Climate Service Action Plan for the Nile Initiative (NBI CSAP)

Introduction

This resource was submitted by the Climate Risk Institute for use by the CanAdapt Climate Change Adaptation Community of Pratice.

This article is an abridged version of the original text, which can be downloaded from the right-hand column. Please access the original text for more detail, research purposes, full references, or to quote text.

The Nile Basin Initiative (NBI), an all-inclusive basin-wide institution was established in 1999. It is an intergovernmental partnership of 10 Nile Basin countries, namely Burundi, DR Congo, Egypt, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan, The Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda. Eritrea participates as an observer. The objectives of the NBI are:

1. to develop the Nile Basin water resources in a sustainable and equitable way to ensure prosperity, security, and peace for all its peoples

2. to ensure efficient water management and the optimal use of the resources

3. to ensure cooperation and joint action between the riparian countries, seeking win-win gains

4. to target poverty eradication and promote economic integration

5. to ensure that the program results in a move from planning to action.

The NBI institutional framework consists of three key institutions:

• The Nile Council of Ministers (Nile-COM), which is comprised of Ministers in charge of Water Affairs in each NBI Member State, provides policy guidance and makes decisions. The council holds regular annual meetings as well as extraordinary meetings.

• The NBI Technical Advisory Committee is made up of senior civil servants and provides technical advice and assistance to the Council of Ministers. The committee is made up of one representative from each riparian country and one alternate. It meets two to three times a year.

• The NBI Secretariat (Nile-SEC), provides administrative support to the Council of Ministers and the Technical Advisory Committee. The Nile-SEC is responsible for the overall corporate direction. It is based in Entebbe, Uganda, and is headed by an Executive Director.

• Two subsidiary programs are managed by the Eastern Nile Regional Technical Office (ENTRO), which is based in Addis Ababa, and the NELSAP Coordinating Unit (NELSAP-CU), which is based in Kigali, Rwanda. In addition, various projects have regional project management units located in different countries of the Nile Basin.

Objectives and Scope of NBI CSAP

Over the past several years has built its capacity in the generation of water resources relevant data and information and application of the same to address a range of transboundary water resources issues. However, while the NBI has clear mandate to provide climate information service to its member states and developed and further expanding range of information services it can provide to users basin wide, the extent of reach out to users in the Nile Basin is very limited. A range of factors contribute to this. A primary reason for this is that the NBI hasn’t yet sufficiently positioned itself as provider of (value added) climate information and services. Action Therefore, the NBI intends to develop an Plan (referred to as Climate Service Action Plan) to structure its efforts in the short to medium term so that it becomes.

The primary purpose of the Action Plan is to help NBI position itself as a regional climate service provider for hydrological within its mandate. The Action Plan is envisaged to spell out key. actions NBI needs to take in order to establish and further enhance its climate services to its member countries.

The actions identified within the Action Plan refer to the improvement of key climate services that are already provided by the NBI or yet under development. The enhancement of the NBI product portfolio is only of secondary priority unless additional produ cts support the usefulness and usability of existing climate service products. All identified actions are supposed to be implementable in short to medium terms.