganda. The Discourse is slowly increasing its staff. With the recreation of the NBD all the NDFs’ have been revitalized. Additionally, the DR Congo and Eritrea have been able to establish their NDFs. To date there is a sustained information and exchange discourse. Further, five National Discourse fora have now managed to legally register in their countries.

Further, the NBD has also been able to establish resource centers in the Nile countries with its own website for disseminating information. English and French version Newsletters by the NBD desk and NDFs in Rwanda, Sudan and Uganda are also in circulation.

Like any other organization that has gone through rough times, the NBD can be said to be on course as it evolves and refines its work, evidenced through 41 consultation workshops with 2,300 participants (mainly civil society organizations) held throughout the basin. Furthermore, it has successfully organized two leadership training sessions for its members and partners build its own capacity to handle its many challenges.

Challenges

Despite the fact that NBD had a difficult start, they have over a short period managed to deliver on several of their targeted activities under program phase 1. One of their key challenges is gaining legal status particularly for the NBD secretariat desk whose absence in some countries has forced NBD to keep a low profile for over a year now. Five NDFs are yet to be registered in their respective countries.

It has been realized that the NGO sector in other countries other than Kenya is relatively young since liberty for its emergence and development was for a long time suffocated by the respective governments. Post-independence governments in the region closed the room for free and independent involvement of the non-state sector thereby stifling associational life as a whole. The situation started to change with the changes in Kenya in 1992 that opened the space for civil society’s involvement. As we write, it is only the three East African countries that provide a relatively free space for civil society involvement. As a result, there is gap as far as development as well as management experience on the part of civil society organizations is concerned.

The capacity of the NDFs and their constituent organizations (NGOs, professional associations, CBOs) needs to be enhanced. The NBD hopes to fill this gap through training programs to benefit NDF’s constituent organizations as well. The development of the NDFs has been uneven due to a number of circumstances. Nevertheless, there are some active NDFs in Rwanda, Sudan, Egypt, Burundi, Ethiopia, and Uganda. It is extremely difficult to operate in Eritrea as a non-state actor.

Regarding funding, the NBD desk transfers funds on a regular basis to the NDFs. They are currently funded till the end of 2007 when the funding contract with DFID ends. On the other hand, the NDFs have a large membership; some have more than 60 NGOs, CBOs and professional associations. NBD’s desire is to involve these NDF members in poverty reduction and development work since they are well placed networks to generate social development projects and activate regional cooperation with shared vision for the Nile.

Opportunities

The River Nile and its basin offer critical resource bases and all organizations working in the basin are critical to the growth and development of the river basin populations. The NBD is one such organization and offers opportunity that will enable it to be more relevant and make a stronger impact not only among the civil societies of the Nile basin, but also of sub-Saharan Africa as a whole. The challenges notwithstanding, NBD is still focused on the initial strategy of working with the civil society to engage the Nile Basin Initiative and create a strong network where the NBI takes responsibility of the projects on the ground and the kind of impact they are likely to generate to the local communities.

Even though the Nile Basin stretches over thousands of kilometers encompassing nine countries, the NBD is at the moment the only civil society network in the entire basin working towards amplifying the voices of the voiceless and enhancing the capacity of communities to be involved in the development process. Mewanwhile, the issue of water is becoming a grave subject of development and potential conflict. The NBD is well placed to enhance the development process through regional cooperation and shared vision among civil societies, making potential conflicts among governments less likely. The NBD is engaging the NBI that is set to have mega-projects and programs, giving the NBD an opportunity to advocate and ensure that these projects contribute to social development. The NBD is well placed to encourage other civil society networks at the national and regional levels and is working toward formation of networks of journalists (Nile Issues) and water experts at the moment.

Opportunities for highlighting and undertaking basic development issues in its future program such as gender, environment, population, children/youth, and rural development are real.